Public-nuisance expropriations · Courts
Filed by 32 municipalities between 2017 and 2026. What happened to each property, what was left for the owner and who handled each case.
Outcome
65 % of the closed cases ended with the municipality owning the property.
At least 495 cases notified by publication.
24 of the 126 filed in 2026 · median of 19 days to judgment. See the cases
Who expropriates
San Juan, Caguas and Bayamón account for 223 of the 669 cases.
Tap a municipality to see its cases.
The municipalities, sortable by any column; each name opens its cases.
| Money in the case | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Municipality | |||||||
89 | 53 | 91 % | $66,500 | $26,067 | $49,998 | 13 / 53 | |
68 | 25 | 38 % | $23,500 | $8,902 | 17 / 25 | ||
66 | 57 | 98 % | $67,500 | $41,107 | $51,064 | 7 / 57 | |
50 | 38 | 78 % | $24,000 | $392 | $6,239 | 18 / 38 | |
46 | 23 | 51 % | $35,000 | $26,500 | $27,493 | 3 / 23 | |
36 | 11 | 34 % | $20,000 | $2,339 | 8 / 11 | ||
31 | 24 | 92 % | $37,573 | $2,512 | $17,066 | 12 / 24 | |
26 | 15 | 65 % | $14,500 | $11,000 | $13,853 | 3 / 15 | |
26 | 13 | 54 % | $21,800 | $2,670 | 9 / 13 | ||
10Guayama | 25 | 0 | 0 % | — | — | — | — |
89 cases
Money in the case
68 cases
Money in the case
66 cases
Money in the case
50 cases
Money in the case
46 cases
Money in the case
36 cases
Money in the case
31 cases
Money in the case
26 cases
Money in the case
26 cases
Money in the case
10Guayama
25 cases
Money in the case
Who handles the cases
In 80 cases the petition was signed by lawyers of the Centro para la Reconstrucción del Hábitat (CRH); 231 were filed while a municipal contract with CRSG / Universal Properties was in force, without the record saying who prepared them. 92 lawyers represented the municipalities and 101 judges heard the cases.
| How the case ended | Money in the case | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who filed | |||||||||
1No contractor identifiedper the record23 municipalities · 2017–2026 | 358 | 0 | 60 | 240 | 58 | $45,000 | $22,153 | $33,953 | 59 / 240 |
2CRSG / Universal Propertiesmunicipal contract in force when the petition was filed9 municipalities · 2020–2026 | 231 | 0 | 12 | 84 | 135 | $21,500 | $4,039 | 52 / 84 | |
3Centro para la Reconstrucción del Hábitat (CRH)its lawyers signed the petition6 municipalities · 2024–2026 | 80 | 31 | 33 | 45 | 2 | $65,000 | $9,040 | 26 / 28 | |
1No contractor identifiedper the record23 municipalities · 2017–2026
358 cases
How the case ended
Money in the case
2CRSG / Universal Propertiesmunicipal contract in force when the petition was filed9 municipalities · 2020–2026
231 cases
How the case ended
Money in the case
3Centro para la Reconstrucción del Hábitat (CRH)its lawyers signed the petition6 municipalities · 2024–2026
80 cases
How the case ended
Money in the case
Who does what
The lawyers listed here appeared on behalf of the petitioning municipality. The municipality decides which properties it expropriates and with which figures. The judges heard the cases the court assigned to them and ruled on the petitions under the law that authorizes this procedure.
Neither the lawyers nor the judges set the property’s value, which comes from an appraisal or from the figure the municipality presents, nor the deductions, which come from the debt certified by the CRIM and from the fines, cleanup and costs the municipality claims. This section therefore counts only the cases each took part in, in which municipalities and years, and how they ended. The money figures are in the explorer, case by case, with their reference in the record.
Contractors appear for what the record shows: their lawyers’ signature on the petition, or a contract with the municipality in force on the filing date.
The money
The median property value is $36,545. In 137 of the 352 acquisitions with a figure (39 %), the deductions matched or exceeded the value and nothing was left for the owner.
503 cases with an appraisal · median $36,545
Under $10K
8 %
$10–25K
25 %
$25–50K
29 %
$50–100K
26 %
$100K or more
12 %
352 acquisitions with a figure · median $6,690 · average $24,832
None
39 %
Up to $5K
8 %
$5–15K
11 %
$15–30K
14 %
$30–60K
16 %
$60K or more
12 %
$26,785,338 in deductions, in all: those the judgment subtracts when there is one and otherwise the petition.
| Item | Sum | Cases | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| CRIM debt | $14,595,563 | 584 | 54.5 % |
| Municipal fines | $7,050,924 | 239 | 26.3 % |
| Cleanup and maintenance | $360,027 | 65 | 1.3 % |
| Case costs | $255,876 | 133 | 1.0 % |
| Other debts | $4,522,948 | 237 | 16.9 % |
| Total | $26,785,338 | 100 % |
The law does not require a deposit at filing; the obligation arises when the owner appears, and the owner has three years from the judgment to claim (Art. 2.018(a)(10)).
Time
Half of the acquisitions took 227 days or less from filing to judgment; one in ten, more than 487 days (1.3 years).
509 cases with a declaration date.
| Year | Filed | Acquired | Not acquired | Active |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2018 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 2019 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 2020 | 46 | 17 | 29 | 0 |
| 2021 | 63 | 35 | 27 | 1 |
| 2022 | 78 | 40 | 38 | 0 |
| 2023 | 88 | 36 | 51 | 1 |
| 2024 | 103 | 87 | 14 | 2 |
| 2025 | 154 | 112 | 28 | 14 |
| 2026* | 126 | 35 | 4 | 87 |
After the judgment
Of the 369 acquired properties, 91 remain in the municipality’s name. 96 were sold by the municipality after the judgment, for $5.7 M in all.
A private owner may be a later buyer or the previous owner, if the roll has not been updated. 96 of these properties have a sale by the municipality recorded after the judgment.
| Money in the case | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buyer, per the CRIM | ||||||||
| 1 | 3 | 3 | $24,000 | $961 | 2 / 3 | |||
| 1 | 2 | 2 | $32,050 | $12,522 | $12,522 | 1 / 2 | ||
| 1 | 2 | 2 | $110,000 | $57,560 | $57,560 | 0 / 2 | ||
| 1 | 2 | 2 | $25,750 | $0 | 2 / 2 | |||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | $17,000 | $0 | 1 / 1 | |||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | $430,000 | $411,235 | $411,235 | 0 / 1 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | $51,000 | $20,724 | $20,724 | 0 / 1 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | $54,500 | $54,500 | $54,500 | 0 / 1 | ||
3 cases
Money in the case
2 cases
Money in the case
2 cases
Money in the case
2 cases
Money in the case
1 cases
Money in the case
1 cases
Money in the case
1 cases
Money in the case
1 cases
Money in the case
The other 71 resales went to private individuals, whose names are not published.
CRIM data obtained on Oct 11, 2026. The CRIM roll may be out of date.
Filter by municipality, outcome, who filed, lawyer or judge; sort by value, deductions or compensation; open any case.
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