P.R. Laws tit. 21, § 4625
The municipality and the Planning Board may authorize or require the reparceling of properties in an area within their jurisdiction pursuant to the provisions of the regulations adopted by the Planning Board for such a purpose and subject to an ordinance plan or a land use plan. [The Land Administration will be the public agency that cooperates with the Planning Board, as far as their resources allow, in the operational phase of implantation of reparceling that said Board requires.]
Reparceling is the procedure by which more than one property is merged with others with the ulterior motive of modifying their boundaries or surface area to create new properties to be segregated according to a reparceling project approved by the competent entity.
(a) Factors to be considered for reparceling.—
(1) The rights of the proprietors shall be related to the original characteristics of the property, including its use, surface area, accessibility, quality and capacity of the land, among others.
(2) The resulting properties shall be valued according to the laws in effect, taking into consideration their relationship with the ordinance plan or the land use plan, their use and buildable area, as well as their location, characteristics, degree of urbanization and use of the buildings.
(3) When the rights of one or more proprietors are limited and do not allow the adjudication of an independent property to each according to the provisions of the plan, a fraction of a property shall be adjudicated in common pro indiviso, or the adjudication may be substituted by a monetary compensation.
(4) The worth of the works, buildings, facilities and improvements of the existing properties which cannot be preserved shall be considered in the reparceling project and their relationship with the rights of the proprietor.
(b) Voluntary reparceling.— Is that agreed to voluntarily by all the proprietors of the properties included in the reparceling project.
(c) Obligatory reparceling.— Shall be that required by the municipality or the Planning Board pursuant to the provisions of an ordinance plan or a land use plan, respectively.
The properties of the proprietors who do not voluntarily agree to the reparceling shall be acquired by expropriation. After being expropriated, the municipality of the Land Authority may retain the property or sell it at public auction.
(d) Property administration during reparceling process.— The merger of the properties during the reparceling process shall produce a tenancy in common for the time said process lasts. The joint tenants may constitute a corporation or a partnership regulated by the civil code for the purpose of administering the merged properties during the reparceling process. The joint tenants shall have the option of constituting the merged property under the regulations governing horizontal properties of a permanent nature.
(e) Segregations.— Once the reparceling process has been concluded, the individualized properties shall be segregated and adjudicated to the joint tenants.
(f) Fees.— Legal instruments for merger, partnership, joint tenancy and segregation shall pay an internal revenue fee of one dollar ($1) for the original and fifty cents ($0.50) for each certified copy. The filing and registering in the Property Register shall entail the purchase of only one (1) internal revenue stamp of two dollars ($2). Filing the joint tenancy instrument with the Department of Consumer Affairs shall entail the payment of a fee of ten dollars ($10) to be covered into the fund created by § 1294d of Title 31. The fees and charges provided in this subsection shall be the only amounts levied on the documents and transactions herein described.
(g) Granting of permits.— The initiation of the reparceling process, as provided by regulations, shall constitute an impediment to granting parceling, construction or use permits that are incompatible with the ordinance plan or the land use plan.
(h) Sale of land to make reparceling or development viable.— The title holders of the properties which are the object of reparceling may agree to sell or in any manner transfer common land resulting from the segregation of the property previously merged, to be delimited in the reparceling plan, whose sale or transfer generates funds to finance the infrastructure, the reparceling itself or the communal use property needed to develop the area.
(i) Municipal and land administration costs.— The costs incurred by a municipality and the Land Administration for conducting the reparceling project shall be defrayed proportionately by the joint tenants of the properties created by the reparceling process. The Planning Board shall establish in the regulations adopted for that purpose, the criteria to exempt from the payment of the expenses those title holders of limited financial resources who are affected by the reparceling.
(j) Supplemental rights.— The provisions §§ 1291 et seq. of Title 31, known as the “Horizontal Property Act”, and its regulations shall be supplemental to the provisions of this section, even in those cases in which the joint tenants fail to constitute a horizontal property system.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 81, § 13.027; Oct. 29, 1992, No. 84, § 85.