Priority Lien - Puerto Rico

TITLE 31.  CIVIL CODE  
SUBTITLE 2.  PROPERTY OWNERSHIP AND ITS MODIFICATIONS  
PART III.  COMMON OWNERSHIP OF PROPERTY  
CHAPTER 150.  HORIZONTAL PROPERTY  
SUBCHAPTER III.  ADMINISTRATION AND INSURANCE
31 L.P.R.A. § 1293e  (2013)

§ 1293e.  Obligation of owner for common expenses, lien

The obligation of the proportional part of the common expenses of the owner of a unit shall constitute a lien on said unit, once the same is entered in the Registry of the Property. Therefore, after the first sale, the voluntary acquirer of an unit shall be jointly responsible with the transferor for the payment of the owed amounts, pursuant to § 1293c of this title, up to the moment of the transfer, without prejudice to the right of the acquirer to recover from the other transferor those amounts paid as a joint debtor. However, an involuntary acquirer shall only be responsible for the unpaid common expenses debts that arise during, the six months prior to the moment of acquisition of the property.

The referenced obligation shall be demandable to anyone who is a unit owner of the property comprised by the unit, even when the same has not yet been segregated and inscribed as a filial parcel in the Registry of the Property, or transferred [on] behalf of any person.

Any financial institution that provides temporary financing to a person for the construction of apartments and common elements to be submitted to the horizontal property regime and becomes the owner of the property in a procedure of execution or transfer in payment shall not be considered as the developer, temporary administrator, or constituent of the regime, pursuant to the provisions in this chapter, if the financial institution does not exceed the usual duties of a creditor in the protection of its guarantee, pursuant to commercial practices adhered to by financial institutions that provide financial institution temporary construction financing.

HISTORY: June 25, 1958, No. 104, p. 243, § 41; June 4, 1976, No. 157, p. 461, § 9; Aug. 11, 1995, No. 153, § 1; May 21, 1996, No. 43, § 5; Apr. 5, 2003, No. 103, § 33.