Amendments to Law on Planning and Construction adopted

The Parliament of Serbia today adopted amendments to the Law on Planning and Construction, which, according to the words of those who proposed them, should simplify and lower the prices of the processes of legalization of illegally built facilities and issuing of building permits.

The main innovation in the amended law will be the validity period of a building permit. The building permit will expire if the use permit for a building is not issued within five years from the issuance of the former.

Amendments to the law stipulate that the investor must pay the property tax upon the expiration of aforementioned period as if the facility was built.

At the investor's request, the building permit can be renewed for an additional period of two years, which is possible only if the investor submits a proof that the facility is more than 80 percent finished.

Amendments to the law also determine reduced fees for the legalization of facilities for socially endangered people. The volume of technical documentation that citizens must submit when filing a legalization application is also reduced, while the list of evidence to be enclosed with the application to prove that property relations are resolved is expanded.

A fee for the development of a building land in the legalization procedure for family residential facilities and apartments spanning up to 100 square meters is reduced by 99% for certain categories of population. That fee is also reduced by 60% for all owners of a residential space spanning up to 100 square meters.

Amendments to the law also enable the use of a newly built facility without the use permit if the competent body fails to either issue the use permit or a decision on the rejection of its issuance within 90 days from the forming of a commission for technical inspection.

There is also a possibility that the municipality collects the documentation required for legalization, while the fee for that service will have to be paid by the owner of the facility in installments over the period of two to four years.

What is also new is that the municipal administration will have the right to ask the investor to supplement the documentation for the building permit only once, while public companies will have a month to decide whether to give their consent.

According to amendments, a fee for the change of the purpose of a land shall not be paid if an agricultural land had been converted into a building land prior to July 15, 1992.

All owners of a public building land, and not only local self-government units, will be able to dispose of that building land, which means that the state will be able to sell or rent out a building land through the Republic Directorate for Property, which has not been possible so far.