2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE FOUR - Judiciary (§§ 1-3 — 2166) › PART VI - Notarial Practice (§§ 2001 — 2166) › Chapter 101 - 1987 Notarial Act (§§ 2001 — 2144) › Subchapter IV - On Public Documents (§§ 2031 — 2056) › § 2033 - Public documents—Formal requirements; cognizance; legal warnings

The expository and dispositive part of the public deed, together with the legal transaction which motivates its execution, its antecedents, and the facts witnessed and consigned by the notary shall contain the following:
(a) Its corresponding protocol number written in letters at the beginning thereof.
(b) The classification of the act or contract with its legally recognized name unless it does not have a special one.
(c) The notary’s name, his residence, the location of his office, as well as the day, month and year and place of execution which shall be that in which the last of the grantors signs the document if there are no attesting witnesses.
(d) The name and surname or surnames, as the case may be, age or legal age, civil status, profession and residence of the executors and the name and circumstances of the witnesses, if any, according to their statements. In the event any of these executors is married and the appearance of the spouse is not necessary, the name and surname of the spouse shall be stated even though the latter does not appear at the execution.
(e) The attestation to [sic] by the notary as to his personal cognizance of the grantors or, in its absence, of having verified their identity by the means established by this chapter that, in his judgment, they have the necessary legal capacity to execute the act or contract concerned, and of having read the deed to them and the witnesses, in their case, or having allowed them the option to read it before signing it, or of a waiver of their right to do so.
(f) Of having orally made the pertinent legal warnings and reservations to the grantors during the act of execution. This notwithstanding, there shall be consigned in the document those warnings that, in the notary’s judgment, must be expressly detailed due to their importance.
(g) In a purchase-sale deed in which a juridical transaction of a pro indiviso abstract and undefined portion of land, the notary shall have to advise the grantors of the legal effects of community property, as established by the provisions of the Puerto Rico Civil Code. He/she shall also admonish them that they cannot segregate, subdivide, indicate or otherwise identify their share of said land without the corresponding permit of the Planning Board, the Regulations and Permits Administration or the corresponding agency; that the share acquired by the purchaser is abstract and undefined, and that any arrangement, agreement or pact to segregate, subdivide, indicate, or otherwise identify it would be null and void and could be considered a crime, if no corresponding permit of the regulating agencies exists. It shall also include the acceptance of the purchaser to acquire it as a joint tenant, all of which shall be stated in the text of the deed.
(h) In every public deed of a juridical business that requires the transfer of domain of a real property, the notary shall incorporate a warning on the need and convenience of obtaining a tax debt certification from the Municipal Revenue Collection Center (CRIM, Spanish acronym).
(i) In every ownership transfer deed, the notary shall include the cadastre number assigned by the Municipal Revenues Collection Center (CRIM, Spanish acronym) to the real property, which shall be provided to the notary by the parties. In such cases where the cadastre number is unknown or has still not been assigned, said fact shall be indicated in the deed by the notary.
History —July 2, 1987, No. 75, p. 242, § 15; Aug. 7, 1998, No. 194, § 1; Dec. 11, 1998, No. 297, § 1; Sept. 27, 2006, No. 208, § 1; Aug. 6, 2008, No. 162, § 1; June 1, 2012, No. 100, § 1; June 8, 2012, No. 109, § 1, retroactive to June 1, 2012.