Permits under the Law on Spatial Planning and Construction

Adoption of the new Law on Spatial Planning and Construction (Official Gazette of the Republic of Srpska, no. 40/13, 106/15 and 3/16) brought about the following improvements in the procedure of the issue of permits in the Republic of Srpska:

• introduced new planning methods,
• lower number and fewer types of spatial planning documents,
• precise definition of planning period and validity of spatial planning documents,
• simplified procedure of obtaining of licenses, and introduced license for technical documentation review and license for energy review,
• adjustment to modern means of work and digitalization,
• simplified processes and procedures of the issue of permits including:
  •  shorter deadlines for the issue of permits (deadlines for the issue of location requirements and construction permit are reduced from 30 to 15 days),
  •  specified and increased number of facilities which do not require a construction permit (clear identification of auxiliary facilities and introduction of new facilities- automated anti-hail stations level I, II and III),
  •  reduced number of steps and required documents (for individual housing facilities and individual housing and business facilities of gross construction area under 400 m², except for complex facilities in terms of this Law, built in the territory for which an implementing spatial planning document has been adopted, or in a non-urban area, the issue of a construction permit does not require location requirements whereby deadline for obtaining of construction and use permits is reduced and at the same time, so are the costs of procedure, and these facilities account for about 70% of all filed applications for permits, which at the same time disburdens and facilitates the operation of the administrative bodies issuing the permits),
• new provisions reducing the costs of issue of permits:
  • provisions which define precisely the calculation of fee for construction land development based on real costs established by the spatial planning document,
  • clear definition of the amount of rent based on the level of development of municipality, which encourages investments in the underdeveloped and extremely underdeveloped municipalities,
  • costs of rent reduced by the fee already paid by the investor when converting the agricultural into construction land, whereby payment on two grounds is eliminated,
• extended construction permit validity period from the current one to three years, which reduces the obligations of the investor and at the same time facilitates the work of the administrative body issuing the permits;
• added provisions to govern and significantly simplify, on common principles, the legalization of the illegally built facilities (for individual housing facilities and individual housing and business facilities of gross construction area under 400 m2, except for complex facilities in terms of this Law, and public infrastructure facilities, the subsequent construction and use permits are issued in the same decision, and procedure of legalization of completed facilities is conducted without the subsequent issue of location requirements, except if necessary for the legalization of a facility located in state-owned land, whereby deadlines are reduced as well as the number of required documents, discounts are planned for certain population categories (families of fallen soldiers, war disabled person, etc.), option to pay legalization costs in installments or by bonds);
• particularly highlighted and upgraded role of supervision during the construction process, whereby protection of general interest is provided by means of construction of safe and stable facilities;
• relations between the participants in construction are governed by a contract, whereby conditions are created for clear definition of mutual rights and obligations, which ensures better legal security and adequate protection of rights and interests of all participants in construction, and also ensures collection of public revenues on contracted works;
• established and operational Chamber of Engineers for the purpose of formation of a professional association and professional chambers as a nongovernmental sector to be of importance for profession progress and international cooperation with similar alliances and associations, as well as an adequate partner to the RS Government for further development and improvement of the construction field,
• added provisions related to energy efficiency in buildings, the application of which should create conditions for the encouragement of use of renewable energy, reduction of costs of overall energy, and reduction of harmful environmental impact of buildings.