On October 16th, 2018 the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia has adopted the Law on Amendments of the Building Legalization Law (the „Amended Law “).
The Amended Law was adopted with the aim of providing more effective legalization procedure of the illegally constructed buildings in the Republic of Serbia (“RoS”).
Herein below are provided 8 key novelties introduced by the Amended Law:
- Subject of legalization must be visible on the satellite image of the RoS – The Amended Law stipulates that buildings that are subject of legalization, must be visible on a satellite image of the RoS from the year 2015. Competent authority for the buildings’ legalization is obliged to check the visibility of buildings. Furthermore, the electronic form of the satellite image of the building shall be available to all citizens.
- Owner of the illegally constructed building is obliged to submit a tax return for the property tax – Upon fulfilment of the conditions for legalization, owner of an illegal building is obliged to submit a tax return for the property tax. Information from tax return must be in alignment with technical documents. An owner is obliged to disclose to the competent authority a proof of submitted tax return, based on which the amount of the legalization fee is determined.
- Demolition of the illegally constructed buildings – The Amended Law stipulates that demolition of illegally constructed buildings is conducted upon final decision rejecting or dismissing the application for legalization. Competent authority submits to the building inspection this decision no later than 3 days from the day it becomes final.
- Cities may assign execution of the legalization procedure to its municipalities – By the Amended Law, cities that have municipalities may assign execution of the legalization procedure to their municipalities. Statutes of a local self-government units shall determine which buildings may be in municipalities’ competence for legalization.
- Competent authority renders decision instead of the conclusion. – Competent authority issues a decision in the following situations:
- cessation of the procedure due to existence of preliminary issue that needs to be resolved;
- rejection of an application if the owner does not submit a report with study surveying works within the prescribed period;
- rejection of the application if the owner does not submit proof of paid legalization fee within the prescribed period.
- Fines – The Amended Law abolishes fines for the misdemeanors of competent building inspectors. However, the Amended Law introduces fines from RSD 1,500,000 to 3,000,000 for the public enterprise or any other legal entity that commit an offence by connecting a building (which is in the process of legalization) to network or infrastructure.
- Legalization procedures which have not been completed – The provisions of the Amended Law apply to the procedures which have not been finished by the day of entering into a force of the Amended Law. Additionally, if a building in legalization procedure is not legalized within the period of 5 years, the negative decision (on rejecting the application) shall be issued.
- Establishment of the electronic record of the buildings which are not registered in the real estate cadaster – Competent authority is obliged to establish electronic record of buildings which are not registered in the real-estate cadaster until January 1st, 2019, which shall be publicly available to all citizens.
By-laws which shall allow implementation of the provisions of the Amended Law shall be enacted no later than January 5th, 2019.