GREAT RESPONSE FROM CITIZENS: Over 19,000 requests for the legalization of buildings on the first day of the “Svoj na svome” platform!

There is great public interest in reporting illegal buildings. The first application on the “Svoj na svome” platform arrived this morning around 4 a.m. So far, about 19,000 citizens have submitted a request for legalization. There were brief delays in several cities due to technical problems. Citizens can report their illegally constructed buildings: via the online platform, in all municipalities, and in more than 580 “Pošta Srbije” (Post of Serbia) facilities. They will have exactly two months for this simplified procedure, with a minimum of documentation.

From early morning, there were queues in front of municipalities and at Post Office counters for submitting applications—many decided to finally legalize apartments, houses, and everything they inherited, built, or added onto family property.

Citizens who came in person came either for the entire building or for added floors. Some, however, bought real estate from an owner who did not register it.

“I came to register a house that was built in 1961. The owners didn’t manage to register it for so many years, and we bought it,” says a resident of Zvezdara.

Niš residents are submitting legalization requests at 24 locations. Officials are helping citizens with filling out the applications and providing precise instructions on the details of legalization.

“An application is submitted, a document for ownership is provided, the legal sequence, and then the registration is carried out if conditions are immediately met, and if not, the registration is carried out and the owner, the investor owner of the building, is given a deadline of five years to prove ownership,” explains Goran Zdravković, Head of the Legalization Service of the City Administration for Planning and Construction Niš.

Citizens are asking whether a previously submitted request for legalization is valid, or whether they must apply again.

“All procedures were suspended when the law ceased to be valid. An elaboration needs to be submitted; it is enough to bring the elaboration number and the agency will review it,” says Ljiljana Pršić, Acting Head of the City Administration for Property Affairs, Urban Planning, Construction, and Legalization Kragujevac.

In the Zemun municipality, they expect more than 60,000 requests, mostly for the legalization of apartments that do not have a building permit and where the investor has not paid for the construction land.

“For such buildings, the investor bears the costs of the directorate, which amounts to 120 euros per square meter. So, we expect them to understand the seriousness of this law and the entire action and for these people to simply be in a position to solve their property problem in terms of registration in the cadastre. We also expect, of course, individual requests from citizens who bought an apartment in such buildings to submit applications,” states the Mayor of Zemun municipality, Gavrilo Kovačević.

The problem of building on social or municipal land

All illegal buildings have been registered, say the Republic Geodetic Authority, and only ownership will be decided, with a note that, for example, they did not receive an occupancy permit. For the application, a unique citizen registration number, cadastral parcel number, or address is required.

“More than a dozen state institutions are functioning simultaneously here, so that citizens can get all their information and solve their problem,” says RGZ Director Borko Drašković.

All previous relevant ministers announced a reduction in the number of illegal buildings, but that number increased year by year and reached nearly five million. The relevant minister claims that this is now changing, noting that the system, despite the heavy load, is functioning. She advises citizens not to rush because they can submit requests within two months, plus one month for objections.

“We have provided the option that when it comes to residential buildings and residential-commercial buildings, the application for the building can be carried out by the building manager or professional manager, or the investor, and also by any other interested person, which, of course, includes apartment owners. These are the three situations listed exhaustively in the law when they are obliged to submit a geodetic work elaboration. Only in that case can special parts be identified, but according to the sequence and chronology of the procedure. First, the building is registered, and then the apartment buyers legitimate themselves with individual purchase agreements,” explains Minister of Construction, Transport, and Infrastructure Aleksandra Sofronijević.

The authorities believe that most problems will arise because of land in settlements where refugees mostly settled and where construction took place on social or municipal land. People paid for it properly and will not pay for it again under the new law. And in the multi-decade legalization process, some citizens have legalized their buildings and paid for it.