How much notice must a Puerto Rico landlord give not to renew a lease?

The Civil Code fixes no minimum. Article 1335 of the Civil Code of 2020, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 10105, requires that one party notify the other of its will to resolve the contract, but it attaches no number of days to that notice and no other provision of the Code supplies one for a residential lease. In practice the operative period is whatever the lease itself specifies. Where the lease is silent, the prudent course is to serve the notice before the agreed term ends and to fix an effective date that falls at the end of a rent period.

What is tacita reconduccion in Puerto Rico?

Tacita reconduccion is the civil-law doctrine by which a lease continues after its agreed term without a new contract being signed. Under Article 1335 of the Civil Code of 2020, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 10105, once the agreed term arrives the lease continues on the same contracted terms until one of the parties notifies the other of its will to resolve the contract. There is no fixed renewal term and no waiting period. A Puerto Rico landlord who says nothing does not get the unit back at the end of the term; the lease simply keeps running.

Does a Puerto Rico lease automatically renew if the tenant stays?

Under the Civil Code of 2020 it continues rather than renews. Article 1335, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 10105, provides that when the agreed term arrives the lease continues on the same terms until a party gives notice. That is a different rule from the repealed Civil Code of 1930, whose Article 1456 required the tenant to remain in possession for fifteen days with the landlord's acquiescence before an implied renewal arose, and whose Article 1471 fixed the renewed term by the rent interval. Pages that still describe the fifteen-day rule are quoting a code that was repealed with effect from 28 November 2020.

Is there a month-to-month tenancy in Puerto Rico?

Not by default. Article 1333 of the Civil Code of 2020, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 10103, provides that a lease of immovable property is deemed made for a term of one year unless a different term has been agreed. A Puerto Rico tenancy with no written term is therefore an annual lease, not a mainland-style month-to-month periodic tenancy, and mainland thirty-day periodic-tenancy tables do not describe Puerto Rico law.

Does the Ley de Alquileres Razonables still apply in Puerto Rico?

No. Act 464 of 25 April 1946, the Reasonable Rents Act, was repealed by Act 57 of 25 June 1995. That act removed the 1946 law in stages by rent level and provided at Article 4 that three years after its approval the 1946 act would cease to apply to every residential and commercial lease in Puerto Rico and would be repealed in its entirety. Online code mirrors that still display Title 17, Chapter 9 are displaying a repealed chapter.

Does a Puerto Rico notice of non-renewal have to be in writing?

Article 1335 of the Civil Code of 2020 says only that a party must notify the other of its will to resolve the contract. It does not prescribe a form, and Article 1342, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 10151, establishes freedom of form for the lease contract itself. Writing is therefore an evidentiary necessity rather than a proven statutory command: the landlord who cannot prove the date the notice was given cannot prove when the lease stopped continuing, and in a summary ejectment action that proof is the case.

What happens if the tenant does not leave after a Puerto Rico non-renewal notice?

The landlord files a desahucio, the summary ejectment action governed by Articles 620 to 634 of the Law of Special Legal Procedures, 32 L.P.R.A. secs. 2821 to 2838. Article 621 makes the action available against tenants and lessees and against anyone holding material possession or enjoying the property precariously without paying rent. Article 623 requires the appearance to be set within ten days of filing, Article 625 requires judgment within a mandatory ten days, and Article 629 gives five days to appeal.

Which Civil Code governs my Puerto Rico lease?

Article 1813 of the Civil Code of 2020, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 11718, provides that the Code's provisions do not apply to contracts in course of execution in force at the moment it took effect. The Code took effect on 28 November 2020, one hundred and eighty days after Act 55 of 1 June 2020 was approved. A lease made on or after that date is governed by Article 1335. A lease that was already running on that date raises a genuine question, and the answer decides whether the fifteen-day rule of the repealed Article 1456 or the notice rule of Article 1335 applies.

Does a Section 8 landlord in Puerto Rico need good cause to end a tenancy?

Yes, in the Housing Choice Voucher programme. Under 24 C.F.R. sec. 982.310(a) an owner may terminate a tenancy during the lease term only for a serious or repeated lease violation, a violation of law imposing obligations on the tenant, or other good cause. Section 982.310(d)(1)(iv) counts a business or economic reason such as sale of the property, renovation, or a desire to lease at a higher rent as other good cause, and section 982.310(d)(2) bars reliance on other good cause during the initial lease term unless the family did or failed to do something. The owner must give written notice specifying the grounds and give the housing agency a copy.

Is Puerto Rico public housing different?

Yes, materially. A public housing lease in Puerto Rico is cancelled under the procedure in 17 L.P.R.A. secs. 1015 to 1015h, which requires the administration to weigh enumerated parameters, to prove prohibited conduct, to establish a causal link between the conduct and the sanction, and to give written notice of the intention to cancel at least thirty days before the administrative evidentiary hearing. A private notice of non-renewal has no application to a public housing lease.

Can a Puerto Rico landlord end a lease early for nonpayment?

