Act No. 201/2022 Coll. on Construction, which was supposed to replace the old Act No. 50/1976 Coll. on Spatial Planning and Building Regulations in the Field of Construction, has not yet even entered into force and is already being repealed by the National Council of the Slovak Republic. The submitter of the proposal, the Ministry of Transport of the Slovak Republic (“Ministry”), states that it did so because the Act No. 201/2022 Coll. on Construction was in a state of institutional unpreparedness and was to be unenforceable by the effective date of April 1, 2025.
The Government’s draft the new Building Act has passed the parliament in an abbreviated legislative procedure and has already been signed by the president. The proclaimed goal of this new Building Act is to simplify and accelerate construction, as well as reduce the administrative burden in permitting procedures.
The biggest innovations include the abolition of the previous multi-stage decision-making (i.e. first a planning permit and then a building permit) and the introduction of single integrated procedure – a construction plan procedure, by which the building authority expresses its consent to the proposed construction activity. At the same time, the list of participants in the procedure is to be narrowed and, according to the Ministry, only persons and entities who objectively may be directly affected by the resulting decision in their rights, such as owners of neighbouring land, should enter the procedure.
On the other hand, an interesting new feature for public authorities in the position of builders of buildings intended for public arose. Such builders will be the obliged to set aside 0.5% of the estimated value of the building (max. EUR 500,000) and use it to procure and place a work of art in such a building. It remains to be seen according to what criteria and in what manner the selection of works of art for these public buildings will take place.
In addition to the above, unlike the originally proposed changes (Act No. 201/2022 Coll. on Construction), when the Regional Offices for Spatial Planning and Construction were to decide, it leaves the agenda of the constructions office to the municipality.
Only practice will show whether the proclaimed benefits will actually be to the benefit or detriment of residents. That is, whether they will speed up and simplify their construction activities aimed at building a home or make it more difficult or even impossible for them to apply objections to buildings encroaching on their living space, the quality of which may be irreversibly affected.
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