The construction permit lost in war will be replaced by a usage permit

While searching for something in the vastness of Google, I stumbled upon an interesting story on the Legalis portal that I believe could be useful to us sooner or later. What to do if we lose a construction permit, and it is not in any archives and the house is already built? This question troubled one citizen, but do not worry, dear reader, there is a solution because such a situation is provided for by the Construction Act (although it might cost you some money if you find yourself in that situation). But better that than to constantly think whether some competent authority will decide to demolish your legally built house. I would also like to add at the beginning that the question is not trivial because, according to what has been stated, even employees in the responsible services did not know how to properly guide the citizen. So if they do not know, how would someone who does not deal with this know, if they lost the permit?

In general, this citizen built a house before the war. Before that, he obtained all the permits that were then required, including the construction permit, and then the war broke out. If I understood correctly, the house was built in an area that was occupied in the 1990s, which means there were military actions there. The war ended, the owner continued to live in his house with his family, but when he needed the construction permit for some reason, he could not find it. It was lost.

Correct advice

What else could a person do but hit the road to get a copy of the construction permit issued at the local construction office. But alas, they could not help him there because the permit was not archived, so they directed him to the county archive assuring him that he would get a copy there. The homeowner got into his car and headed to the administrative headquarters of the county, that is, to the archive. But again alas, there is no permit!? Fortunately, there was still a trace of that document, as they told him, they had a file cover that contained information about the person who received the construction permit (name and surname, address) and the registration number, but that cover was empty. How it could happen that the document on the issued construction permit disappeared from it is not quite clear, but in that wartime chaos, when the archive might have had to be evacuated, it is not excluded that it was mistakenly moved to another place and who knows in which file it is located.

The citizen received a copy of that empty cover and returned to the local construction office, but there he was told that it was not a valid document and that he had to apply for a construction permit again. The man turned pale because it was not just a large amount of money that he would have to pay without being guilty, he would also have to go through all those procedures, wait for decisions to be made, and who would start all over again…

As the expert who responded to the homeowner’s inquiry on the portal rightly noted, the official at the local office should have directed him to the Spatial Planning and Construction Act (Article 332, paragraph 2), which provides for such situations. Searching the internet, we can see that this law has since been repealed, but such cases are now covered by the current Construction Act, in which Articles 190 and 191 clearly state everything.

There may still be such cases

For some reason, they were not aware of those articles of the law at the local construction office, but it is clearly stated that a building whose construction document has been destroyed or is unavailable due to natural disasters, war and other destruction, actions or events ‘is considered built on the basis of a valid construction permit if the construction authority issues a usage permit for the building whose construction act has been destroyed’. Therefore, it is necessary to obtain a usage permit, which will be granted (Article 190, paragraph 2) if the homeowner submits a copy of the parcel from the cadastre and proof that the construction permit has been destroyed or is unavailable (in this case, the empty cover). Article 191 lists the cases when a usage permit is issued.

It is not excluded that there are more such cases for which owners have no idea that their documentation has disappeared from official archives, so if they find themselves in such a situation and accidentally come across this text, it will be helpful to them.

POST SCRIPTUM

This text may also be useful to those who work in local construction offices because, as we can see from the story, the people working in one of those offices do not know how to guide a citizen on what to do in such a situation. Admittedly, it is unusual, but that is no excuse, especially since the homeowner in the story could have embarked on a new procedure for obtaining a construction permit and thus waste unnecessary time and money. Fortunately, he sought advice on Legalis and received good advice in time, but it does not always end that way.