Another year to register illegal buildings in the cadastre - proposed amendments to the Legalization Law

Owners of illegally constructed buildings should be given an additional year to initiate the cadastral registration procedure, if the Parliament votes on the proposed amendments to the Law on the Legalization of Illegal Buildings, which would extend the deadline for registering a building in the cadastral records from 12 to 24 months from the date the law enters into force.

This law came into force on August 14th last year, and new amendments to the parliamentary procedure were submitted by an NSD MP. Dejan Djurovic.

The Union of Municipalities also requested from the executive authorities an extension of the deadline for registering illegal buildings in the cadastre for another year.

These are amendments to Article 48, paragraph 1, which defines that "the owner of an illegal building whose building is not registered in the real estate cadastre is obliged, within 12 months from the date of entry into force of this law, to initiate the procedure for registering the building in the cadastral records."

When the law came into force in August last year, the deadline for registration in the cadastre was six months from the date of entry into force of the law, but at the request of the Government, the law was amended at the end of January, so the deadline for registering these facilities was extended from six months to a year, which expires on August 14. This was done, as the Government explained at the time, due to the inconsistency of the provisions of the Law on State Survey and Cadastre with the provisions of the Law on Legalization, the preparation and verification of the survey study of the completed state of an illegal facility by the Cadastre could not be carried out in a timely manner.

"Article 48, paragraph 1, stipulates the obligation of owners of illegally constructed buildings that are not registered in the real estate cadastre to initiate the procedure for registering the building in the cadastral records, within 12 months from the date of entry into force of the law. However, the procedure for registering an illegally constructed building cannot be initiated without a previously prepared survey of the completed condition, its technical verification by the Real Estate Administration, as well as fulfilling other legally prescribed conditions. The application of the law so far has shown that a large number of owners are objectively unable to initiate the procedure within the given deadline, due to circumstances beyond their control," explained Đurović.

According to him, a large number of illegally constructed buildings are located on real estate where other legal procedures must first be completed, such as inheritance procedures, physical divisions, determination of property rights, and other procedures before courts and administrative bodies.

"Because of this, geodetic organizations in a large number of cases were prevented from or refused to prepare studies, which effectively made it impossible for property owners to begin the registration process within the prescribed deadline," said Đurović.

It should also be borne in mind that Article 48, paragraph 2, as explained by the NSD MP, prescribes a very strict consequence for missing the deadline from paragraph 1, namely the obligation of the spatial protection inspector to issue a decision on the removal of a facility for which the registration procedure has not been initiated.

"Given that a significant number of citizens were unable to initiate proceedings due to objective administrative and institutional obstacles, maintaining the current deadline would lead to the application of the strictest measures against persons who were unable to fulfill their legal obligation for reasons beyond their control. The proposed extension of the deadline from 12 to 24 months would provide realistic conditions for the implementation of the law, enable owners to obtain the necessary documentation, prepare and certify studies, complete the necessary legal procedures and timely initiate the procedure for registration in the cadastral records. In this way, the purpose of the law would be achieved, its fair and efficient implementation would be ensured, and serious social consequences that would arise from the adoption of a large number of decisions on the removal of buildings that represent the only place of residence of their owners and their families would be prevented, which would also contribute to the preservation of social peace and legal security of citizens," explained Đurović.

Commissions fees

The NSD representative also proposed amendments to Article 14 of the Law, which stipulates the obligation for the competent authority conducting the legalization procedure to determine whether the conditions for legalization of an illegal object are met based on the submitted documentation, to determine whether the illegal object is located on a satellite image and to conduct an on-site inspection of the illegal object. The same article stipulates that in order to more efficiently implement all actions defined by the Law, the competent authority shall establish a commission, which shall have an odd number of members and at least three members, one of whom shall be a representative of the Cadastre who must be a geodetic professional, one

One member must be a legal professional, and one must be an architectural or construction professional.

“Given the complexity of the tasks of the commission members, namely the fact that the commission members review

"The commission's obligations include a detailed inspection of the facility on site and comparing the condition of the facility with the condition in the submitted documentation, it was proposed to regulate through a clear legal basis the right to compensation for the work of the commission members and the amount of compensation that should be the same in all municipalities, with the aim of uniform application of the law. The commission's obligations include a detailed inspection of the facility, comparing the facts from the submitted documentation with the condition of the facility on site, communication with the owner of the illegal facility, participation in the preparation of the minutes, and in cases for the legalization of facilities under the jurisdiction of the administrative body (Legalization Administration) and a trip to another municipality, because this administration is responsible for issuing decisions on the legalization of all illegal facilities on the territory of Montenegro with an area larger than 500 square meters and facilities built in protected zones," said Đurović.

It is proposed that the costs of an on-site inspection of the condition of an illegal building be borne by the owner of the illegal building, especially since Article 12, paragraph 10 of the Law on Legalization of Illegal Buildings stipulates that the costs of legalizing an illegal building be borne by the owner of the building.

"The request to provide funds for the payment of compensation to members of the legalization commission was made by municipalities because most do not have the means or funds to pay this compensation. There is a fear that the commission members will not perform the tasks entrusted to them if fair compensation for their work is not provided, which will ultimately affect the implementation of the legalization procedure from both an efficiency and quality perspective," Đurović pointed out.

The Law on the Legalization of Illegal Structures entered into force in August 2025, and the text was amended and supplemented in February this year. With the entry into force of the Law on Spatial Planning and Construction of Structures in 2017, the process of legalizing illegal structures began. During its implementation, over 59.500 requests for legalization were submitted, and 3.217 legalization decisions were issued.