New Law on Legalization announced – Solution for 4.8 million illegal buildings?

Serbian Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Aleksandra Sofronijevic stated that the proposed Law on Legalization would enable a cheap and fast procedure for registering property rights, because for the first time, Serbian citizens would be able to register their real estate through a digitalized procedure.

– This is a centralized and digitalized procedure, and this allows us to register the largest number of owners in property rights, because according to our law, property rights are acquired through registration – she said at a press conference where new measures for legalizing buildings were presented.

Solution for 4.8 million illegal buildings

These measures should solve the problem of about 4.8 million illegal buildings by the New Year, and for about 70% of the buildings the price will be a total of EUR 100.

According to her, it is estimated that the largest number of all actual users will also be registered as real owners.

– For the first time, the state has the opportunity to do this by cross-referencing digital platforms from different databases – said Minister Sofronijevic.

She pointed out that the digital, electronic application would contain data, pulled from many databases, which would be cross-referenced with the citizens’ application, so that the procedure for registering property rights would be cheap and fast.

– Legalization is a straightforward issue. We are not getting into the issue of urban planning, technical correctness of documentation or performed works, because the state cannot take on the role of investor. In relation to the state and conscientious third parties, these will be the registered owners of the facilities – she said.

Protection of natural and cultural assets

The minister stated that similar provisions had been adopted by Greece, Italy on several occasions, Spain and Turkey.

– We have also considered the constitutional basis for the adoption of this law. It is contained in Articles 58 and 135 of the Constitution of Serbia, which gives the state the right to regulate property relations and regulate space and deal with the protection of natural, cultural and other assets – said the minister. The proposed law, as Minister Sofronijevic pointed out, particularly protects natural and cultural assets.

– This law does not reward those who have defrauded both apartment buyers and their state. It is a common situation, especially in large cities, that we have runaway investors. They build apartments and disappear. We have also foreseen a situation where those who bought such apartments in good faith do not end up getting the short end of the stick – said Sofronijevic and added that the state would protect them.

Opportunity for defrauded buyers

The minister stated that such people would have the opportunity, if the investor is not available or is unknown, to pay to have their ownership rights registered on the purchased apartment.

– This is happening for the first time, because they have not been able to exercise this right until now – explained Sofronijevic.

She also stated that the lower prices for registering ownership rights only applied to apartments and family residential buildings.

– All other investors who built residential or commercial buildings pay a fee in the amount of the contribution for the development of construction land, if they did not do so in the regular procedure. We are not absolving them from criminal liability if the procedures were initiated before the entry into force of this law – Sofronijevic concluded.

Ministarstvo građevinarstva, saobraćaja i infrastrukture Republike Srbije

Ministry of Construction Transport and Infrastructure of Serbia

Aleksandra Sofronijević

real estate

ownership rights