Building Legalization Law
In “Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia “, number 96/2015 of 26 November 2015. was published long awaited Building Legalization Law (hereinafter: Law) which entered into force on the following day, namely November 27, 2015. which is justified by the public interest in this area, which justifies the adoption and implementation of this Law by urgent procedure.
This law regulates the conditions, procedure and manner of legalization of buildings, ie parts of buildings built without a building permit, ie construction permit, conditions, manner and procedure of issuing decisions on legalization, legal consequences of legalization, as well as other issues of importance for legalization of buildings.
The provisions of this law also refer to: auxiliary and other facilities that are in the function of the main building (garages, storerooms, septic tanks, wells, swimming pools, water tanks, etc.) or are in the function of technological processes in the building, which are considered an integral part of the illegally built main building and are legalized together with the main building, in accordance with this law; facilities, i.e. works performed in accordance with Article 145 of the Law on Planning and Construction; underground lines (underground installations), as well as overhead lines (overhead installations), if they represent independent objects according to their technical characteristics and location (Article 1 of the Law);
Objects that are subject to legislation, as well as objects that cannot be subject to legislation, are defined.
The obligation of local self-government units to conduct an inventory and records of illegally constructed buildings has been determined, according to the census program (which will be public and which will be published on the official website of the local self-government unit) by zones, ie wholes, ie city administrations, for the needs of which local self-government units may also form census commissions.
Upon completion of such a determined list of illegally constructed buildings from one zone or whole, the competent construction inspector will make individual decisions on the demolition of the building (which will not be executed until the finalization of the legalization procedure) which submits to the competent authority for issuing the decision on legalization, who will ex officio initiate the legalization procedure.
For all those buildings that are not visible on the satellite image of the Republic of Serbia from 2015, the construction inspector issues a the decision on demolition which is enforceable on the day of its adoption.
The subject of legalization may be a building for which the owner submits proof of the appropriate right to construction land or building (right of ownership of the building, or the right of ownership, right of use or lease of building land in public ownership, as well as other rights prescribed by the Law on Planning and Construction). A wide range of evidence of the existence of rights has been provided: a final court judgment determining the right of ownership of the land, a contract on the transfer of the right to use or purchase land, a contract on the purchase of a building or the purchase of a building under construction, a contract on co-investment in building construction , act of the ministry in charge of defense on the allocation of "necessary accommodation", final court judgment determining the final decision on inheritance, final decision on the status change of the company, other legal jons on the basis of which the legal continuity of the turnover of land, bulding, ie a special part of the building and numerous other evidence can be determined in an undoubted manner.
The geodetic-technical document in the legalization process is a report on the current building condition an integral part of which is geodetic report for an illegally constructed building, prepared by a company or other legal entity or entrepreneur, which are entered in the appropriate register. The methods of initiating the legalization procedure are prescribed as follows:
1) for persons who have submitted a request for building legalization by January 29, 2014, in accordance with the previously valid Building Legalization Law, the procedure shall be initiated on the day this Law enters into force;
2) for persons who are owners of an illegally constructed building for which no request for legalization has been submitted by January 29, 2014, and for which the construction inspector issued a decision on demolition, the procedure shall be initiated on the day of delivery of that decision to the competent authority;
3) for persons referred to in Article 6, paragraph 7 of this Law, ie persons referred to in Article 13, paragraph 2 of the Law on special conditions for registration of property rights on building built without a building permit, upon whose request the registration procedure has not been completed in accordance with the provisions of that Law , the procedure is initiated on the day of submission of the case file by the body responsible for state survey and cadastre affairs to the competent body;
4) for persons referred to in Article 6, paragraph 8 of this Law, ie persons referred to in Article 13, paragraph 2 of the Law on special conditions for registration of ownership rights on buildings built without a building permit, upon whose request the registration of building ownership rights constructed without construction permit, the procedure is initiated by submitting a request for legalization, within six months from the date of entry into force of this law."
After determining the fulfillment of the previous conditions, the competent authority shall notify the owner of the illegally constructed building to submit proof of the appropriate right within 30 days from the day of delivery of the notificationunless the proof of the relevant right has already been submitted in the procedure of legalization of the illegally constructed building, provided that the building owner may submit a request for extension of that deadline and the legalization procedure will continue after the previous issue is finally decided.
If the owner does not submit the proof nadležni organ će , the competent authority will reject the request with a conclusion. Upon the final conclusion of the procedure, the competent authority will submit such a request to the construction inspection.
The competent authority, after determining the fulfillment of the previous conditions and the existence of the appropriate right, continues the legalization procedure and notifies the owner of the real estate to submit a report on the current building condition with a geodetic report, if he did not do so in the previously conducted procedure of building legalization. If it is determined that there is a possibility of legalization, the competent authority shall order the building owner to pay the legalization fee, which amount is determined according to the criteria of purpose, manner of use and building area.
The fee is paid in the amount of 5.000 dinars for the legalization of a family building or apartment, usable area up to 100 m², auxiliary and economic buildings, production and storage buildings, as well as all other buildings and works from Article 145 of the Law on Planning and Construction. These refer to the owners of the illegally constructed building intended for housing the applicant and members of his family household, who is a person with a disability, a single parent or a beneficiary of social assistance. For family residential buildings and apartments with a usable area of 100 m² to 200 m² - 15.000 dinars, from 200 m² to 300 m² - 20.000 dinars, with an area of over 300 m², a legalization fee in the amount of 50.000 dinars is paid.
For residential and residential and commercial buildings intended for the market, which consist of several apartments and other special parts, usable areas up to 500 m² and commercial buildings up to 500 m², the amount legalization fee is 250.000RSD, the usable area from 500 m² to 1000 m² and commercial buildings from 500 m² to 1000 m², amount of legalization fee is 500.000RSD, usable area from 1000 m² to 1500 m² and commercial buildings from 1000 m² to 1500 m², legalization fee is 1.000.000RSD, the usable area over 1500 m² and commercial buildings over 1500 m² legalization fee is 3.000.000RSD.
Conditions for registration of property rights in public registry of real estate records and rights to them, ie for appropriate registration in the cadastre of lines are acquired on the day the decision on legalization becomes final , and also prescribed the obligation of the competent body to ex officio submit a geodetic report and a copy of the final decision on legalization to the body responsible for state survey and cadastre.
There is also provided possibility of temporary connection to the infrastructure and submission of an act by the construction inspector to the competent public, public utility company, entrepreneur or company that has connected the building to the network, ie. infrastructure that rejects the request for legalization in order to disconnect the building from the network or infrastructure.
In the procedure of building legalization or in the regular procedure of issuing a construction permit, persons who have concluded agreements on the payment of fees, ie contributions for the arrangement of construction land in accordance with the provisions of the then valid laws , shall continue to pay until the final payment, in accordance with the provisions of the concluded contract.
We can conclude that the procedure is far simpler than the one prescribed by the previous laws governing the subject matter, also greatly facilitated by the fact that the procedure itself was transferred from the person whose building is in the hands of the body responsible for legalization. The prescribed fee, which corresponds to the solvency of a wide number of persons, is certainly another positive segment of this law.
Necessary documentation for legalization of buildings
- Elaboration of geodetic works
- Report on the found condition of the object
- Proof of ownership
- Proof of paid compensation for construction land development
- Proof of payment of the administrative fee
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