As of April 1st, many things have changed in the world of real estate development in Slovakia. The old Building Act from 1976 was outdated and placed Slovakia at the bottom of the rankings when it came to how long it takes to obtain a permit. It was standard for larger projects to take many years to get through the EIA process, followed by zoning decisions and then the building permit itself.
So, what changes with the new law, and how might it speed up the building approval process?
First of all, we are saying goodbye to the traditional terminology of zoning decisions and building permits. From now on, we will be dealing with one single permit, legally defined as a Decision on a Building Intent (Rozhodnutie o stavebnom zámere).
I won’t go into detail about minor constructions, where the list of projects requiring only a notification (such as garages or single-story cottages under 50 m²) has significantly expanded. For development projects, a Decision on a Building Intent will be required, which will be based on the Project Documentation for the Building Intent.
And this is where we encounter the first issue with the new law. It defines the scope of the project documentation as covering the basic construction solution, utility connections, transport infrastructure, and fire safety. This is a relatively simple scope-comparable to the previous documentation required for a zoning decision.
However, experience from the Czech Republic has shown that the authorities commenting on the project tend to require a more detailed level of documentation – something closer to the former documentation required for a building permit. I’m curious to see how this plays out in practice here, but I expect something similar.
The second improvement, which I find fantastic, is the legal deadline for authorities to issue binding opinions – 30 days, or 60 days for more complex projects. If the authority fails to respond, it is assumed they have no objections. Great, right?
But… this was already the case for some statements before, and yet the office would simply send the request back on day 60, claiming it was incomplete. Something would need to be added, and the whole deadline would start over again. I don’t want to blame any officials, but I fear they might not have another option, as they’re already overwhelmed capacity-wise.
Issuing the Decision on a Building Intent remains in the hands of municipalities. In certain cases, however, the Regional Office for Spatial Planning and Construction will decide.
Once this decision is issued, the next step is to prepare the Project of the Building. Again, the question arises – how detailed does this documentation need to be? At Atrios, we will certainly prepare it at the level of implementation documentation, or at least to the level needed for selecting a contractor. This documentation is then submitted to the relevant authorities who, during the building intent phase, requested it as part of their binding statement. They will issue a Statement of Compliance, confirming that their comments from the Decision on a Building Intent have been incorporated.
Again, they have 30 or 60 days to do so, as mentioned earlier. Once all the Statements of Compliance are in place, the building authority will issue a Project Verification. The good news? This is not another administrative procedure. Hooray – now we can start building.
Of course, the new law brings more changes, but this text would become too lengthy if we covered everything. I wanted to offer a basic overview of the key process changes that will now function as described above. We’re entering an interesting period, where there will be more questions than answers for everyone. But I firmly believe that over time, this new law will truly bring improvements in the form of faster procedures.
Peter Kysela