Every natural or juridical person who owns a motor vehicle or an essential part thereof shall have the following responsibilities:
(1) Report to the Puerto Rico Police:
(a) The illegal appropriation, theft, loss, disappearance, destruction or export of any vehicle owned by him/her. This report shall be made immediately after knowledge of the facts, using the forms that the Puerto Rico Police shall prepare and supply in coordination with the Department of Transportation and Public Works and, if they are not available, by an original report and two (2) copies, in the most adequate manner. The injured party shall provide a detailed description of the vehicle, including the license plate number, the engine and its serial number, as well as a statement of the circumstances encompassing these facts.
(b) The loss, disappearance, destruction, theft, illegal appropriation or loss of license plates, licenses, certificates or license plate stickers belonging to any vehicle owned by him/her. This report shall be made immediately after the facts are known.
The Puerto Rico Police shall promptly forward to the Department of Transportation and Public Works a copy of the forms filed by the motor vehicle owners in compliance with this responsibility.
(2) To surrender to the Department of Transportation and Public Works the license plates, licenses and any other document that attests to the title of the vehicle, when a vehicle owned by him has been destroyed, illegally appropriated, exported, sold as junk or as spare parts, or he/she has abandoned it as unusable.
(3) To notify the Puerto Rico Police, the Department of Transportation and Public Works, the financing institution and the insurance company, if any, of the recovery of any stolen or illegally appropriated vehicle. This notification shall be produced on or before ten (10) days have elapsed from its recovery.
(4) To request the Puerto Rico Police and the Department of Transportation and Public Works to reregister or reidentify any vehicle whenever it is necessary and applicable as provided herein.
(5) To notify the Puerto Rico Police and the Department of Transportation and Public Works by sworn statement within the next ten (10) working days, of any motor or transmission change or substitution made to any vehicle owned by him.
History —Aug. 5, 1987, No. 8, p. 612, § 13.