2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-EIGHT - Public Lands (§§ 1 — 737) › PART III - Housing Development And Improvements Administration (§§ 521 — 737) › Chapter 55 - Family-Type Farm Program (Title VI of Land Law) › § 583 - Sale of farms

The farms which are at present devoted to the ends and purposes of Title VI of the Land Law, and such others as may be acquired in the future for this program, may be sold, or exchanged subject to the rights reserved to the usufructuaries pursuant to the provisions of § 582(5) of this title to those persons eligible under this program to ownership titles under the following conditions and restrictions that shall become a part of the exchange or sale agreement between the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the acquirer:
(a) The farm shall in no wise be object of subdivision.
(b) The acquirer shall live on the farm, own and use same, devoting said farm to agricultural exploitation. He shall allow the construction of not more than two houses on the farm pursuant to the regulation that to such effect the Secretary of Agriculture may approve.
(c) The acquirer binds himself to follow the cultivation, conservation and soil improvement practices and any other agricultural practice recommended by the Secretary of Agriculture or by his authorized representatives.
(d) The acquirer may not establish on the farm businesses, industries or any other activity other than of a purely agricultural nature, except by written authorization or consent of the Secretary of Agriculture.
As a general norm, the Secretary of Agriculture shall allow the establishment of such businesses or industries connected with agricultural activity or that may supplement the agricultural income, provided that the farm is being used at its greatest productive capacity.
(e) The acquirer is bound to allow the employees of the Department of Agriculture to enter the farm in order to inspect same and ascertain whether the conditions and restrictions provided in this act, in the sale contract or in the proper regulations, are being complied with.
(f) Failure to pay any of the installments of the price agreed upon, or the interest thereon, and/or failure to comply with any of the conditions or restrictions herein prescribed, in the sale contract or in the corresponding regulations shall cause the resolution of the sale decreed by a competent court and in such case the acquirer shall leave the farm at the disposal of the Secretary of Agriculture and shall be entitled to the total of the amounts paid until the moment of surrendering the property, the value of buildings, improvements and plantations that he may have incorporated thereto, including the value of the crops to be determined through assessment at the time of the resolution, it being deducted therefrom the amount of any debt he may have with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Notwithstanding, the acquirer may take with him his personal properties and farm implements.
(g) Any person who possesses a farm in usufruct for a term greater than ten (10) years, may apply for and be granted its title, pursuant to the provisions of this title. After obtaining said title the acquirer may assign, lease, sell, exchange, mortgage, encumber, or dispose of the farm in any legal manner.
(h) The acquirer may sell his farm as a total unit at his convenience, but shall be bound to offer it to the Commonwealth in a preferential option. In such case the Commonwealth shall have preferential option to reacquire it within a term not to exceed one hundred and twenty (120) days, for the price paid by the acquirer plus thirty percent (30%) of the difference between the market value of the land and its acquisition price, it being understood that those farms retained for a period longer than ten (10) years by its titleholders, including in said term the period of possession as an usufructuary, shall have an additional increment of two percent (2%) a year after the fifth year of the usufruct. To such effect, the acquirer shall send a written communication to the Secretary of Agriculture and to the Director of the Land Administration by certified mail with acknowledgment receipt to the effect that he wishes to sell his farm. Within a term not to exceed sixty (60) days from the date the above communication was mailed, said officials shall answer said communication, in writing, stating whether they are interested in acquiring said farm or not. Should the answer be negative, or should they fail to answer it, the acquirer may sell his farm free from the restrictions imposed by this chapter. Such written communication of the Secretary of Agriculture or the Director of the Land Administration shall be literally transcribed in the deed whereby the acquirer sells his farm, in default of which the sale contract executed shall be null ab initio, shall have no validity or legal standing whatsoever, and shall not be registered in the corresponding Section of the Property Registry of Puerto Rico. In cases in which the Secretary or the Director fail to answer, the notary who executes the purchase and sale deed should state, and attest as notary that the vendor has shown him an acknowledgment receipt issued by the U.S. Postal Service as proof that said communication was received by the Secretary of Agriculture or by the Director of the Land Administration and shall also state that the vendor has not received any answer to said communication. The vendor and the vendee in all purchase and sale deed referred to, in which a false purchase and sale price is indicated, shall incur a misdemeanor punishable by a fine no greater than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or imprisonment for a period not to exceed six (6) months, or both penalties at the discretion of the court.
If the answer of the Secretary of Agriculture or the Director of the Land Administration is in the affirmative, he, or they, shall make the corresponding purchase offer to the acquirer for the price paid by him plus thirty percent (30%) of the difference between the market value of the lands and its purchase price, it being understood that those farms retained for a period longer than ten (10) years by its titleholders, including in said term the period of possession as usufructuaries, shall have an additional increment of two percent (2%) a year from the end of the fifth year of the usufruct. The offer shall be made within a term not to exceed sixty (60) days from the date of such answer. If within thirty (30) days following its remittance, the offer is not accepted, or no answer whatsoever is received, or no answer is received in the sense of his having desisted from selling, the Secretary of Agriculture or the Director of the Land Administration shall start the necessary procedures, immediately, to consign the amount of their offer in the Expropriation Part of the Court of First Instance of Puerto Rico. Once the interested party has been notified of such consignment, the corresponding proceedings in said Part shall continue as if it were a regular expropriation procedure.
(i) From the date of acquisition of the title deed of the farm in usufruct, all restrictive conditions imposed by this section or by provisions of law, regulations or agreement shall cease. Nevertheless, the restrictions imposed by §§ 592 et seq. of this title and the provision regarding the preferential option of this Title VI shall continue to apply.
(j) Save as provided in subsection (i) of this section, all the restrictive conditions imposed by this section shall cease after a lapse of five (5) years from the date of the acquisition of the farm.
Of every and each one of the above-mentioned conditions and restrictions notice shall be taken in the proper section of the Property Registry of Puerto Rico upon registering the entry of the sale of the farm in favor of the acquirer.
(k) The transfer of a property title deed through a sale or exchange contract or public document authorized by this chapter may also be made through a certificate of the transfer of the title deed, issued by the Secretary of Agriculture or an official of the Department of Agriculture whom he delegates. Said certificates shall be registrable in the Property Registry of Puerto Rico and shall specify all the conditions and restrictions established in this section, as well as the name and personal information of each acquiring titleholder and all the other data needed for their registration.
History —Dec. 7, 1966, No. 5, p. 24, § 1; May 30, 1970, No. 59, p. 156; May 30, 1970, No. 81, p. 202; Mar. 5, 1979, No. 19, p. 40, § 2; Mar. 20, 1980, No. 2, p. 4, § 1; Aug. 5, 1989, No. 45, p. 152, § 1.