Frequently asked civil and commercial questions in Honduras
Debt instruments, mortgages, gifts and exchange — answered with the article of the Código de Comercio or the Código Civil that settles them. Inheritance is covered in inheritance.
Debt instruments
What is a negotiable instrument (título valor)?
Article 449 of the Código de Comercio defines it precisely: they are the documents necessary to exercise the literal and autonomous right recorded in them. Two words do the work — literal, because it is worth what the paper says and nothing more; and autonomous, because whoever receives it acquires a right of their own, not one inheriting the previous holder’s problems.
Legal basis: Article 449 del Código de Comercio.
What must a bill of exchange contain to be valid?
Article 504 lists the requirements, starting with the words “letra de cambio” inserted in the text of the document and a statement of the place and date of signing. And there is a rule that surprises many people: Article 505 provides that in a bill of exchange any stipulation of interest or penalty clause shall be deemed unwritten.
Legal basis: Article 504, Article 505 del Código de Comercio.
What is a promissory note and what must it say?
It is an unconditional promise to pay a determined sum. Article 590 requires it to contain the word “pagaré” inserted in the text of the document, that unconditional promise, and the other requirements it lists. Without that word, the document does not circulate as a promissory note.
Legal basis: Article 590 del Código de Comercio.
Property and contracts
What is a mortgage, and why can I not release only part of it?
It is a right constituted over immovable property or real rights of the debtor or a third party, in favour of a creditor, to secure performance of an obligation (Article 2098). The reason it cannot be released in parts is in Article 2103: a mortgage is indivisible — each mortgaged thing, and each part of it, answers for the whole debt. Paying half does not release half the property; it is discharged when the obligation is extinguished in full.
Legal basis: Article 2098, Article 2103 del Código Civil.
What is a gift (donación)?
Article 1296 defines a gift between living persons as the act by which one person transfers gratuitously and irrevocably all or part of their property to another, who accepts it. The two words that matter are gratuitous — there is no consideration — and irrevocable: it is not a loan with a way back.
Legal basis: Article 1296 del Código Civil.
What is an exchange (permuta), and how does it differ from a sale?
Article 1677 defines it as the contract in which the parties mutually undertake to give one specific thing in return for another. The difference from a sale is simple: in an exchange, thing for thing; in a sale, thing for money.
Legal basis: Article 1677 del Código Civil.
Inheritance
How do I have myself declared an heir, and who inherits if there is no will?
Where there is no will the law sets an order of succession deciding who inherits and in what proportion, and where there is one there are limits on what can be freely disposed of. Both, with the articles of the Código Civil that establish them, are set out in inheritance.
Source
Código de Comercio de Honduras (Decreto 73-1950) — articles 449, 504, 505 and 590; and Código Civil de Honduras — articles 1296, 1677, 2098 and 2103. The questions come from the public enquiry bank of the Consultorio Jurídico Gratuito de la UNAH; the answers are our own and cite the applicable article.