REURB, Brazil's Urban Land Regularization, is the procedure created by Law No. 13,465 of July 11, 2017, the federal statute on land regularization, to bring informal urban settlements into the formal city and give their occupants title. It is run by the municipality, which classifies the case as REURB-S (social interest, for settlements occupied mainly by low-income residents) or REURB-E (specific interest, for all others), approves the regularization project and issues the Land Regularization Certificate (CRF), which is taken to the real estate registry to open individual property records. The request may come from government, residents themselves, associations, landowners and developers, the Public Defender's Office or the Public Prosecutor's Office. When the problem concerns a single property rather than a settlement, out-of-court adverse possession is usually the more suitable path.
What REURB is and what it is for
Article 9 of Law No. 13,465/2017 defines REURB as the set of legal, urban planning, environmental and social measures aimed at incorporating informal urban settlements into urban land-use planning and granting title to their occupants. The law was regulated by Decree No. 9,310 of March 15, 2018.
The law relies on a few concepts that define the scope of the tool (article 11):
- Informal urban settlement: one that is clandestine, irregular or in which it was not possible to grant title to the occupants, even if the rules in force when it was created were followed.
- Consolidated informal urban settlement: one that is hard to reverse, considering how long it has been occupied, the type of buildings, the layout of streets and the presence of public facilities, among other factors assessed by the municipality.
- Land Regularization Certificate (CRF): the document issued by the municipality at the end of the procedure, containing the approved project, the commitment to carry it out and, where applicable, the list of occupants and the property rights granted.
The goals listed in article 10 include expanding access to urbanized land for low-income residents, guaranteeing the right to housing and the social function of property, encouraging out-of-court resolution of disputes and granting property rights preferably in the name of women.
REURB-S and REURB-E: what is the difference
Article 13 provides for two types:
- Social Interest REURB (REURB-S): applies to informal urban settlements occupied mainly by low-income residents, as declared by an act of the municipal executive.
- Specific Interest REURB (REURB-E): applies to settlements whose occupants do not fall into the previous category.
Decree No. 9,310/2018 allows the municipality to set the income threshold for low-income status, according to local conditions, capped at five minimum wages in family income (article 6). Both types may coexist within the same settlement.
The classification matters for two reasons, according to article 13, paragraph 5: it determines who is responsible for essential infrastructure works and who is entitled to exemption from court and registry fees. In REURB-S, exemptions include the first registration of the regularization, registration of land title legitimation, registration of the CRF and the project with a separate property record for each unit, the first annotation of a residential building of up to seventy square meters and certificates for these acts. These registrations also do not depend on proof of tax payment (paragraph 2).
Land title legitimation
Land title legitimation (legitimação fundiária) is the law's main innovation. Under article 23, it is an original form of acquiring ownership, granted by a government act, exclusively within REURB, to anyone who holds on public land, or possesses as their own on private land, a unit for urban use that is part of a consolidated informal urban settlement existing on December 22, 2016.
Because it is an original acquisition, the occupant receives the property free of liens, property rights and encumbrances from the original property record, except those relating to the occupant (paragraph 2). In REURB-S, the beneficiary may not be a concession holder, leaseholder or sole owner of another urban or rural property, nor have previously received possession or land title legitimation for the same purpose (paragraph 1). The cut-off date is decisive: settlements formed after December 22, 2016 cannot be regularized through land title legitimation (article 9, paragraph 2), and other tools must be considered.
The law also provides for possession legitimation, a government act that recognizes possession and may be converted into ownership, and urban demarcation, which identifies the properties involved and records the feasibility of regularization in the property register.
Who can request REURB
Article 14 gives standing to the Federal Government, States, the Federal District and Municipalities; beneficiaries, individually or collectively, including through housing cooperatives and residents' associations; landowners, subdividers and developers; the Public Defender's Office, on behalf of low-income beneficiaries; and the Public Prosecutor's Office. Subdividers and developers who caused the informality may request REURB, but this does not exempt them from administrative, civil or criminal liability (paragraph 3), and those who bore the costs have a right of recourse against those responsible for the irregular settlement (paragraph 2).
The steps of the procedure
Article 28 organizes REURB into seven phases:
- request by a party with standing;
- administrative processing, with a period for holders of property rights and neighbors to respond;
- preparation of the land regularization project;
- review and correction of the administrative file;
- decision by the competent authority, in a formal published act;
- issuance of the CRF by the municipality;
- registration of the CRF and the approved project at the real estate registry.
At the notification stage, owners, neighbors and interested third parties have thirty days to object, and silence is treated as consent (article 31, paragraphs 1 and 6). If there is an objection, an out-of-court conflict resolution procedure begins. The lack of a specific municipal law does not prevent regularization (article 28, sole paragraph).
The municipality's role and the case of Recife
The municipality is responsible for classifying the type case by case, processing, reviewing and approving projects and issuing the CRF (article 30). Classification must take place within one hundred and eighty days; if the municipality does not respond, the type indicated by the applicant prevails, subject to later review based on a technical study (paragraphs 2 and 3). The municipality may also relax urban planning parameters, such as lot sizes and percentages of public areas (article 11, paragraph 1), and grants urban planning approval and, if it has a qualified body, environmental approval (article 12).
In Recife, the REURB-S policy is carried out through the A Casa é Sua program, coordinated by the Department of Urban Development and Licensing (SEDUL), in partnership with the Pernambuco Court of Justice, through its Moradia Legal program, and with the Federal Property Department for federal land. According to the city government, the program serves families in Special Zones of Social Interest (ZEIS) and in public housing complexes, in areas consolidated by December 2016, with monthly income of up to five minimum wages and no other property. Residents of covered areas should follow the city's registration process; those outside this scope, including in middle-income subdivisions, should consider REURB-E or other tools.
Out-of-court adverse possession as an alternative
REURB was designed for settlements, not for a single property without a deed. In that case, the usual alternative is out-of-court adverse possession (usucapião extrajudicial), provided for in article 216-A of the Public Registries Law (Law No. 6,015/1973), added by the 2015 Code of Civil Procedure and amended by Law No. 13,465/2017. The request is filed directly with the real estate registry where the property is located, through a lawyer or public defender, with:
- a notarial record of facts (ata notarial) drawn up by a notary attesting the length of possession of the applicant and predecessors;
- a site plan and descriptive report signed by a qualified professional, with a technical responsibility record;
- clearance certificates from the court distributors of the district where the property is located and of the applicant's domicile;
- a valid title or other documents showing the origin, continuity, nature and length of possession, such as payment of property taxes.
Holders of rights in the property record and neighbors who did not sign the plan are notified and have fifteen days to respond, and silence counts as consent (paragraph 2). The procedure was regulated by CNJ Provision No. 65 of December 14, 2017, now incorporated into the National Code of Rules for the Extrajudicial Forum (CNJ Provision No. 149 of August 30, 2023, articles 398 to 423). The notarial record alone does not confirm ownership: it supports the request that the registrar will review.
How the firm can help
We advise residents, associations, subdividers, developers and companies on land regularization: diagnosis of the registry and urban planning situation, choice between REURB, out-of-court adverse possession or another route, preparation of the request, follow-up with the municipality and the registry and defense against objections. Every area has its own history and no outcome can be promised, but a sound diagnosis avoids choosing the wrong tool and losing time.
