Dossier Summary 1 Legal framework 2 Procedure 3 Case law 4 Statistics 5 Organisations 6 The debate 7 Contacts Sources

Research dossier · compiled 14 Oct 2026

Squatting law and abandoned property in Uruguay

Research, not legal advice. unverified marks anything I could not confirm from a source I opened. A local abogado/a is needed for any real situation.

Summary

1. Occupying someone else's property to take it or profit from it is a crime (art. 354 Código Penal): 3 months to 3 years. Anyone can report it, at any time.
2. Civil law runs the other way: possession for 10 years (good faith plus justo título) or 20 years (no title needed) can win ownership after a court case.
3. In practice, reports are many and charges are few: 4,706 complaints and 79 cases with someone charged, 2018 to April 2021.
4. Where children or vulnerable people live there, the human-rights body INDDHH wants a protocol and state coordination before any eviction.
5. Ley 19.676 targets empty, degraded buildings, but only the housing ministry or ANV can sue under it. A private occupier cannot use it.
6. Census 2023: 19.5% of 1,659,048 dwellings were unoccupied, mostly seasonal homes. No source I found counts truly abandoned houses.
7. No case I could read decides whether someone who occupies and renovates an abandoned house keeps it.
8. Your own references were not in the message (the placeholder was still there), so section 3 has an empty slot for them.
9. Many contact details and recent figures are marked unverified rather than guessed.

SECTION 1

Legal framework

Four norms matter most: the crime, the civil route to ownership, the empty-property law and the public-space offence.

1.1 Delito de usurpación, art. 354 Código Penal (Ley 18.116, 2007)

ARTÍCULO 354. (Usurpación).- Será castigado con tres meses de prisión a tres años de penitenciaría: 1. El que, con fines de apoderamiento o de ilícito aprovechamiento, ocupare en forma arbitraria, parcial o totalmente el inmueble ajeno. 2. El que, con fines de apoderamiento o de ilícito aprovechamiento, remueve o altera los mojones que determinan los límites de un inmueble. 3. El que, con fines de apoderamiento o de ilícito aprovechamiento, desvíe el curso de las aguas públicas o privadas. Constituye una circunstancia agravante, el hecho de que la usurpación se cometa en inmuebles ubicados en zonas balnearias, delimitadas por los respectivos Gobiernos Departamentales. Este delito será perseguible de oficio o a instancia de parte, en cuyo caso la denuncia podrá ser presentada por cualquier persona y en cualquier momento.

Text from IMPO, Código Penal art. 354; the amending law is Ley 18.116 (23 Apr 2007, published 7 May 2007).

• Penalty: three months of prison up to three years of penitenciaría.
• Beach aggravation: applies where the property is in a zona balnearia delimited by the departmental government. The text sets no specific extra penalty.
• De oficio o a instancia de parte: prosecutors can act alone, or on a complaint that any person may file, at any time. INDDHH notes this means a third party can report even a peaceful occupation (Res. 1165/022).
• Intent element: the offence needs "fines de apoderamiento o de ilícito aprovechamiento". How courts read that for someone who repairs a derelict house is the key open question. unverified (no judgment found).
• History: the 1933 original, as published, lists only the three numerals and the verb "invade" (IMPO original text). The beach aggravation and the prosecution clause appear in the 2007 version.

1.2 Usucapión / prescripción adquisitiva

Both articles carry the wording given by the LUC, Ley 19.889 art. 463 (9 Jul 2020). A secondary source says the LUC cut the old 30-year period to 20 (abogados.com.ar, a trade site).

• Requirements: good faith and justo título for the 10-year route are in art. 1204. The Tribunal de Apelaciones Civil 2º describes two types: an abbreviated one needing good faith and title, and a longer ordinary one (Sent. 111/2022). That possession must be public, peaceful and uninterrupted is general doctrine; I did not read the Uruguayan article that sets it out (the case cites art. 1196). unverified
• Possession vs tenencia: Ley 19.676 art. 4 defines ocupación precaria as holding someone else's property without a contract, through ignorance or mere tolerance of the owner (art. 4). That is holding on tolerance, not possession as owner. Whether a precarious holder can ever turn into a possessor is for a lawyer. unverified
• It needs a lawsuit. Time alone does not transfer title. Sent. 111/2022 was a full civil case that took from 2012 to 2022 (vLex).

