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CRIM residential exoneration: what it means

In Puerto Rico, the residential exoneration (exoneración residencial) is the Municipal Code benefit that exempts you from paying the property tax (CRIM) on part of the value of the home you live in. It applies to only one home per owner, used as a home by the owner or the owner's family without charging rent.

In Spanish it is

Exoneración residencial (CRIM)

Also written as: exoneración residencial · Puerto Rico homestead exoneration

Verified on October 17, 2026

2 official sources

See the whole dictionary

The full explanation

To get it, you file a certification with CRIM, or with your mortgage lender if you have a mortgage. A home owned in common by several people, such as heirs, counts as one home, and the exoneration goes to an owner who lives there and has no other exoneration. If your eligibility changes or you transfer the home, you must report it.

An example

Ana buys an apartment in Bayamón to live in. Her mortgage lender pays the property tax from her escrow account, so Ana gives the lender her certification for the residential exoneration and the lender notifies CRIM.

You will see it in…

Your CRIM property tax bill
The exoneration certification you file with CRIM or your lender
Your mortgage escrow statement

Words that go with it

You will rarely see this word alone. These are the ones that show up with it on the same papers.

More guides that use “CRIM residential exoneration”

Inheriting a home in Puerto Rico from the states

Still confused by a paper?

A HUD-approved housing counselor can walk you through it. Agencies usually charge little or nothing, many work in Spanish, and they do not sell you anything.

What a housing counselor does See free help

Official sources

We sum up what these official sources say, in plain words. We add no rules they do not state; when a rule changes, the definition and its date change.

1. Gobierno de Puerto Rico, Oficina de Gerencia y Presupuesto (Biblioteca Virtual) · Código Municipal de Puerto Rico (Ley Núm. 107-2020, según enmendada) (external site) · in Spanish · Verified on October 17, 2026
2. Centro de Recaudación de Ingresos Municipales (CRIM) · Preguntas Frecuentes (portal oficial del CRIM) (external site) · in Spanish · Verified on October 17, 2026