The announcement that building permits will be abolished does not mean that everyone will be able to construct what they want when they want. It only means that the procedure will be simpler, Marko Mirovic from the PR department of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism explained for CdM.
“Of course, the abolition of building permits does not mean that everyone will be able to build what they want when they want, because clear procedures and controls have been stipulated. The abolition of building permits as documents does not mean that there will be no control, but only that the procedure will be simpler,” he told CdM.
To make things clearer and to avoid confusion, CdM asked the Ministry of Tourism to explain, for instance, what a person called Marko Markovic, who has a 500 square meters plot in Cvijetin Brijeg neighbourhood in Podgorica, would have to do to be able to start building a 150 square meters house.
There are six steps Marko should go through.
“In your hypothetical case, Marko Markovic meets the first requirement to have his own plot. As for the other conditions and steps required, he has to do the following things:
- He needs to get (as it was the case before) planning and building conditions issued to get information on what kind of facility he can build according to the plan, with all necessary utility connections. He will get this information, ie planning and building conditions, issued by the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism for free, within the legal deadline of 15 days from the date of application. Of course, in order to issue the conditions, it is assumed that the Spatial Plan stipulates that a house can be built in this plot;
- Furthermore, it is necessary that a licensed architect (license issued by Chamber of Engineers of Montenegro), makes a preliminary design of the home on behalf of Marko Markovic;
- After that, he shall submit the request to the architect of the Podgorica capital city to access the preliminary design, in terms of fitting in the surrounding and the facility appearance (the city architect is one of the new institutions stipulated by the draft law). The legal deadline for issuing the assessment is also 15 days and assessing is free;
- The next step for Marko Markovic is to order main design of the house from the architect and to engage an auditor (an auditing company with at least 4 civil engineers employed) for technical documentation, who is required to assess whether the architect did the main project in accordance with the issued planning and building conditions and already assessed preliminary design. Also, the auditor is required to obtain the necessary approvals on behalf of Marko Markovic that are issued for the technical documentation (approvals stipulated by special laws – authorities issuing the approvals do that for free within the legal deadline of 7 days from the date of application);
- The next step is to report the construction to the Inspection Directorate, 15 days before beginning of the construction works;
- At the construction site, a board with information about the investor, designer, auditor, contractor and supervisor with 3D visualisation of the building should be set up.”
The novelty in the Draft Law on Planning and Construction is the adoption of the Spatial Plan and the Plan of General Regulation of Montenegro.
The Spatial Plan of Montenegro shall be adopted for a 20 year period, whereas the Plan of General Regulation shall be adopted for a 10 year period.
Minister of sustainable development and tourism Pavle Radulovic earlier explained that the draft law included legalisation of illegally constructed buildings, stipulating the legalisation only if the illegal facility is included in the valid Spatial Plan or through the Plan of General Regulation of Montenegro.