1.3 Ley 19.676: inmuebles urbanos vacíos y degradados (2018)

Full text: IMPO. Regulation: Decreto 242/019.

• Empty: unoccupied by people for at least 24 continuous months (art. 4). It is presumed if no water or electricity connection or consumption was recorded in that period (art. 18).
• Degraded: ruin, deteriorated, stalled construction or vacant lot (art. 5). Only urban land that qualifies as "urbano consolidado" is covered.
• Who can sue: only the Ministerio de Vivienda (MVOT) or ANV (art. 13).
• Steps: judicial inspection, municipal technical report, then a 20-day notice to the registered owners to present a rehabilitation project (arts. 10 to 12). If a court declares the property empty and degraded, owners get one year to carry out the project. Otherwise a judicial sale follows (art. 21).
• Sale terms: auction base is 75% of the Catastro valuation (art. 25). With no bidders, the plaintiff may buy at half the valuation after a second auction (art. 28). Buyers must renovate (art. 32).
• Occupants: the law notifies occupants (art. 16) and counts precarious occupation toward the 24 months (art. 4). It gives them no title or right to stay. This is my reading of the text.
• Public list: Decreto 242/019 art. 24 requires MVOT or ANV to publish properties under inspection (art. 24). I did not find the live list. unverified

Recent government plans on empty properties

• The 2025 to 2029 housing plan targets 69,334 households and starts from 66,882 households (5.4%) with at least one critical housing deficiency (Montevideo Portal).
• The housing minister said the ministry plans accessible loans so families can repair homes and return them to the market (MVOT, MINURVI speech; paraphrase).
• Montevideo's municipality runs a Programa de Fincas Abandonadas (Res. 335/17), which sent its first expropriation files to the Junta Departamental (Infocasas blog, undated). Current status unverified.
• I found no new national law on empty properties after Ley 19.676. unverified

1.4 Ley 19.120 art. 14: camping in public spaces

Art. 14 inserted art. 368 into the Código Penal. The 2013 text: whoever occupies public spaces by camping or sleeping there permanently, outside the right in art. 57 of the Constitution, faces 7 to 30 days of community work if they persist after two warnings from municipal or police authority, and is taken to a MIDES office (IMPO, original text).

A 2023 news piece quotes different wording, with an order to leave "en forma inmediata" (Montevideo Portal), so the article may have been amended since. Check the consolidated text on IMPO. unverified This offence covers public space only, not private property. Example: a Juzgado de Faltas convicted a man of eight days of community work after four warnings (Poder Judicial, 2014).

1.5 How Spain differs

• Spain: peaceful occupation of an empty property is a minor offence (art. 245.2 Código Penal); entering someone's dwelling is allanamiento de morada (art. 202) (El Derecho guide). A civil fast-track exists since Ley 5/2018 (Univ. Valladolid thesis).
• The "48-hour" idea: Interior Ministry sources say the claim that police can evict immediately inside 48 hours is a myth; immediate eviction is limited to flagrant cases with evidence (Vozpópuli).
• Uruguay: I found no statutory 24 or 48-hour window. Press describes practice: if the occupation is under 24 hours old, police and Fiscalía tend to resolve it without trouble (El Observador, 2021). Flagrancy as a legal rule unverified.
• Spain is moving: Amnesty Spain reports a 2026 decree-law (RDL 26/2026) proposing to suspend evictions until 2030 (Amnesty Spain). Whether it passed and how it applies to occupations unverified.

Lawyer needed. How art. 354 interacts with usucapión for a renovator, and which jurisdiction's rules apply to a person based in Spain, needs an abogado/a in Uruguay.

SECTION 2

Procedure and protocol

Built from a real case INDDHH reviewed and from press on Fiscalía practice. No Fiscalía General or Interior Ministry written protocol on usurpación was found.

Step by step when an owner reports an occupation

The sequence below comes from INDDHH's review of a Montevideo case with abandoned houses on calle Mercedes (Res. 755/019).

