What will the new Building Act bring?

Chapters of the article

• Basic and accelerated proceedings
• Building authorities
• JES – Joint Environmental Statement
• Validity of the building permit
• New institute of joint hearing
• Stricter conditions for additional permitting of “black” buildings
• What will the digitalisation of construction procedures look like?
• How is the transition to the new legislation legally handled?

The most important changes introduced by the new Building Act are as follows:

Basic and accelerated proceedings

According to the new law, we have only one procedure. However, it is not based on the central concept of “building permit” as before, but works with the terms “planning permission” and “building permit”. At the same time, however, the law says that a plan means a building, a set of buildings or a facility. This implies that they are really one procedure. In the case of a building permit, in addition to the conditions for a planning permission, the other requirements for a building permit must be met.

An alternative to the basic procedure is the accelerated procedure, which can be used for simpler cases. This replaces the existing planning consent and building notification. A permit can thus be issued as the first step in the procedure.

The basic time limit for the length of the procedure is 60 days, within which the building authority will have to consider the application. For so-called simple constructions, the time limit is reduced to 30 days. It can then only be extended by 60 days. The new procedure will consider both the location of the building and its authorisation in a single procedure.

Thenew Building Act divides buildings into small (e.g. a building of up to 40 m2 with a maximum of one storey above ground or a greenhouse of up to 40 m2), simple (typically buildings for housing and family recreation, which have a maximum of two storeys above ground and one underground storey), reserved (buildings for motorways or railways) and other. The latter are not listed in the Act, so these are buildings that are not listed in Annexes 1, 2 and 3.

If the builder fails to submit the binding opinions of the authorities concerned, the building authority will request them itself, without asking the builder to submit them or stopping the building procedure because of this.

Another new principle in the procedure is the mandatory decision of the appeal authority. In other words, if you appeal against the first-instance decision and even the appeal body does not agree with it, it will have to make a final decision itself. The introduction of the principle of appeal will once again shorten the often protracted proceedings.

Building authorities

The Act introduces a new Transport and Energy Construction Authority (DESU), which decides on reserved structures (such as railways, aviation structures or nuclear structures).

The original version of the Act introduced many more changes in this respect. There was even to be a new system of state construction authorities, including the Supreme Construction Authority. However, a number of construction experts criticise this step (i.e. the amendment of the originally intended law) in this respect, as a unified and common management of construction authorities could benefit the predictability of their decision-making. In reality, however, it would probably not work, as the new offices would not be able to find enough qualified people.

JES – Joint Environmental Statement

All projects permitted under the Building Act now require the issuance of a so-called Single Environmental Statement, abbreviated to JES. It is issued outside the building permit procedure itself and will replace up to 26 administrative acts contained in 9 different environmental laws (e.g. the Air Protection Act, the Nature and Landscape Protection Act or the Water Act. If the project requires an Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA) and the developer requests it, the JES will include a binding EIA opinion. In some specific cases, the competent authority issuing the EIA will be the regional authority.

The Construction Act continues to allow for the possibility of issuing separate decisions or opinions in specific cases – thus administrative acts issued by nature protection authorities in specially protected areas, sites of European importance and bird areas will not be combined in the EIA.

Validity of the building permit

The new Building Act stipulates that the permit is valid for 2 years from the date of entry into force, unless the building authority stipulates a longer period in justified cases, but no longer than 5 years. However, unlike the original law, the validity of the planning permission is further extended so that if the implementation of the project has started during its validity, the validity period is extended to 10 years from the date of the legal validity of the permission.

The new institution of joint negotiation

The joint meeting between the building authority and other authorities concerned (with the participation of the builder and other parties to the proceedings, if necessary) is a newly introduced institute that is intended to increase communication and eliminate the contradictions that buildings often cause. However, only time will tell how such a procedure will work in practice.

Stricter conditions for additional permitting of “black” buildings

The new Building Act is also known for tightening the conditions for additional permits for so-called “black buildings”, built without a permit or in violation of its conditions. Their additional legalisation will be possible, but only if the conditions provided for by the law occur.

• thebuilding does not require an exemption from the building requirements (the setbacks are met or the affected neighbours give their consent, the coefficient of land development is met, etc.),
• the fine for the offence has been paid,
• the building does not require a decision to grant an exemption from the prohibitions of another legal regulation.

In the above circumstances, the building authority will permit the building by a new decision.

What will the digitalisation of the construction procedure look like?

The law introduces electronic submission, but also leaves the possibility of submitting the application in paper form. If the documentation has to be prepared by a designer, it will have to be submitted to the building authority in electronic form. For buildings where the documentation does not need to be prepared by a designer, it will be possible to submit it to the building authority in paper form.

However, the digitisation itself consists primarily in the creation of the so-called Builder’s Portal. This is essentially similar to the Citizen’s Portal, but focused exclusively on construction proceedings. The portal is a basic interface for digital communication with the state in the field of construction proceedings, i.e. mainly with construction authorities and the authorities concerned and administrators of technical and transport infrastructure.

The aim of its creation is to facilitate communication between builders, building authorities and the authorities concerned. Builders can find information about the construction procedure processes, forms , etc. They can also follow the entire course of the procedure, consult registers and files, or fill in missing documents.

Minister for Regional Development Ivan Bartos presented the new portal at the recent construction fair in Brno. According to the ministry, nothing prevents the portal from being put into operation in July. However, many builders are sceptical in this respect and expect big birth pains of the whole system. However, this is normal for such projects.

How is the transition to the new legislation legally handled?

Proceedings initiated under the existing legislation will also be completed under the existing legislation. Until 30 June 2027, project documentation prepared under the previous legislation can be submitted with new planning applications.