Changes promise simplification of permits. (source: TASR)
In April 2022, parliament passed new laws which Deputy Prime Minister Štefan Holý (Sme Rodina), the main author of the legislation, has described as “not a correction, not an amendment, not some overcooked chewed-up thing…[but] a completely new law, a modern one that reflects the needs of ordinary people”.
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The Construction (Building) Law and the Urban Planning Law will come into force on April 1, 2024, and should lead to a simplification and acceleration of the granting of construction permits, a reduction in the administrative burden around construction, among other things, but also stricter sanctions for unauthorised building, according to Milina Schifferdeckerová of consultancy firm KPMG.
Outlined below are the most important changes expected with the introduction of the new construction legislation, as selected by KPMG.
The Construction (Building) Law
• Transfer of competencies
One of the main changes in the new legislation is the transfer of competencies performed within construction proceedings by municipalities within the transferred performance of state administration back to the state. Part of this change is the establishment of a central state administration body, namely the Office for Urban Planning and Construction, which will act through subordinate authorities with limited territorial competence. The competence of the existing authorities, i.e. municipalities, will therefore be transferred to the regional offices of the newly established office. The aim of the changes is to professionalise building authorities.
• Simplification of construction permitting
The intention of the new legislation is to significantly speed up the entire process of granting construction permits. Currently, this process takes an average of up to 300 days in simple cases and even longer in complex and more difficult projects. Under the new legislation the issuance of a construction permit for a simple building should be possible within 40 working days.
The multi-stage construction procedure should be simplified and shorten by abolishing separate zoning and construction procedure. The new legislation also introduces precise statutory deadlines for delivery of binding opinions of the relevant authorities and decision-making process of the building authorities within each particular phase of the construction process.
The possibility of notification, and thus gaining a simplified construction permit, for certain categories of construction works remains. Subject to notification will be minor construction or minor construction work.
• Electronisation of the proceedings and digitisation of data:
The process of gaining construction permits should also be significantly simplified and accelerated thanks to electronisation of the process.
With some exception, the whole communication and decision-making process will be performed only via a new electronic platform so called “Urbion”. Urbion shall serve as a new communication and information platform where all communication will be carried out and all communication and decisions will be recorded. Urbion as an information platform shall also contain information on urban planning documentation, technical and road infrastructure, register of buildings and it should be connected to other public information portals.
The so-called “once and for all” benefit will be introduced, which means that if the state already has some information about a particular citizen, it will not need to be resubmitted.
• Unauthorised buildings:
The new law introduces no tolerance principle towards unauthorised or illegal buildings and with some exception they could be no longer legalized as it is under current legislation.
According to the authors of the law, currently there are several reasons for the existence of numerous unauthorised buildings. As one of the reasons is long-lasting and complicated processes of permitting constructions, where the law itself stipulates the process how an unauthorised building can be legalized, and if the statutory conditions are met there’s almost no risk of rejecting the application for an additional permit. The current sanctions for breaches of construction legislation also appear to be insufficient.
The new legislation therefore contains a significant tightening of the processes of permitting unauthorised buildings, when it will no longer be possible to apply for an additional construction permit and the building authority will order the removal of the construction at question. The unauthorized buildings could no longer be connected to the utilities network. These rules will apply to unauthorised buildings in the future. With respect to the unauthorized buildings built before the new legislation will come into force, there will be a transition period within which they can be legalised.
The Urban Planning Law
• Transfer of competencies:
The law also regulates the competencies for the newly established Office for Spatial Planning and Construction in the area of urban planning. Its main task will be to procure the Concept of Urban Development of Slovak Republic and to act as a coordinator of a unified procedure and processes of urban planning through methodological guidelines.
The existing levels of individual urban planning documentation are preserved, and a new type of urban planning documentation is added - the master plan of the micro-region.
• Electronisation:
The new legislation is intended to bring new electronic urban planning processes in a unified methodology and in a unified Urbion urban planning and construction information system, which will store and publish relevant data and information. The public part of the information system should contain urban planning documentation, information on the territory provided by urban planning authorities for publication, decisions and binding opinions of urban planning authorities and selected data about decisions and measures of construction offices. The urban planning process is to be significantly simplified, for example by harmonising the proceedings with environmental impact assessment processes.
• Master plans:
Urban planning should become a basic procedure, where with the help of a uniform methodology and uniform principles of urban planning, the competence is given to municipalities and cities to plan development in their own territory. The aim is to create a unified structure of master plans throughout Slovakia. The new law also responds to practical problems by introducing a conceptual approach, while it pursues the goal of making the valid urban planning documentation a relatively stable binding document.
