Understanding Inheritance Law in Puerto Rico

On this week’s post I have decided to analyze another article, this time published in our Law and Culture section, dealing with Inheritance Law in Puerto Rico and how it affects day-to-day life. The short and specific research article titled “Inheritance Law in Puerto Rico 101: An Introductory Guide” published in the Legal Trends Archive discusses the basics of inheritance law and the rules around who inherits what in cases of death or property division, and why young people should pay attention. It starts with a joke that goes like this: What Puerto Rican family tradition do you hate the most? The one about fighting over the land! – inquiring minds want to know. This is because, as the article states, drinking coffee while sharing the most juicy gossip with family members is a classic and it represents a lot more than a simple cup of coffee. This post, however, will not be focusing on the importance and beauty behind those specific moments. It will instead shed some light on the intricate set of laws surrounding land inheritance in Puerto Rico, how they can affect future & current generations, and how to deal with them through an informal chat style post. Let’s get started!

Several years ago, a friend asked me about my feelings towards the situation. They explained how they had opened their father’s inheritance process only to find out that their mother was co-owner of the property he had recently passed away in and that, because everyone was dead, the property now belonged to him and his siblings. The article by Crystal Ribeiro explains two of the concepts I explained in a simple way: What happens when you die without a will and the concept of universal heirship. In simple terms, when a person dies without a testament, version of the will, which formally designates the property heirs and division of said property, the concept of universal heirship applies. Simply put, your parents and children will be direct heirs, followed by your grandchildren if you have no children and so on. What most people don’t know is that siblings are not directly included in this. Siblings are instead considered universal heirs if one of their parents is dead. In this instance, the siblings will also be universal heirs. Siblings will not inherit property left behind if their parent is alive unless there’s a will reserving property for them.

Essentially, as the article says, a divided estate comes up when there are multiple owners, leaving out everything that is co-owned. This may sound lovely in theory but in practice, it doesn’t take into consideration the emotions brought out by the passing of a loved one and creates a rift between family members. An even simpler way to getting out of the quagmire brought out by the death of loved ones and the problems associated with universal heirship is to have everything clearly documented in a will. Yes, a will! Evident that pets become heirs of sorts during the process, it makes little to no sense when the properties left behind include a lifetime treasured possession such as a beloved car, a special sofa or even a collection of baseball cards. In Puerto Rico, a mixed property (including property and cars for example) will be divided equally according to the proportion of ownership by persons. It is important to note that Puerto Rican law follows far stricter laws in that sense than other states of the union, making it all the more important to understand the quirks of inheritance laws in Puerto Rico.

For instance, once three years have passed from the person’s death, the inheritance is final, giving the persons time to settle their affairs slowly. As a word of warning, mentioning that there were cases where the person was left with nothing, they had to start the process all over again and wait another three years to finally be able to divide the property correctly. It might seem hard to follow but again, it’s up to you to decide whether you want to navigate these sometimes shark-infested waters on your own or if you’d rather hire a professional to deal with the brunt of the work for you. If you decide to handle it all on your own, read articles like the one mentioned above, do some deeper research on the internet and use applications like LawInOrder to get some easy and clear answers to your questions. The only real downside about using an app like LawInOrder is the fact that it can’t provide direct legal consultation services. Fortunately, this is something you can do for free with the Colegio de Abogados and various other organizations such as tú abogado o tu abogado, which offers consultation days and even phone consultation services in certain cases. Yes, I said it, free. While the Colegio de Abogados requires prospective consultors to do a gradual registration process with each piece of information requested being submitted in full, tú abogado o tu abogado is a far simpler process. A simple online form submission is all it takes, followed by a call to verify the information you provided and you’re good to go. If anything else, I hope you’ve been able to learn more about the intricacies of Puerto Rican inheritance laws and how they affect day-to-day life, family relations and wealth division, and how in the end, it isn’t all necessarily bad.