The central point was to define whether a municipality can take control of a private property without following the legal process of expropriation. With its ruling, the SCJN established that this practice affects the right to property and exceeds the powers of municipalities. Municipalities remove abandoned houses and offer them to third parties. The rules established by Hermosillo authorized the authority to take over or assign properties to third parties, as well as use them for public services. The Court determined that this amounts to taking possession of the property. According to the ruling, this action directly impacts the owners' rights to their property. Why does the Court consider it illegal to take abandoned houses? The SCJN on private property explained that municipalities can indeed identify abandoned properties, but they cannot keep them or decide their use. For that, there is expropriation, a legal process that only state governments can carry out. Lenia Batres supported maintaining some measures related to urban order. The ruling sets a criterion: the right to property cannot be limited without a complete legal process. This procedure includes notifying the owner, giving them the right to defend themselves, and paying compensation. The Court concluded that the regulation went beyond what the law permitted. What does the property appropriation law allow? The ruling allows municipalities to continue declaring properties abandoned for urban order purposes. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) set a clear limit for municipalities: they cannot keep abandoned houses or lands to use them as they see fit. The ruling arises from a case in Hermosillo, Sonora, where the municipal government approved a regulation to declare properties abandoned and give them use, even assigning them to other people or dedicating them to public services. The issue reached the Court after a controversy promoted by the local Congress. Others, like María Estela Ríos, proposed to invalidate the entire regulation. However, they cannot occupy them or assign them to other people. During the discussion, ministers like Giovanni Figueroa defended eliminating only the parts that allowed taking possession.
