Anticipatory hike on payment for transferring illegal buildings

Property owners, who theoretically by Saturday, October 1 will be able to submit their statements electronically to ensure the 30-year legality for their illegal building, will have to go through five stages.

It is expected that today the environment ministry will release details on electronic submission of statements, but there are still many obscure points, mainly as to real estate transactions (sales, parental benefits, donations, mortgages, etc.), which reportedly might change the bill provisions on the issuing of building permits.

According to notaries, the burden of transferring a property is becoming too heavy for citizens, since they are required to finish the settlement process and thus pay the total of the fine, which cancels the operation of any social policy in the measure for unauthorised construction (30 installments).

The skepticism of the industry extends to unstructured and rural plots, which will also require certificates of urban planning "purity", issued by engineers in order to certify the absence of unauthorised construction.

The electronic steps to be taken by property owners in the coming months are as follows:

- The citizen selects the engineer of his choice, who will submit the application electronically after carrying out an inspection of the building, completing the statement file with all necessary data and calculating the fine. The system issues a unique number that corresponds to the statement and the amount of the fine.

- The fee is paid at a bank either physically or electronically, and the payment is automatically certified, signifying the start of the transfer process.

- Next comes the payment of installments as chosen by the person. The owner of a property that is subject to the settings will be given a code whereby he can access the system and monitor the progress of the statement, the installments and the registration of payments.

- A certificate of illegal settlement, which is a standard form that describes all elements of the property, is issued with the electronic submission of all documentation. A necessary condition so the property can be transferred is that the confirmation must be signed and sealed by the urban planning office.

The ministry provides for the immediate acceleration of procedures for issuing the certificate of entering the arrangement with a simple affirmation from the engineer, who will declare that all relevant documents will be submitted once the issuing process starts. This provision is interpreted as a solution in order to speed up transfer procedures of illegally built spaces for people who wish to do so.

However, notaries disagree and argue that these provisions do not solve the problem that has arisen with the transfers. As they say, in order to form a contract there must be a mapping of the unauthorised structure, a process provided for in the stage of the technical study submission.

The contract must include the representation of the unauthorised structure, and as they say this cannot be replaced by a simple statement of the engineer because it complicates the drafting of the contract and incurs penal sanctions.