NEW SPATIAL PLANNING ACT AND NEW CONSTRUCTION ACT HAVE PASSED PARLIAMENT

#51New Spatial Planning Act and new Construction Act have passed parliament

The Parliament approved a new Spatial Planning Act (hereinafter the "New Spatial Planning Act") and a new Construction Act (the "New Construction Act"), both of which replace the original Act No. 50/1976 Coll. On Spatial Planning and Building Regulations Act (hereinafter „Building Act”), which was promulgated in 1976.

The Parliament approved a new Spatial Planning Act (hereinafter the "New Spatial Planning Act") and a new Construction Act (the "New Construction Act"), both of which replace the original Act No. 50/1976 Coll. On Spatial Planning and Building Regulations Act (hereinafter „Building Act”), which was promulgated in 1976.

The main purpose of the New Spatial Planning Act is mainly the electronization and digitization of data in the area covered by the law, the establishment of a new information system, as well as the simplification and acceleration of the spatial planning process. Another goal of the New Spatial Planning Act is to harmonize it with environmental impact assessment processes. Pursuant to the above-mentioned New Spatial Planning Act, a new Slovak Spatial Planning and Construction Office (hereinafter referred to as the “Office”) will be established as the central state administration body for spatial planning, construction and expropriation, which will centrally manage building permits and issue construction permits. Municipalities will be authorized to issue opinions on building permits. Building offices in municipalities and cities will fall under this Office with a defined territorial scope, eight regional offices should be established. The adjustment in practice means that majors and city mayors will lose influence over the permitting processes, as the delegated performance of state administration will again become the performance performed by the state.

The aim of the new Construction Act is also, in particular, the electronicisation, acceleration and simplification of the construction procedure and the building permit process. A novelty will be the possibility of submitting construction documentation and related documents and applications in electronic form. The process of reporting small constructions, small construction works as well as their removal should be fully electronic. The new law on construction is also focused on the fight against the so-called black buildings. Constructions built by unauthorized construction works will not be possible to permit additional construction and such construction will be able to fall into state ownership, provided that its removal would not be expedient. 

For investors and builders, the most significant change will be the electronization of process and the strengthening of the role of designers. The construction plan with the relevant documentation will be entered into the Urbion information system, which will automatically assess it and publish it for comments to the parties concerned. If the plan is in order, the builder will receive a decision on the building plan from the regional office, if there will be discrepancies in it, the Office will check them. For large projects, even more detailed documentation will be provided. The completeness and accuracy of the documents will be ensured by the designer. The territorial procedure is to be eliminated in an effort to end the existence of duplications in the authorization and unnecessary double comments.

The shift in the process of creating the New Spatial Planning Act and the New Construction Act is a very important news for the future of construction development in the country. Investors and the professional public have long warned that the current situation is unsustainable. Statistics from the Doing Business (https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/business-enabling-environment) ranking are known, according to which the Slovak Republic is in terms of construction proceedings at 146th place. The main problems are complicated legislation, bureaucracy, lengthy procedures and wide possibilities of obstruction.

The new regulation promises many changes. It must be said that they are not received exclusively positively. The resistance of several local governments is natural. We shall monitor the impact of these legislative changes.