2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-ONE - Municipalities (§§ 1-4 — 6756) › Subtitle 7 - Municipal Property Tax (§§ 5001 — 6756) › PART III (§§ 5901 — 6756) › Chapter 256 - Sale of Transferable Tax Debts (§§ 5921 — 5944) › § 5939 - Sale of real property at public auction

(a) The attached real property shall be sold at public auction for a minimum rate which shall be equal to the value of the equity of the owner of the property of the attached goods or to the value of the credit for the transferred tax debt, plus interest, surcharges and other fees, whichever is less. The term “value of the equity” shall mean the difference between the real value of the property and the amount for which said property is encumbered or mortgaged. The real value of the property shall be determined prior to the publication of the auction notice, through an appraisal which shall be conducted for such purposes by a private appraiser who complies with the requirements established by the Center through regulations. The minimum rate shall be a confidential matter between the owner of the certificate of sale and the debtor taxpayer or the owner of the property, should it be a different person. However, the owner of the certificate of sale shall announce the minimum rate at the auction itself when the best bid is not greater than the minimum rate.
(b) If a mortgagee or any other person having an encumbrance on the property should pay the tax debt before the sale at public auction, the money paid by him/her shall be accrued to his/her credit and may be recovered at the same rate of interest his/her credit earns.
(c) If the auction is not awarded in favor of a third party, the attached real property may be awarded to the owner of the certificate of sale for the amount of the minimum rate and his/her credit shall be extinguished.
(d) If the attached property is awarded to a third party and the amount obtained in the auction is insufficient to cover the total amount of the credit for transferred tax debt, plus interest, surcharges and fees, the owner of the certificate of sale may collect the unpaid balance of the payment by attaching the attachable real or personal property of the debtor taxpayer following the legal proceedings for its collection established in this chapter.
(e) Notwithstanding the above, no real property attached exclusively for the collection of the credit for transferred tax debt, plus interest, surcharges and fees, on said property, shall be sold through legal proceedings for collection for a sum which is less than the total amount of the credit for transferred tax debt, plus interest, surcharges and fees, owed on said property.
(f) The person to whom the real property is awarded at public auction shall acquire the latter as is, and shall not be entitled to file an action against the owner of the certificate of sale or the Center to cure the legal defects of the property purchased.
(g) In case the property is awarded to the owner of the certificate of sale or to a third party, the owner of the certificate of sale shall give the owner of the property an amount equal to the excess, if any, of the price or minimum rate of the award, as the case may be, on the credit for transferred tax debt, plus interest, surcharges and fees.
History —June 26, 1997, No. 21, § 21.