Obtaining land in Puerto Rico as a Heir?

Question

My father was the only child of the marriage of my grandfather and grandmother..my mother and father were legally married but my mother passed away last April, 2007...I am not sure if there is any legal documents...but over the years growing up I was told by my parents that they had land in Puerto Rico...my father left my mohter about 20 yrs ago and sold at least 5 acres of land ( he had original 25 acres) and purchase a home upstate New York, but the house went into foreclosure because he got sick and couldn't make payments...I believe that the 5 acres were sold to family members..so now can you tell me how would the land be divided and who would recommend to do the paperwork...I am a legal secretary in New York and one of the boss does probate and wills and trust and all that but he is not licensed to do work in Puerto Rico.

Answer 1

"who would recommend to do the paperwork"

In PR, the lawyers/attorneys at law are the only people who are licensed as public-notary in PR.  To process all the legal documents/paperwork you need to hire a lawyer / attorney at law / public notary with license to work in PR.

"how would the land be divided"

The lawyer who will manage the case for you will probably need

* certificate of birth, marriage, and death of your father

* divorse sentence of your parents plus death certificate of your mother,

* certificate of birth of all heirs, and identification data

* Documents on the properties registry (property title?) to evidence who were the owner.

Documents on the divorse and on the property title are needed to certify who was(were) the owner of the 20 acres land.  To certify if:

* half of that land was property of your mother and half of it property of your father.

* or 100% of the property was of your father.

* also to verify if there are others whit claims on the property (a bank who has a mortage/loan associated to the land?).

Question here is:

* do the properties of the marriage were divided after the divorse and your mother did not retain any property rights over the land? Yes or no?

If it was 100% property of your father, and there is no will from him:

* the property is divided on equal parts between all the sons/daughters  of your father.  If four kids from your mother, and one half-brother then the sons/daughthers of your father are a total of 5, and each one gets 20%.

If the property was 50% property of your mother and 50% property of your father then:

* the four sons/daughters of your mother get 25% each of the mother's 50% , plus 20% each of the father's 50%

* the half-brother only gets the 20% of the father's 50%.