Article 1348 of the Civil Code of 2020, 31 L.P.R.A. sec. 10171, allows the landlord to resolve the contract where the tenant abandons or stops using the property or varies the agreed use, fails in the duty to conserve it, or fails to pay the agreed rent for two consecutive periods. That is a mid-term remedy for breach, and it is separate from a notice of non-renewal, which alleges no fault at all.

Does the notice have to be in Spanish?

No statute requiring a Spanish-language non-renewal notice was located. Spanish is nevertheless the working language of the Court of First Instance in most of Puerto Rico, a desahucio is heard there, and the tenant's comprehension of the notice is a foreseeable issue. Serving a bilingual notice removes that argument at no cost, which is why the generator on this page produces the Spanish text first and the English text beneath it.

Doesn’t the tenant have to stay fifteen days first?

That was article 1456 of the Civil Code of 1930, which required fifteen days of continued enjoyment with the landlord’s acquiescence, and article 1471, which fixed the renewed term by the rent interval. Article 1819 of the 2020 Code repealed the 1930 Code, with effect from 28 November 2020. Pages still describing the fifteen-day window are describing repealed law.

Does my guarantor stay on the hook after the term ends?

Not necessarily. The second paragraph of article 1335 provides that where a party notifies its will to resolve, obligations granted by a third party to secure the principal contract cease as regards that party. A landlord relying on a guarantee or surety through a continuation should take advice rather than assume it carries over.

Can I raise the rent instead of ending the tenancy?

Article 1335 continues the lease “en los mismos términos contratados” — on the same contracted terms — so the continuation carries the old rent. Changing it means agreeing a new contract, and article 1344 (31 L.P.R.A. § 10153) requires modifications to observe the same formalities as the original grant. In practice the landlord notifies the will to resolve and offers a new lease at the new figure, which is a negotiation rather than a unilateral act.

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Free Puerto Rico Notice of Non-Renewal

In Puerto Rico a lease does not simply expire. Article 1335 of the Civil Code of 2020 (31 L.P.R.A. § 10105) provides that once the agreed term arrives the lease continues on the same terms until one of the parties notifies the other of its will to resolve the contract. The notice is not a formality — it is the only thing that stops the lease running. This generator builds it in Spanish and English, to the article.

Puerto Rico Notice of Non-Renewal Art. 1335 · 31 L.P.R.A. § 10105 Bilingual PDF Free

By Tenant Screening Background Check Editorial Team Authority Código Civil de Puerto Rico de 2020, art. 1335 Updated 2026

Direct answer: a Puerto Rico landlord may decline to continue an ordinary private lease and does not have to prove a cause — but the lease does not end on its own, and no statute gives the landlord a number of days. Puerto Rico is a civil-law jurisdiction, and the controlling provision is Article 1335 of the Código Civil de Puerto Rico de 2020, codified at 31 L.P.R.A. § 10105: “Llegado el plazo convenido en el arrendamiento, este continúa en los mismos términos contratados hasta que cualquiera de las partes notifique a la otra su voluntad de resolver el contrato.” — “Once the term agreed in the lease arrives, it continues on the same contracted terms until either of the parties notifies the other of its will to resolve the contract.” That single sentence changes the whole instrument. On the mainland a notice of non-renewal is optional politeness attached to a lease that expires by itself; in Puerto Rico the notice is the operative act, and a landlord who serves nothing keeps a running lease on the same rent and the same terms indefinitely. This page states what the Code actually says, corrects the two claims the current search results are built on — a supposed territory-wide just-cause requirement and a supposed fifteen-day tácita reconducción window — and generates a bilingual notice that recites the article, records the date it was given, and says plainly where the law leaves a gap.

Key takeaways

A Puerto Rico lease continues; it does not expire. Article 1335 (31 L.P.R.A. § 10105) keeps the contract alive on the same terms after the agreed term arrives, and ends that continuation only when a party notifies the other of its will to resolve. Silence is not non-renewal — silence is renewal.
There is no general just-cause requirement for a private lease. The Civil Code of 2020 contains no article requiring a landlord to prove an enumerated cause in order to stop continuing a lease, and the summary ejectment statute, Articles 620 to 634 of the Ley de Procedimientos Legales Especiales (32 L.P.R.A. §§ 2821–2838), lists no grounds whatever. It is a procedural statute, not a good-cause statute.
The Ley de Alquileres Razonables is gone. Act 464 of 25 April 1946 was repealed by Act 57 of 25 June 1995, whose Article 4 provided that three years after approval the 1946 act would cease to apply to every residential and commercial lease in Puerto Rico and would be repealed in its entirety. Any page layering 17 L.P.R.A. ch. 9 on top of a modern Puerto Rico tenancy is layering a repealed statute.
The Code fixes no notice period. Article 1335 requires notification and stops there. No provision of the Code attaches a number of days to it, and none was located anywhere else in Puerto Rico law for a residential non-renewal. The operative period is the one your lease states. That is the honest answer, and no page currently ranking for this query gives it.
There is no default month-to-month tenancy in Puerto Rico. Article 1333 (31 L.P.R.A. § 10103) deems a lease of immovable property to be made for one year unless a different term was agreed. Mainland thirty-day periodic-tenancy tables simply do not describe this jurisdiction.
The fifteen-day rule everyone quotes was repealed. The fifteen days of continued enjoyment with the landlord’s acquiescence, and the renewed term tracking the rent interval, came from Articles 1456 and 1471 of the Civil Code of 1930. Article 1819 of the 2020 Code repealed that Code, with effect from 28 November 2020.
Which Code applies is a live question for older leases. Article 1813 (31 L.P.R.A. § 11718) provides that the 2020 Code does not apply to contracts in course of execution in force when it took effect. A lease already running on 28 November 2020 is not obviously governed by Article 1335 at all.
Assisted housing is the real just-cause pocket. A Housing Choice Voucher tenancy needs good cause under 24 C.F.R. § 982.310, and a Puerto Rico public housing lease is cancelled only through the administrative procedure at 17 L.P.R.A. §§ 1015–1015h. This generator refuses to produce a private notice for a public housing unit.

