P.R. Laws tit. 31, § 1275
If the different stories of a building or parts of stories capable of utilization independently, on account of having their own exit to a common element thereof or to the public highway, belong to different owners, each of them shall have a particular and exclusive property right in the story or part thereof, and also a joint right of co-ownership in the other elements of the building necessary for its adequate use and enjoyment, such as the floor, foundations, basements, walls, moats, yards, wells, stairs, elevators, ways, hallways, covers, piping and electric wiring, drainage, easements, etc.
Parts in co-ownership are not, in any case, capable of division, and shall, in the absence of covenant, be presumed equal.
Repair and maintenance expenses of the common elements of the building shall, also in the absence of covenant, be paid for pro rata by all parties concerned, according to the value of each respective particular part, and this same norm shall govern the adoption of agreements by a majority vote.
The right of co-ownership in the common elements of a building may only be alienated, pignorated or attached by third parties, jointly with the part determined as particular, to which it is inseparably annexed.
If the owner of a story or part thereof, capable of utilization independently, wishes to sell it, he shall so notify, stating the price, to the other owners of the building, who shall have, with respect to outsiders, preference for acquiring the same, if within the ten days following the formal notice thereof they inform the seller of their desire to purchase.
In case of the concurrence of different bids, the sale shall be made to the person offering the highest price, and if the prices are all equal, preference shall be given to the owner of the story or part which is horizontally contiguous to the object of the sale, who may make his right effective through an ordinary action, or by exercising the right of redemption, according to the provisions of §§ 3921 and 3924 of this title. Conditions being equal, it shall be discretional with the seller to make the sale to any of the bidders.
No owner may vary substantially the purpose or structure of his story without the previous agreement of a majority of the other parties concerned.
History —Civil Code, 1930, § 330; May 13, 1951, No. 421, p. 1126.