2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE SEVENTEEN - Housing (§§ 1 — 1546) › Chapter 17 - Office of the Construction Officer (§§ 501 — 519) › § 504 - Functions

(a) The Construction Officer shall be the executive officer of the Office and shall devote all his time to the duties and obligations of his office, and during his incumbency he shall not engage in any private business or in the practice of his particular profession or occupation.
(b) He shall appoint the necessary personnel to comply with and carry out the functions and duties established in this chapter and to such purposes he may also contract all those professional and advisory services as he may deem proper. The Construction Officer shall designate the person who shall substitute for him provisionally in case of sickness or absence. All the personnel of the Office shall be included in the Exempt Service. The Construction Officer shall prepare and promulgate a Personnel Regulation.
(c) He shall issue or revoke, as the case may be, the license to urbanizers or constructors, and shall keep the necessary registries and issue the orders and notices as authorized by law.
(d) He shall carry out the investigations and inspections which he deems convenient and necessary on his own initiative or through complaint filed hereunder to determine if a person has failed to comply with the provisions thereunder and in order to obtain useful information for the enforcement of any of its provisions.
(e) He shall revise the contracts of option or of promise of purchase-sale or of purchase-sale of dwellings submitted for his consideration in order that they comply with the provisions of this chapter. Provided, That the Construction Officer shall have 60 days after the format is submitted, for its approval.
(f) He shall investigate and examine the [developers] and constructors engaged in the home construction business for the purposes of determining if they are complying with the provisions of this chapter. The results of said investigation shall be forwarded to the Secretary of Justice, should it be necessary, for the proper action.
(g) He shall investigate and adjudge the complaints as to undesirable practices or any violation of the provisions of this chapter brought before his consideration, granting the pertinent remedies in accordance to law.
(h) He shall provide guidance to home buyers who may so request, in such aspects as the nature of legal documents prepared for their signature, explanation of the meanings and their rights and obligations as buyers and owners of the property.
(i) He shall intervene in the procedures leading to dissolutions of corporations engaged in the urbanizing or construction business for the purposes that they comply with the responsibilities required by this chapter. The Secretary of State shall notify the Construction Officer by sending a copy of each petition of dissolution.
(j) He may investigate the operations, transactions, accounts, files, documents and capital of every [developer] or constructor for the purposes of determining if he complies with the license requirements. Every person so investigated, his officers, employees, agents and representatives, shall present and expedite to the construction officer the accounts, records, documents and files, capital and matters in his power or under his control in relation to the object of this investigation.
(k) He shall permanently keep records and files of his proceedings, hearings, investigations and inspections and shall file said documents, in his Office. Such documents shall be subject to public inspection in the manner as provided by regulations.
((l)) He shall annually render a report to the Governor and to the Legislature of his activities during the preceding year, with the recommendations that, in his judgment, might be advisable.
(m) He shall be empowered, to prevent any person from engaging in any of the undesirable practices of construction.
(n) He shall be entitled to request and to receive technical advice from the agencies and instrumentalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for the purposes of complying with the purposes of this chapter.
(o) He may through regulations require, from the [developers] and constructors, to keep all such books, records, accounts, proceedings and files related to its operations and transactions, as may be necessary for the implementation of this chapter.
(p) He may require that there be submitted to him such contracts and documents wherein agreements are adopted in connection with the development, construction, financing and promotion and sale of the urbanization or the housing project, as may be necessary to show that the urbanizer is complying with the provisions of this chapter. The revision shall be made without unjustifiably delaying or restricting the obtention of credit, and the existing federal regulation shall be taken into account as to the form and contents of the contracts that will be used in the construction and sale of housing projects insured by federal entities.
History —June 13, 1967, No. 130, p. 406, § 4; June 9, 1976, No. 160, p. 502, § 2, eff. 60 days after June 9, 1976.