A buyer sits across from a closing table in a title office off Ashford Avenue, a few pages from signing on a two-bedroom unit in a building that has stood since the 1970s. Somewhere in a filing cabinet is the reglamento, the document that governs everything from whether the unit can be rented by the week to how a special assessment gets approved. Until recently, whether that buyer ever saw it before the deed changed hands came down to whether someone thought to ask, and whether the building's administrator felt like answering.
That gap just closed. In January 2026, Governor Jenniffer González signed Act 13-2026 into law, amending Article 13 of Puerto Rico's Condominium Act to require that condo administrators hand over the reglamento to a licensed broker with an active sale mandate, or to a serious prospective buyer who requests it, within five business days. The law sounds procedural. For anyone closing on a Condado unit this year, it is the single most useful legal change on the books, and it points to something buyers coming from the mainland tend to get wrong about risk in this market.
The Fear Buyers Bring From Florida Doesn't Match What's Actually Happening Here
Condo buyers who have spent any time reading real estate news in the last two years arrive with a specific anxiety: the Surfside-driven wave of Florida special assessments, where buildings that deferred structural reserves for decades suddenly owed millions under a state-mandated inspection deadline, and owners got hit with five-figure bills overnight. That fear is legitimate in Florida. It is also a different mechanism than what governs a Condado tower.
Florida's law, passed after the 2021 Champlain Towers collapse, forces condo and co-op buildings three stories or taller to complete a Structural Integrity Reserve Study once the building turns 30, and every 10 years after that, with reserves that can no longer be waived once the study is done. Puerto Rico has never adopted that framework. Its condominium law runs on a different track entirely, and conflating the two leads buyers to ask the wrong questions at the wrong moment.
| Puerto Rico | Florida | |
|---|---|---|
| What triggers the requirement | A broker or buyer's request for the reglamento | Building reaching 30 years of age (3+ stories) |
| What must be produced | Bylaws and house rules, within 5 business days | Structural Integrity Reserve Study, on a fixed statutory deadline |
| Reserve fund baseline | Minimum 5% of annual operating budget, building toward 2% of reconstruction value | Full funding based on SIRS findings, no waivers permitted |
| What changed in 2026 | New disclosure timing rule (Act 13-2026) | Grace period for existing SIRS deadlines ended |
The practical read for a Condado buyer is not that older buildings are risk-free. It is that the risk Puerto Rico regulates right now is an information problem at the point of sale, not a forced structural remediation calendar. Act 13-2026 exists because, until this year, a buyer could get all the way to signing without ever seeing the rules that would govern their ownership.
What the Reglamento Actually Decides
The reglamento is not boilerplate. It is the document that sets whether a unit can be listed on a short-term rental platform, whether pets are allowed, how alterations get approved, and how the building's council votes on special assessments. In a corridor like Condado, where inventory ranges from classic mid-century towers with sweeping balconies to newer full-service buildings with concierge staff and backup generators, that document does more work than the listing photos.
Take a building like the Vanderbilt Residences, a 75-residence tower at the corner of Ashford Avenue and Earle Street with two full floors of amenity space and a 75-foot infinity pool facing the ocean. A buyer comparing that tower to an older mid-century building three blocks away is not just comparing square footage and finishes. They are comparing two different sets of house rules, two different STR postures, and two different reserve histories, and only one of those buildings has been standing long enough to have tested its assessment process against a real repair.
Condado's price bands make this concrete. Entry-level units in older or smaller buildings run roughly $400,000 to $700,000. Two and three-bedroom units in well-amenitized towers land between $700,000 and $1.5 million. Penthouses and top-tier oceanfront residences clear $1.5 million and up. At every tier, the reglamento decides whether the unit can generate rental income to offset the purchase, whether a special assessment requires unanimous consent or a two-thirds vote, and what happens if a unit owner falls behind on dues. None of that shows up in a listing sheet. All of it now has to show up within five business days of a request.
Why Building Vintage Still Matters, Just Not the Way Florida Headlines Suggest
Puerto Rico's Condominium Act requires every association to keep a reserve fund of at least 5% of its annual operating budget, growing toward an amount equal to 2% of the building's reconstruction value. That is a standing requirement, unrelated to the new disclosure law, and it is the second document worth asking for alongside the reglamento.
The number matters more in an older building for a simple reason. Reconstruction value and operating budgets both tend to be lower in older, smaller buildings than in newer full-service towers, so 2% of reconstruction value on a 1970s mid-rise can represent a thinner cushion in absolute dollars than the same percentage on a newer tower with elevators, generators, and a larger footprint to maintain. That does not mean older Condado buildings are underfunded. It means the percentage alone does not tell you enough. A buyer needs the reserve balance in dollars, not just the association's word that it meets the statutory floor.
This is the part Florida coverage tends to bury under bigger, scarier numbers. Puerto Rico is not staring down a wave of SIRS-triggered special assessments because it never built that trigger into its law. The actual exposure here is quieter: a reserve fund that technically clears 5% but hasn't kept pace with a building's real maintenance needs, discovered only after closing because nobody asked to see the numbers before signing. Act 13-2026 makes it far easier to ask.
What to Request Before You Sign
- The reglamento itself, in writing, from the listing agent or the building's administrator, noting the five-business-day clock now attached to that request
- The current reserve fund balance, not just confirmation that the minimum percentage is met
- Minutes from the most recent annual assembly, particularly any discussion of special assessments or deferred maintenance
- Written confirmation of the building's short-term rental policy, since STR allowances vary tower to tower even within the same stretch of Ashford Avenue
None of this replaces a professional structural or systems inspection. It simply moves the paperwork that used to surface after closing into the window before it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Act 13-2026 apply to rentals, or only to sales? The law is written around sale transactions, requiring the reglamento's disclosure to a broker with a sale mandate or to a prospective buyer who requests it. Puerto Rico has more than 3,500 complexes organized under the Horizontal Property Regime, and this requirement applies across that inventory wherever a sale is in motion.
What happens if the administrator misses the five-day window? The law places the delivery duty on the administrator first, and if a building has no designated administrator, that responsibility falls to the board president or, in their absence, the board secretary. The statute does not require the reglamento be handed to just anyone. Requesters need to show a license number, photo identification, and a legitimate interest in the specific transaction.
Does this mean Puerto Rico condos are safer than Florida condos? It means the two markets regulate different risks. Puerto Rico's reserve fund rule has been in place since the 2020 Condominium Act, well before Florida's post-Surfside reforms. The 2026 change addresses timing and access to information, not structural inspection mandates. A buyer still needs to look at building age, reserve balances, and maintenance history on their own terms.
A condo purchase in Condado is still a building-by-building decision, and the paperwork that decides it just got easier to get your hands on before you sign rather than after. If you're comparing towers along Ashford Avenue or weighing a mid-century unit against something newer, Corcoran Puerto Rico can walk through a specific building's reglamento, reserve position, and assembly history with you before you're at the closing table, not after.