1. Complaint to a Fiscalía de Flagrancia. The prosecutor orders police to identify the occupants.
2. Statements taken at the Fiscalía with a defence lawyer present.
3. Deadline to leave: the prosecutor ordered notice giving 20 days, then a further 5 days, on pain of being brought to the Fiscalía for usurpación in flagrancy.
4. Negotiated extensions: the occupants later agreed to leave and hand over keys by set dates. INDDHH found the Fiscalía acted correctly on procedure.
5. Formalización is the step where charges are requested before a judge. In Nuevo Comienzo, 9 people were detained to give statements and 7 were processed for usurpación (Res. 1165/022). In that same case, a court later gave the prosecutor 120 days to decide whether to formalise.

A parallel civil route exists (desalojo before a Juez de Paz or civil court). In the calle Mercedes case a civil eviction suit was pending and the prosecutor said he had not been told. A lawyer quoted in the press says the civil route "puede llevar una vida" (El Observador).

What changes by age of occupation or who lives there

Official protocols and recommendations

• INDDHH Res. 755/019 (20 Aug 2019): recommended that the Fiscalía General draw up a protocol with other state bodies for evictions involving vulnerable people, especially migrant families. It also noted the Fiscalía is not responsible for finding alternative housing.
• INDDHH Res. 1165/022 (5 Sep 2022): found a violation of the right to housing at Nuevo Comienzo and San Miguel (Santa Catalina). It recommended MVOT facilitate adequate housing and build, with Fiscalía General, a protocol for housing needs arising from usurpation evictions. It also found MVOT failed to cooperate with the inquiry.
• Montevideo eviction protocol: a draft prepared after INDDHH Res. 743/19 was reported as not approved in 2022. The Defensoría de Vecinas y Vecinos asked the Intendencia to approve it on 26 Aug 2026 (Recomendación 155). Res. 743/19 itself I did not open.
• Beach areas: INDDHH Res. 1224/2023 on evictions at Balneario Yodosal (Rocha) and Res. 1362/2024 on the Intendencia's non-compliance (Res. 1362/2024).

Lawyer needed. Whether you must leave on a prosecutor's notice, and how to respond to a Fiscalía summons, is a matter for a criminal defence lawyer in Uruguay. Do not rely on this page.

SECTION 3

Case law

I found few judgments that I could open in full. The vLex pages paywall the reasoning. Search the Poder Judicial case-law base (BJN) for more.

Tribunal de Apelaciones Civil 2º Turno, Sentencia 111/2022

19 Jul 2022 · IUE 341-707/2012 · vLex Uruguay (partial text only)

Facts

Owners of units in a horizontal-property building (Galería Leiza, Rocha) had used two common spaces (a room extension and a storage area) for over thirty years. They sued the other co-owners for a declaration of ten-year usucapión, in the alternative thirty-year usucapión, and for changes to the co-ownership rules.

Ruling

The claim was rejected at first instance (Sent. 58, 26 Aug 2021). The Tribunal confirmed that outcome by different reasoning. It held the plaintiffs were right that the first judge omitted the ten-year claim, but that the claim could not succeed because its requirements were not met.

Reasoning

The visible part describes the two types of acquisitive prescription (abbreviated, needing good faith and title; and ordinary). The rest of the reasoning is behind the paywall. unverified

For occupiers of an abandoned house

It is not an abandoned-house case. It is about shared spaces, and I cannot say what it implies for renovators. What it shows is that long use alone was not enough for the court. Treat any wider reading as unverified.

Tribunal de Apelaciones Civil 3º Turno, Sentencia 99/2016

29 Jul 2016 · vLex Uruguay (snippet only)

Facts

An owner sued to recover a property (reivindicación). The defendants counterclaimed for usucapión, saying they held it since the mid-1970s.

Ruling

First instance ordered the property returned and ordered the owner to pay for improvements the defendants made. The appeal considered whether usucapión could be raised by counterclaim. The appeal outcome is unverified.

Relevance

Shows that improvements can be compensated even when the owner wins. I only saw a snippet, so I cannot generalise.

Amparo judgments, Nuevo Comienzo (Tribunal de Apelaciones de Familia 2º Turno)

April 2021 · El Observador report (judgment text not opened)

Facts

Families facing eviction in a usurpation and electricity-theft investigation sought amparo against the housing ministry. Of four amparo actions, three ordered the ministry to provide housing, per INDDHH (Res. 1165/022).

