Central Building Service at the Ministry of Environment and Energy, for direct building permits

The creation of a Central Building Service at the Ministry of Environment and Energy is provided for in the final text of the Ministry's urban planning and spatial planning bill, which is now in the final stage of consultation both with the relevant bodies and at parliamentary level, and will be submitted by the end of November 2020 for voting in Parliament.

Meanwhile, it has been officially announced that the new regulation of the Ministry of the Interior, which was passed by Parliament in June 2020  which requires all municipalities in the country to establish and operate Building Services (YDOM) from November 1, 2020, has been extended for another year.

The aim of the regulation is for municipalities to establish and operate Building Services (YDOM) in order to respond promptly and effectively to the responsibilities assigned to them in the control of unauthorized construction, the collection of fines,  issuing building permits, and addressing urban planning and spatial planning issues.

It should be noted that the relevant obligation of municipalities has been legislated for ten years and, prior to the recent legislative regulation of the Ministry of Interior, which will come into force on November 1, 2020, it had been postponed to be implemented in 2023.

Due to objective weaknesses and additional problems caused by the measures and consequences of the pandemic, municipalities are not ready to implement their obligation from November 2020. However, it is known that the new one-year extension, with the intention of the relevant ministries not to exhaust it, is being granted in order to be combined with the new regulations provided for in the Ministry of Environment and Energy's urban planning bill for the operation and restructuring of the country's building services at all levels.

The legislative provision of the Ministry of the Interior stipulates that the YDOMs must be staffed with engineers at the department and directorate level, as well as the obligation of municipalities that are unable to meet the minimum staffing requirements with the mayor being responsible for establishing inter-municipal cooperation to assist in the exercise of urban planning responsibilities in his municipality.

Assessment and certification

The new regulations of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, which will be included in the urban planning bill, as we have been informed, also stipulate that all existing YDOMs will be evaluated in terms of the engineering specialties and material and technical resources they have at their disposal, in order to be certified and continue operating. Otherwise, they will have to follow the path of service mergers. At the same time, municipalities that wish to operate new YDOMs will be checked and evaluated to ensure that they meet the requirements, otherwise they will have to proceed with inter-municipal cooperation.

Central YDOM

An important development is the fact that, with the new urban planning and spatial planning bill of the Ministry of Environment and Energy The creation of a central Building Authority within the Ministry of Environment and Energy is being established for the first time., which will issue building permits directly upon payment of a fee by the owners and investors concerned.

The central YDOM of the Ministry of Environment and Energy will handle building permit cases, which will be described in detail in the legislative regulation to be voted on in Parliament and in the ministerial decision to activate it. At the same time, as mentioned, it will also have an «appeal» character. Specifically, applications and files for building permits can be submitted directly to the central YDOM of the Ministry of Environment and Energy, as well as cases of building permits that have been submitted to YDOM and are «stuck» or approved with restrictions and conditions for which a review is requested.

The purpose of establishing the Central Building Authority at the Ministry of Environment and Energy is to expedite and provide legal certainty for building permits for small and large development projects, except for so-called strategic investments, which are subject to a separate licensing framework. The innovations of the new regulation are that The central Building Authority at the Ministry of Environment and Energy will operate on a fee-for-service basis. for processing the building permit, which will be calculated as a percentage, depending on the budget of the project to be licensed.

Control and deadlines

According to the new legislative regulation of the Ministry of the Interior, the Municipalities' YDOMs will operate under a strict control regime, as they will be required to implement all circulars and directives of the Ministry of Environment and Energy on issues relating to the application of urban planning and spatial planning legislation. At the same time, they will be required to notify the Central Building Authority of the Ministry of Environment and Energy of all administrative acts they issue.

The new operating framework for municipal YDOMs, introduced by the Ministry of the Interior's bill, is combined with the provisions of the Ministry of Environment and Energy's spatial planning and urban development bill, which will soon be submitted to Parliament for voting, According to these provisions, short and strict deadlines are introduced for the review of submitted documents, specifically 30 days under Law 4495/17, amending them to 15 days, with 2 days being mandatory for checking at each stage, except for the coverage diagram, for the issuance of a building permit.

Building Permit Inspection Procedure

It should be noted that the basic provisions of the Ministry of Environment and Energy's urban planning and spatial planning bill on building permits stipulate that:

1. The verification of building permit details, where required, is carried out by civil engineers or technical engineers authorized by the Head of the Building Control Department.
   2. Building permits, depending on the category to which they belong, are issued as follows:
   a) Licenses falling under the issuance procedure of Categories 1 and 2 of Article 36 are issued automatically following the electronic submission of the file with the required supporting documents and the necessary studies provided for in Article 40.
   Within three (3) days of the issuance of the above building permit, the Y.D.O.M. (Building Control Authority) checks the proof of payment of the required contributions and deductions for the project in favor of the State, the relevant Municipality, and the e-EFKA (Social Security Fund).
   The building permit number issued electronically is published immediately on the internet and construction work may commence.
   The competent Y.D.O.M. (Building Control Authority) is required to carry out random checks on the legality of the studies and data submitted, covering at least thirty percent (30%) of the building permits issued under the above procedure. The mandatory random checks are carried out every six months for permits issued in the previous six months.
   b) Licenses falling under the issuance procedure of Category 3 of Article 36 are issued automatically after the electronic submission of the file with the required supporting documents and the necessary studies, as provided for in Article 40.
   Within three (3) days of the issuance of the above building permit, the Y.D.O.M. (Building Control Authority) checks the project budget and the required contributions and deductions for the project in favor of the State, the Municipality, and e-EFKA (Social Security Fund). In the event of prior approval, the above check is limited to checking proof of payment of the required contributions and deductions for the project in favor of the State, the relevant Municipality, and e-EFKA.
   The stuff you send online has to include a written confirmation from the right building authority, which says what building rules apply to the property and any approvals needed from agencies and services. The above written confirmation is issued within ten (10) days of the submission of the relevant application and is not required if a preliminary approval has already been issued.
   The above written confirmation must be accompanied by a solemn declaration pursuant to Article 8 of Law 1599/1986 (A’ 75) by the engineer who designed the project, stating that the terms and conditions for building in the area of the property for which it was issued have not changed.
   The building permit number, issued electronically, is published immediately on the internet and construction work may commence.
   The competent Y.D.O.M. (Building Control Authority) is required to carry out random checks on the legality of the studies and data submitted, covering at least thirty percent (30%) of the building permits granted under the above procedure. The mandatory random checks are carried out every six months for permits issued in the previous six months.
   3. A mandatory inspection is carried out in the event of a complaint regarding the legality of the issued permit, regardless of its category, as well as in the event of a complaint regarding the legality of the issued approval for small-scale works.
   4. By decision of the Minister of Environment and Energy, issued within two (2) months from the entry into force of this law, the manner and procedure for conducting the sampling control shall be determined.
   5. If the employee authorized to carry out the inspection does not issue the building permit in accordance with the above and depending on the category to which the method of issuing the building permit under Article 36 falls, they shall be subject to disciplinary action by the competent Supervisory Board of Article 156 of Law 4389/2016, to which the file shall be forwarded under the responsibility of the Director of the competent Y.D.O.M.

By Argyris Demertzis