P.R. Laws tit. 30, § 2703
In order for the procedure for foreclosure and collection of a mortgage loan to be valid, the debtor or his successors in the secured obligation must, after its expiration, first be ordered to pay the exact amount owed for all concepts, except for the amount stipulated for court costs and attorneys’ fees in the event of a judicial collection, at least twenty (20) days before the date of the beginning of the procedure. The third owner or titleholder of the encumbered property or real right shall also be ordered to pay, if his acquisition was authentically recorded or proved.
This demand for payment may be made by notary or by certified mail with acknowledgment of receipt, to the last correct address of the debtor, the third owner or his heirs, with the admonition that if payment is not made within 20 days, a summary foreclosure procedure shall be initiated.
If the debtor or, when applicable, the third owner, is outside Puerto Rico in hiding to avoid the payment order, or if his whereabouts are unknown and this is satisfactorily proved, the payment order shall be sent to his last known address, as well as if the debtor or the third owner had died, and his successors are unknown. If no address is known, it shall be sent to the address of the property.
If the encumbered property is community property, and one of spouses is outside Puerto Rico while the other is in Puerto Rico, or if one is in hiding to avoid receiving the payment order, or his whereabouts are unknown, it shall be deemed that the delivery of said requirement has been complied with, when the spouse who is present receives it by one or another of the channels indicated in the paragraph.
History —Mortgage Law, 1979, § 203; June 14, 1980, No. 143, p. 535.