Ruling

The appeals court confirmed one such order. It said the family's right to adequate housing and dignified life had been violated and called the state omission manifestly illegitimate.

Relevance

Not about abandoned houses or ownership. It concerns the state's duty toward evicted families. A lawyer called it the first judgment ordering the state to provide a home (El Observador).

Calle Mercedes occupation, Fiscalía de Flagrancia 5º Turno

2018 · reviewed in INDDHH Res. 755/019 (not a court judgment)

Facts

Seven women (six migrants) and ten children occupied adjoining abandoned houses in central Montevideo. Occupants said they had paid an intermediary to get in, and in substance admitted entering irregularly.

Outcome

Deadlines were extended by agreement. INDDHH found the Fiscalía's procedure correct but criticised the lack of a protocol for vulnerable occupants.

Relevance

It is the closest documented example of occupied derelict houses. It was a prosecutor-led process, not a ruling on who owns the houses.

What this means if you occupy and renovate an abandoned house

My reading of the texts, not a holding from any case I found: art. 354 requires an intent to take or unlawfully profit, and any person can report at any time. Art. 1211 can in theory reach ownership after 20 years of possession, even without title. Between those, the exposure to a complaint is open-ended. No judgment I read decided how courts treat a renovator.

Lawyer needed. Ask a Uruguayan abogado/a, preferably one who has handled both a usurpación and a usucapión case.

Criminal rulings found: Atlántida, 2015

Three interlocutory rulings from the Juzgado Letrado de Primera Instancia de Atlántida, 1er Turno (Judge Marcos Seijas). None shows a case number. All three concern art. 354 CP on beach-zone lots.

Atlántida 1er Turno, 19 Feb 2015

Poder Judicial (PDF)

Facts

One woman occupied a neighbour's vacant lot in Remanso de Neptunia and built a makeshift structure. The court also ordered a police inquiry into a group said to occupy vacant properties and allocate lots.

Ruling

Prosecution (procesamiento) without prison, on a sworn bond, for usurpación.

Atlántida 1er Turno, 26 Feb 2015

Poder Judicial (PDF)

Facts

Four people set up tents and makeshift structures on two lots in a beach-resort area and asked for water service.

Ruling

Prosecution without prison for presumed aggravated usurpación. Property to be vacated within 24 hours.

Atlántida 1er Turno, 4 Mar 2015

Poder Judicial (PDF)

Facts

Three people occupied other people's land; one had built a home on a lot before moving.

Ruling

Prosecution without prison (two counts for two defendants, one count for the third). Property to be vacated within 24 hours under art. 82 of Decree-Law 14.219.

Pattern: none of the three discusses a right to housing. They cite Constitution arts. 15 and 16 only as procedural basis. Accused with no criminal record were not jailed. Three rulings from one court are not a trend.

Not found: any verified Uruguayan ruling on usucapión of abandoned land, or one that treats access to land as a right. My search for usucapión rulings returned only Argentine and Peruvian cases, which do not apply here. unverified

The philosophical question: a birthright to land?

This is the user's own position, recorded as a position and not as a finding: being born on Earth gives a person an inherent claim to live on it, and abandoned land sits unused while people have none.

How the debate is usually framed (general background; none of it is sourced to a Uruguayan authority here, so treat each point as unverified):

• For: land as a common inheritance (Locke's proviso that enough must be left for others; Georgist land-value thinking); many Indigenous land ethics, which treat land as held in trust and not owned; the social function of property.
• Against: secure private title makes long-term use, investment and credit possible; Uruguay's law protects property and punishes taking it (art. 354 CP).
• Uruguay's text: the Constitution recognises property (art. 32) and a right to decent housing (art. 45). I have not checked either article's text or how courts apply them. The legal status of ILO Convention 169 and Indigenous land claims in Uruguay also needs checking by a lawyer.

The only Uruguayan decisions I found that put a housing right into practice are the Nuevo Comienzo amparos above, which bind the state, not private owners.

Lawyer needed. Any attempt to turn this argument into a defence or a claim needs a Uruguayan abogado/a.

SECTION 4

Statistics

Currency of each figure is in the "as of" column. A note on how current everything is follows the tables.

