Neighbors, construction and the law

Effective this July, the procedure to obtain a building permit will become a bit more rational and somewhat simpler. Responding to complaints raised by individual landowners and the real estate industry as a whole, the government has approved several amendments to Poland's construction law, all of which are designed to make life easier for investors, developers and individual owners alike. Neighbors, however, will not find much to cheer about, as their right to influence what is built next to them will be severely limited under the new amendments.

Chief among the complaints raised against the current set of regulations was the lengthy process to obtain not only a building permit, but also an occupancy permit. Under the current regime of regulations, an "interested" person - and by "interested" I mean just about anybody - could be recognized as a party to the administrative proceedings conducted to issue a building permit. This "interested" party, most likely an unhappy neighbor or individual acting as a front for a competitor, would then be entitled to file an objection against the planned project. Even if the objection had no merit, the building permit proceedings would be delayed by the need to respond to, and rule upon, the objection. Even worse, the same neighbor or competitor, despite being ruled against during the building permit proceedings, could object again during the next stage of the approval process, the occupancy permit proceedings. Again, as with the building permit proceedings, this objection would need to be adjudicated and ruled upon prior to the issuance of the occupancy permit, again causing delay and additional expense.

Now, however, this has all changed. A neighbor, and for that matter any third party, will no longer be recognized as an "interested" party with respect to the issuance of an occupancy permit, and as such will no longer be able to delay or prevent the issuance of an occupancy permit. A neighbor will now be limited to filing an objection earlier in the approval process, that is during the proceedings to issue the building permit, and not during the occupancy permit proceedings.

If a neighbor will no longer be recognized as an "interested' party during the procedure to issue an occupancy permit, who will be? The investor. Only the investor? Yes. In other words, under the new amendments, no one, other than the investor himself, may object to the issuance of an occupancy permit. Now, perhaps I am missing something here, but I don't know any investor who would object to the issuance of his or her own occupancy permit. Something just isn't right. In trying to remedy the problem of endless objections and needless delays and increased costs, this change to the law has the potential to create an equal, if not more dangerous, problem - backroom deals and bribes. At the very least, civic organizations and other non-governmental organizations should, in certain cases, be admitted as participants to occupancy permit proceedings, if for no other reason than to guard against corruption of the process.

Any other amendments? Of course. The roles played by local authorities in issuing building and occupancy permits will change as of July. Previously, a local official, such as the town mayor or other senior official, was responsible for issuing building and occupancy permits. No more. Under the new regulations, all authority to issue building and occupancy permits will transfer to the office of the local building inspector. Only time will tell if this change will take politics out of the process to issue permits.

So what documentation does an investor need to present in order to obtain an occupancy permit? First, the foreman overseeing construction will need to prepare a written statement verifying that the structure was built in accordance with the terms and conditions imposed by the underlying building permit and that the building was constructed per its architectual plans. Additional required documentation includes a copy of the post-completion geodesic survey, a declaration that the site is safe to occupy, along with the lack of any objection by any other government agency, including the local sanitary inspector, environmental agency, labor and fire inspectors.

Any penalties for not complying with these regulations? Yes. A fine of up to zł. 5,000 may be assessed against the individual responsible for operating or occupying a structure without first obtaining an occupancy permit. Notice that the fine may only be assessed against an individual person, not against the corporate owner. Now, as with most laws, this law has one glaring loophole. Even though it requires an investor to first obtain an occupancy permit prior to moving in or commencing operations, no legal mechanism actually exists to evict him or her for failure to comply with this requirement. Perhaps in a few years the next set of amendments will address this lack of enforcement power.