Q: How do I go about obtaining a deed to a portion of land that has been in the family for over 150 years without a deed?
The land is in Cabo Rojo. My great grandmother’s home has been vacant for 25 years. I was told family can build on this land, but there are no deeds to it. My great grandmother had many siblings and many have build homes without a deed.
A:
The answer to your question entails procuring a Certification of your family's land from the Puerto Rico Property Registry. That will let you know whether the portion you speak of has been segregated or not.
If the portion was segregated, then the Puerto Rico Property Registry should identify the deed number, the deed subscription date and the notary before whom it was subscribed. With that information, you may contact the Office of Notary Inspections to find out where the original deed is located (if the notary is deceased, his collection of deeds -i.e., his protocol- will have been transfered to the town's Notary Archive).
If the portion of land was not segregated, then the owners (or the owners' heirs) of the original land plot must appear to subscribe a segregation deed.
If the portion of land was segregated but not filed with the Puerto Rico Property Registry, then a Domain file (expediente de dominio) lawsuit must be filed with the Puerto Rico court, and evidence must be submitted to convince the court regarding who the owner should be.
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