Population and dwellings (Censo 2023, INE)

Unoccupied dwellings by department, Censo 2023

Source: INE; Montevideo percentages from El Observador.

• Second homes vs under construction vs truly abandoned: nationally, El Observador reports 11.9% of unoccupied homes for rent or sale and 4.3% under construction or repair. The base of those percentages is not stated, so check the INE table. No source I found counts truly abandoned dwellings. unverified
• Montevideo "26k not second homes": I could not reproduce this. By my own subtraction (derived, not published), about 52% of Montevideo's 55,630 unoccupied homes, roughly 29,000, are neither temporary nor listed for rent or sale. That group includes homes under repair and others, so it is not a count of abandoned houses.
• Montevideo trend: it lost 72,586 residents (5%) between censuses. In 2004 it had 57,545 unoccupied dwellings of 498,291 (Intendencia de Montevideo, ECH 2023 tables).

Usurpación complaints vs charges (Fiscalía)

Source: Fiscalía figures from a public-information request by lawyer (now senator) Andrés Ojeda, reported by El Observador (17 May 2021). Complaints rose 21.9% from 2018 to 2020. I did not find more recent usurpación figures. FGN publishes information-request reports (example, March 2026), but I could not extract a usurpación series. unverified

Settlements, housing deficit and ANV

• Asentamientos: 667 registered, with an estimated 176,000 to 200,000 residents (Feb 2025 national register, cited by the housing minister in this interview).
• Deficit: 66,882 households (5.4%) with at least one critical deficiency (Montevideo Portal). An older MVOT page gave a deficit of about 60,000 homes (MVOT, 2020). The deputy minister in 2025 spoke of almost 70,000 dwellings with significant difficulties, mostly overcrowding (El Observador). These measure different things and should not be added up.
• Investment: about US$330 million for settlements in 2025 and 2026 (Montevideo Portal, 14 Jul 2026).
• ANV abandoned-housing data under Decreto 242/019: the decree requires a public list (art. 24). I found no list or count. unverified

How current each figure is. Census numbers are from 2023. Usurpación counts stop in April 2021, so they are five years old. The asentamiento register is February 2025. The investment figure is July 2026. Everything marked unverified is missing, not estimated.

SECTION 5

Advocacy organisations

Positions are described from sources I opened. Where I found no statement on usurpación, I say so rather than infer one.

INDDHH (state human-rights institution)

What

National Human Rights Institution and Ombudsman.

Positions

Found housing-right violations in usurpación evictions (Res. 1165/022). Warned that art. 354 can be misused by owners to avoid a civil eviction with guarantees. Wants protocols before removing vulnerable families (Res. 1165/022, 755/019).

Web

gub.uy/institucion-nacional-derechos-humanos-uruguay

Phone

(598 2) 1948. Bv. Artigas 1532, Montevideo. Mon to Fri 9 to 17 h (contact page).

Email

unverified see contact page

Social

X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn

FUCVAM

What

Federation of mutual-aid housing cooperatives, founded 1970; described as the largest and oldest housing social organisation in Uruguay (World Habitat).

Positions

In its own words it promotes self-management, mutual aid and collective property. In 2021 it said it formed four cooperatives with the Intendencia to house families facing usurpación proceedings (per INDDHH). A statement on art. 354 itself unverified.

Web

fucvam.org.uy

Email / phone

unverified

Social

unverified

Consultorio Jurídico, Facultad de Derecho (Udelar)

What

Free legal service staffed by law students and faculty. About 700 students and 50 teachers handle some 4,000 cases a year (El Observador, 2019).

Positions

Teacher Juan Ceretta advised Nuevo Comienzo families who won amparo orders against the housing ministry. The Facultad's Clínica de Litigio Estratégico took the case to the UN ESCR Committee (per INDDHH). A written position on art. 354: unverified. Note: in 2026 the Consultorio is in a public dispute over faculty oversight (El Observador).

Contact

unverified

Amnesty International Uruguay

What

National section of the global human-rights movement.

Positions

Globally, Amnesty says forced evictions are prohibited, and are allowed only as a last resort with due process and alternative housing (2012 guide). Its recent Uruguay summary does not list usurpación as an issue (country page). A Uruguay-specific position on usurpación: unverified.

