Amendments to the Law on legalization of buildings

On 26 October 2018, the National Assembly of Republic of Serbia adopted amendments to the Law on legalization on buildings, which were published in the Official Gazette No. 83/2018 dated 29 October 2018, which will come into force on 6 November 2018.

Amendments have been made with the aim of making a more efficient procedure for legalization, as well as demolition of illegally constructed facilities.

One of the most significant amendment refers to the modifications about enforcing the decision on demolition of facilities built without a permit.

Namely, it is now possible to demolish the illegally constructed facility after issuance of the final decision of the administrative body, by operation of which the request for legalization of the facility is rejected.

Therefore, while the participant still has the right to initiate an administrative dispute before an Administrative court, instigation of such a dispute would not delay the execution of a demolition decision of illegally constructed facility.

Another important novelty is that it will not be possible to alienate immovable property that is in the process of legalization, since the registration of the prohibition of alienation for these objects will be recorded ex officio in the cadaster.

The last significant amendment relates to the obligation of the Republic Geodetic Office to establish records of objects that are not registered in the Cadaster, no later than January 1, 2019.

In the end, it is important to note that if within 5 years from the date of entry into force of these amendments the facility that is subject to legalization is not legalized, the competent authority will issue a decision about rejecting the request for legalization.

Also, upon the date of entry into force of this Law, the Regulations on content of records on issued decisions on legalization (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 54/16) shall cease to apply, and the regulations necessary for the implementation of this Law shall be passed within 60 days from the date of entry into force.