ADU Pass
San Juan
No County portion
Also in: Guaynabo Municipio · San Juan Municipio
ADU Pass helps homeowners in San Juan, No County, Puerto Rico navigate the permit paperwork for building an accessory dwelling unit. This area covers 14 ZIP codes.
Map
ADU details
ADU legality: unclear
Puerto Rico leaves ADU regulation to local municipalities under home-rule or Dillon-rule authority. San Juan permits ADUs subject to local conditions per its zoning ordinance.
Cost scenarios
| Scenario | Sq ft | Permit | Build | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| minimum | 150 | $1,800 | $40,500 | $42,300 |
| 600 | 600 | $1,800 | $162,000 | $163,800 |
| midpoint | 525 | $1,800 | $141,750 | $143,550 |
| maximum | 900 | $1,800 | $243,000 | $244,800 |
Fee breakdown (as of 2026-04)
Permitting process
- Cross-listing / San Juan Municipio governance confirmation (~5d)
Cross-listing entry: governance flows from San Juan Municipio (capital, Categoria V autonomous-permits municipality, holds the Codigo de Urbanismo del Municipio de San Juan). Identify parcel calificacion (R-1, R-2, R-3, etc.) per Codigo de Urbanismo and any San Juan local overlay (Old San Juan Distrito Historico, Santurce P-3, Hato Rey C-3). - Pre-consulta at San Juan Oficina de Permisos (~14d)
San Juan's autonomous Oficina de Permisos (OPMSJ) accepts pre-consulta for ADU projects. Old San Juan and Miramar require Junta de Comunidades / ICP pre-screen. Ordenanza Num. 39 (serie 2022-2023) and Codigo de Urbanismo (rev. septiembre 2023) provide the local rules. - Permiso Unico submittal via San Juan OPMSJ portal (~1d)
Submit Permiso Unico locally through San Juan's autonomous-municipality portal (sanjuan.pr/oficina-de-permisos/). Reglamento Conjunto 2023 + Codigo de Urbanismo de San Juan apply jointly. PA-stamped planos, structural calcs (ASCE 7-22 wind D + sismic D2), Codigo de Orden Publico compliance. - Concurrent endorsements (ICP for Old SJ, DRNA, JCA, Bomberos, AAA, LUMA) (~40d)
Old San Juan / Miramar / Santurce historic clusters route to ICP and Junta de Planificacion. DRNA covers Cano Martin Pena and coastal-zone parcels; FEMA AE/VE applies to coastal/Cano frontage; AAA water-availability; LUMA electric load-availability. Largest concurrent-review queue in PR. - Permit issuance and San Juan municipal arbitrios (~7d)
San Juan OPMSJ issues the Permiso Unico locally; arbitrios de construccion paid to Departamento de Finanzas under Codigo Municipal Ley 107-2020 plus San Juan municipal ordinance. San Juan applies highest-tier autonomous construction-tax rates in PR. - Staged inspections plus historic-district visits where applicable
Cimientos, estructura sismica D2, electrica, plomeria, final. Old San Juan parcels add ICP staged compliance visits; coastal-zone parcels need FEMA Elevation Certificate before final. - Permiso de Uso and AAA / LUMA activation (~12d)
Permiso de Uso issued by OPMSJ after final clearances; required before AAA/PRASA submeter and LUMA secondary service. CRIM segregates the parcel for tax-roll purposes.
Viability (permitted uses)
- Long-term rental: yes Long-term rental of ADU generally permitted; landlord-tenant law and any city rental-registration ordinance apply.
- Short-term rental: with-restrictions STR rules vary by city. San Juan regulates STRs separately from ADU permitting; check local STR ordinance and HOA covenants.
- Office rental: with-restrictions Detached office rental requires home occupation permit or rezoning.
- Home office: yes Home occupation permitted with restrictions on signage and customer traffic.
- Studio / workshop: yes Personal artist studio is a permitted accessory use.
- Agriculture: with-restrictions Limited urban agriculture permitted in residential zones; livestock varies by district.
- Relative support: yes Family-occupancy ADU explicitly permitted in single-family zones.
Utilities
- Water: San Juan Water Utility · 30d connect · $4,500
- Sewer: San Juan Sewer / Wastewater · 30d connect · $5,500
- Electric: San Juan Electric Utility · 21d connect · $1,800
- Gas: San Juan Gas Utility · 30d connect · $1,500
Property values & taxes
Construction timeline
Realistic total: best 9mo · typical 14mo · worst 22mo
Financing
Insurance impact
HOA prevalence & preemption
Puerto Rico's condominium regime is more sophisticated than most US territories — Law 129-2020 modernized the framework, mandated separate operating and reserve accounts, and added a short-term-rental floor — but it does not preempt CC&R restrictions on accessory dwellings. Conventional planned-unit-development HOAs outside the condominium framework are governed by general civil-code contract principles. Practical impact: in Puerto Rico's many condominium and gated-community contexts, ADU rights depend on the master deed.
