Tax & Legal Highlights for Real Estate – August 2020
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1. Establishment of deadlines for the annulment of construction permits
In the coming days, i.e. on 19th September 2020, a significant amendment to the Construction Law, adopted by the act of 13th February 2020 amending the Construction Law and certain other acts (“Act”), enters into force. Under the Act, a new regulation limiting the period in which the public authority is entitled to find the building permit or the occupancy permit invalid is being introduced. Up to now, as a consequence of grounds listed in Article 156 § 1 of the Act of 14 June 1960. – Code of Administrative Procedure, the authority could find the above decisions invalid even if several decades have passed since they were issued. As a result of this change the authority will now only be able to annul the final decision if five years have not elapsed since it was delivered to the party to proceedings. Please note, that this regulation will not apply to proceedings on the annulment of decision which were initiated before 19th September 2020. In the framework of these proceedings, public authorities will continue to be obliged to apply the old rules which did not contain any time limits in this regard. This amendment should be viewed positively from the perspective of the principle of legal certainty and protection of rights acquired by investors. This solution at last ensures that after 5 years the issued building permit cannot be classified as invalid and reduces the risk of possible necessity of investments’ demolition or other undesirable effects related to the withdrawal of the building permit or occupancy permit.
2. Derogation from technical regulations
The amendment to the Construction Law, which comes into force on 19 September this year, also introduces new rules for obtaining a derogation on technical and construction regulations. After the change of the legal status, the authority which will apply for a derogation will be obliged to take a position on its legitimacy and – in situations involving fire safety or hygiene and health requirements – attach appropriate expertise and opinions. Based on the new regulation, it will not be possible to obtain a derogation at the stage of the legalization procedure, so it will only be possible to obtain it before the construction permit is issued. Those new rules will apply to all such cases that have not been considered before the amendment comes into force – i.e. before 19 September. This means that there is really little time left to obtain them based on current provisions of law.
3. Digitisation of the construction process
On 2nd August 2020, the all-new website e-budownictwo.gunb.gov.pl was launched. The platform in question is a governmental application for submission of applications in the construction process. Thanks to the partial digitisation of the procedure, the Council of Ministers counts on simplifying the work of offices, grater accessibility for investors, architects and engineers, and shortening the waiting time for individual administrative decisions. The first 10 forms are already available on the portal, concerning selected procedures in the construction field, such as, among others, notification of construction works, notification of the intended date of start of construction works, application for a demolition permit, notification of demolition, or a statement on the right to dispose of real estate for construction purposes. It is worth remembering that at this stage the prepared applications will be delivered to the competent authorities in the usual manner, however, according to the statement on the website of the General Building Supervision Office, starting this autumn, it will be possible to sign the prepared applications with a trusted or electronic signature and, in such form, send them over to the administration body via the platform. The traditional form of submitting applications will be preserved. According to the forecasts of the General Building Supervision Office, in the next stages of development of the e-budownictwo platform, the entities will have access to an increasing database of applications, including the building permit application.
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