Generate Your Puerto Rico Notice of Non-Renewal

Start with the two questions that actually decide the document: which Civil Code governs the lease, and whether the unit is private, voucher-assisted or public housing. Everything else follows. The generator produces the notice in Spanish first and English beneath, recites Article 1335 in its own words, and prints the date the notice is given, which is the fact that decides when the lease stopped continuing. It refuses to produce a private notice for a public housing unit, refuses a voucher tenancy with no stated good cause, and refuses an effective date earlier than the period your own lease demands.

1. Which Civil Code governs this lease

Date the lease was made — this decides the governing Code (art. 1813, 31 L.P.R.A. § 11718)

2. Housing type — this can stop the notice entirely

What kind of tenancy is this

If a voucher tenancy: good cause relied on under 24 C.F.R. § 982.310

3. Dates and the period your lease demands

Date the agreed term ends (or ended)

Date this notice will be given to the tenant

Does the lease itself state a notice period for non-renewal

Days of notice the lease requires (whole days — required if you selected “Yes” above)

Date on which the lease is to stop continuing (effective date of the resolution)

—

Enter the end of the agreed term and the date the notice will be given. Article 1335 sets no minimum period, so this check measures your dates against your own lease clause and warns you if the continuation has already begun.

4. Tenant and property

All tenant names, as they appear on the lease

Property address, including apartment number

Municipality and ZIP

Rent and rent period, as agreed

5. Landlord

Landlord or authorised agent

Landlord address for notices

Telephone

Email (optional)

Housing agency and voucher number (voucher tenancies only — 24 C.F.R. § 982.310(e))

6. How the notice is being given

Manner of delivery — the Code prescribes none, so choose the one you can prove

Language of the notice

7. Statements to include

Recite Article 1335 of the Civil Code of 2020 (31 L.P.R.A. § 10105) and state expressly that this notice is the notification of the will to resolve the contract Include the statement that if the property is not surrendered the landlord may file a desahucio under 32 L.P.R.A. §§ 2821 et seq. State that no fault is alleged and that this notice is not a claim for nonpayment or breach under art. 1348 Include the security deposit paragraph, inviting the tenant to arrange a joint walk-through before surrender Certify that a copy is being furnished to the administering housing agency (voucher tenancies — 24 C.F.R. § 982.310(e)) Include the statement that this notice is not based on the tenant being a victim of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking (34 U.S.C. § 12491, assisted housing)

Watch: Puerto Rico Notice of Non-Renewal and Civil Code art. 1335 explained

Puerto Rico notice of non-renewal overview

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Puerto Rico Non-Renewal at a Glance

Cause required

No — private lease

Authority

Art. 1335 · 31 L.P.R.A. § 10105

Statutory notice period

None — the lease supplies it

Default lease term

One year — art. 1333

The thing everyone gets backwards. On the mainland the danger is serving a notice too late. In Puerto Rico the danger is serving no notice at all: under article 1335 the lease keeps running on the same terms, at the same rent, for as long as neither party speaks. There is no expiry event to miss, because there is no expiry.

Can a landlord refuse to renew a lease in Puerto Rico?

For an ordinary private residential lease, yes — and no statute requires the landlord to prove a cause. This has to be said clearly because the opposite claim circulates widely, and it is the single most consequential thing a Puerto Rico landlord or tenant can get wrong. The claim is that Puerto Rico requires just cause to end a tenancy, that roughly seven statutory causes are enumerated somewhere, and that the landlord must prove one of them in court. We went looking for that rule in the statute books. It is not there.

The Civil Code contains no just-cause article. The lease is regulated at Chapter VI of Book Five of the Código Civil de Puerto Rico de 2020, articles 1331 to 1350, codified at 31 L.P.R.A. §§ 10101 to 10173. Read straight through, that chapter defines the lease (art. 1331), sets its duration (arts. 1332–1334), governs its continuation after the term (art. 1335), regulates assignment and sublease (art. 1336), competing tenants (art. 1337), capacity (art. 1338), object (art. 1339), rent (arts. 1340–1341), form (arts. 1342–1344), the parties&rsquo