Address / phone

Magallanes 1260, of. 1005, Montevideo. 0059824032227 (Amnesty)

Email / social

unverified (the email is hidden on the page)

TECHO Uruguay

What

NGO working in informal settlements. It ran the national settlements survey in 2018 and 2019 (Montevideo Portal).

Positions

On usurpación or empty properties: unverified.

Contact

unverified

SERPAJ and others

SERPAJ

Servicio Paz y Justicia published on housing in the 1980s (1987 bulletin). A current position and contacts: unverified.

Defensoría de Vecinas y Vecinos de Montevideo

Issued Recomendación 155 after the 4 Aug 2026 eviction of 35 families in Ciudad Vieja (news).

UN ESCR Committee

In 2017 it worried that usurpación and the public-space offence sometimes criminalise homelessness (quoted in Res. 1165/022).

Legislators

See section 6.

SECTION 6

The debate

Both cases are stated as their defenders put them. They are not my view.

For stricter enforcement

• The Penal Code punishes occupation while the Civil Code lets peaceful possession create rights. Lawyer Andrés Ojeda calls this "una contradicción furiosa" and ties the low charging rate to it (El Observador).
• Deputy Diego Echeverría (Partido Nacional) said in 2021 he would propose civil tools to stop what he called an "industria de la ocupación ilegal" (same article).
• Officials cite organised entry: occupants in the calle Mercedes case said they paid an intermediary; a Maldonado housing official suspected an organised occupation (La Mañana).
• Cabildo Abierto objected to the court rulings forcing housing for evicted families (El Observador).
• With 79 charged cases out of 4,706 complaints, supporters say owners are left without a practical remedy.

Against strict enforcement

• The offence lets any third party report a peaceful occupation, which can be used to dodge a civil eviction with guarantees (INDDHH, Res. 1165/022).
• Evictions should never leave people homeless, and states must find alternative housing (INDDHH citing the UN ESCR Committee and former UN rapporteur Leilani Farha).
• The UN ESCR Committee asked Uruguay in 2021 to suspend the Nuevo Comienzo evictions or offer alternative places. Courts then ordered the ministry to house three of four families who sued.
• Opponents point to the scale of the housing problem: 667 settlements and a deficit running from 60,000 to about 70,000 homes (section 4), with a high share of unoccupied dwellings.

Origins of the 2007 law and current reform bills

• Why Ley 18.116 was passed in 2007: I did not find the legislative history. unverified
• 2021 bills to suspend evictions: the Frente Amplio, MPP and Cabildo Abierto each moved to suspend evictions of settlement occupants during the pandemic (la diaria, la diaria).
• Echeverría bill: announced in 2021. I did not find its text or status. unverified
• Any current (2025 to 2026) reform bill on art. 354: unverified. Senator Ojeda's 2026 bills I found concern other articles.

SECTION 7

Contact list

The "Contacted?" selection is saved in your browser only. It does not sync or reach anyone else.

Sources

1. IMPO, Código Penal art. 354 and Ley 18.116
2. Código Civil art. 1204, art. 1211
3. Ley 19.676; Decreto 242/019
4. Ley 19.120 art. 14; Poder Judicial 2014
5. INDDHH 755/019, 1165/022, 1362/2024
6. Defensoría de Vecinas y Vecinos, Recomendación 155
7. vLex: Sent. 111/2022, Sent. 99/2016
8. Poder Judicial, Atlántida rulings 2015: 19 Feb, 26 Feb, 4 Mar
9. El Observador: usurpación figures, unoccupied dwellings, census population, amparo ruling, historic ruling, Cabildo, Di Candia, Consultorio
10. INE, viviendas desocupadas; IM, ECH 2023 tables
11. La Mañana, 2011 to 2023; La Mañana, Nuevo Comienzo
12. MVOT: MINURVI speech, 2020 deficit; interview; Montevideo Portal: plan, US$330M, TECHO, art. 368
13. la diaria: MPP bill, FA and CA bills
14. Spain: Vozpópuli, El Derecho, UVa thesis, Amnesty Spain
15. Other: abogados.com.ar, Infocasas, World Habitat, Amnesty Uruguay, Amnesty eviction guide, SERPAJ 1987

This is research, not legal advice. Compiled 14 October 2026 from web sources; nothing marked unverified should be relied on.