Regulatory overlays (1)
- seismic-zone
Seismic Design Category D2 per ASCE 7; soft-story and unreinforced-masonry seismic considerations may apply.
Technical envelope (climate & building code)
Climate & energy code
Building code
Amendments:
- Amendment
- Amendment
Legal history (timeline)
Current ordinance: City of San Juan Municipal Code — Accessory Dwelling Units, adopted 2020-01-01, last amended 2024-04-01
- 2024-01-01 — City of San Juan ADU code refresh (city-ordinance)
Conforming local-code amendments aligning with current Puerto Rico accessory-dwelling framework.
Effect: Codified permissive ADU standards consistent with state law and local zoning.
County: no attribution (synthetic bucket)
No county
This city sits in the state's "no county" bucket — its ADU rules derive directly from state law and city ordinance without a county intermediary. No county-level sections apply.
Puerto Rico state — ADU law and programs
State HOA preemption
Puerto Rico's condominium regime is more sophisticated than most US territories — Law 129-2020 modernized the framework, mandated separate operating and reserve accounts, and added a short-term-rental floor — but it does not preempt CC&R restrictions on accessory dwellings. Conventional planned-unit-development HOAs outside the condominium framework are governed by general civil-code contract principles. Practical impact: in Puerto Rico's many condominium and gated-community contexts, ADU rights depend on the master deed.
State financing programs
Puerto Rico's primary public housing financing vehicle is the Puerto Rico Department of Housing (Departamento de la Vivienda, PRDOH), which administers HUD CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT recovery funds tied to Hurricanes Irma and María (2017) and the 2019–2020 earthquake sequence. The flagship homeowner-side program is R3 — the Home Repair, Reconstruction, or Relocation Program — funded with $2.2B+ of the $10B in CDBG-DR funds HUD has allocated to Puerto Rico for hurricane recovery. R3 funds repair, reconstruction, or relocation for single-family homes damaged by qualifying disasters; ADU-equivalent accessory structures could be built as part of a qualifying reconstruction but the program is not ADU-targeted. The Puerto Rico Housing Finance Authority (Autoridad para el Financiamiento de la Vivienda, AFV) issues mortgage-revenue-bond first-mortgage financing for first-time homebuyers. Outside the disaster-recovery channels, there is no commonwealth-wide ADU-specific consumer loan or grant.
Federal (United States) — ADU-relevant rules and programs
Federal ADU law
The United States has no federal statute that directly regulates accessory dwelling unit entitlement or design. Land-use authority over ADUs resides with states and local governments under the traditional police power. Federal engagement is limited to financing (Fannie/Freddie/FHA/VA/USDA), flood insurance (FEMA/NFIP), and discretionary housing programs (HUD), which are recorded in sibling sections of this file.
Federal financing programs
Federal housing-finance agencies and GSEs set nationwide underwriting rules that govern whether an ADU can be financed, appraised, and counted toward mortgage qualifying income. The relevant actors are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA (HUD), VA, and USDA Rural Development.
Federal tax credits
There is no ADU-specific federal tax credit. ADUs may incidentally qualify for existing federal energy-efficiency and clean-energy tax credits when the ADU construction includes qualifying measures.
Federal housing programs
HUD administers several discretionary programs that can fund ADU-related activity at the grantee's election, but none is an ADU-specific program.
ZIP Codes
- 00902
- 00908
- 00910
- 00914
- 00916
- 00919
- 00928
- 00929
- 00931
- 00933
- 00936
- 00940
- 00955
- 00978
Post Office
- 10 Calle Casia, 00921
- 100 Calle Alondra, 00924
- 100 Calle Bella Vis, 00915
- 100 Centro Gubernamental, 00940
- 100 Paseo De Colon Ste 1, 00901
- 1108 Ave Magdalena Ste 2, 00907
- 112 Calle Arzuaga Ste 1, 00925
- 1498 Ave Fernandez Juncos, 00909
- 1959 Calle Loiza Lbby, 00911
- 201 Ave De Diego Ste 10, 00927
- 361 Calle Juan Calaf, 00918
- 369 Calle San Claudio Frnt, 00926
- 585 Ave Fd Roosevelt Ste 202, 00936
- 800 Ave Ponce De Leon Ste A, 00907