In Donji Štoj, near Ulcinj, on the Velika Plaza itself, a place that in Alabar's and Spajić's plans is supposedly supposed to become the Montenegrin Dubai, around 8.000 mostly beautiful buildings have been built without a building permit. The situation is similar in other municipalities on the coast. The counterpart in the north is Žabljak, where new buildings are constantly springing up, no one asks for a permit, and the demolition decisions that were made from the beginning of 2020 to the end of 2024, mainly for the Borje site, a total of 51, have remained a dead letter on the Žabljak real estate exchange.
In Montenegro, according to official data from the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, 2020 decisions on the demolition of illegally constructed buildings were issued between the beginning of 2024 and the end of 261. In the same period, based on the acts of the urban planning and construction inspection, 22 "wild" buildings were demolished. More than half, 13 residential buildings, were targeted by excavators at the end of 2021, which were demolished in Radovići, near Tivat, in the Cadastral Municipality (KO) Nikovići.
In five years, it seems incredible that on the territory of the state of Montenegro, excluding the Municipality of Tivat, only nine buildings have been sanctioned for demolition. This data would not be surprising if we know that the process of legalizing illegally constructed buildings began in 2017.
"If the decisions to demolish an illegal building are final, it is impossible to legalize that building," he says. Nikola Raznatović, Acting Director of the Directorate for the Legalization of Illegal Structures, noting that since the beginning of the application of the Law on Spatial Planning and Construction of Structures from 2017, 3.397 illegal structures have been legalized out of around 62.000 submitted requests for legalization.
In order to combat illegal construction more effectively, the Government established the state-owned enterprise "Zaštita prostora Crne Gore" in 2020 to carry out administrative enforcement of decisions on the demolition, removal and restoration of land and buildings issued by the competent inspection services.
The Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property issued the most decisions to demolish illegal structures on the coast and in the north of Montenegro in the analyzed five-year period. Thus, the department, headed by Slaven Radunović, ordered the demolition of 65 illegal structures in Bar, 54 in Ulcinj, while the figure in Žabljak was 51. Out of a total of 261 decisions, only 22 of the disputed structures were demolished.
The Urban Planning Department issued the most decisions for the demolition of illegally constructed residential and other buildings last year - 103. In 2020, work was prohibited in 22 cases, while in 2021, that number was 26. Three years ago, the competent ministry and the inspection banned work in 47 cases, and that figure was higher in 2023, amounting to 66.
According to data obtained by "Vijesti" using the MANS application "Ask Institutions", the most demolished buildings were in 2021 - 15, and the least in 2024, when only one building was demolished. The most demolished buildings were in Tivat - 13, and the least in Pljevlja, where one illegal building was removed.
8.000 illegal buildings in Donje Štoj
One of the prime examples of the chaos that reigns in this area is the Local Community of Donji Štoj, near Ulcinj. Štoj is no ordinary suburban settlement - it is probably the richest Local Community in the region, as its territorial scope includes the entire Velika Plaza, Bojana and Ada.
The expansion of construction in the 8.000s and XNUMXs has continued unabated in the new millennium. As a result, there are now over XNUMX buildings in Donji Štoj that do not have a building permit. President of the Štoj Local Community Albert Kastrati he confirmed that intensive construction is still underway today.
"Only last year was the local location study for Donji Štoj adopted. This means that the owners of existing buildings within the plan will be able to submit a request for legalization," Kastrati told "Vijesti".
The construction inspectors of the relevant Ministry have also determined that construction and extensions are being carried out illegally. As many as 35 demolition decisions have been issued for the Štoje area, 18 of which relate to unidentified persons. The decisions relate to entire buildings, including additional floors that have a basic area of over a thousand square meters, and buildings on the beaches.
Ulcinj previously, as another interlocutor told "Vijesti", had an urban plan for Štoj, but it was outdated long ago.
"It's not just about new facilities being built, but also those being expanded," said our interlocutor.
Three years ago, two buildings measuring 85 square meters and 200 square meters were demolished in Štoj.
There are no new demolitions at the moment. Chief of Municipal Police Amir Mehmeti He confirmed to "Vijesti" that his service has not received a single call for assistance in demolishing illegal structures.
Bar: Illegal construction flourishes in tourist resorts
At the top of the list of municipalities with the largest number of executed decisions to demolish illegal structures is Bar, with 63 such decisions, according to data from "Vijesti", and three structures were demolished in the same period, from 2020 to 2024.
These are buildings from different parts of the city under Rumija – Šušanj, Topolica, Utjeha, Sutomore, Pečurice, Zaljevo, Čanj… Two citizens who are on the list of demolition decisions did not want to talk about these cases, emphasizing that it was about their privacy.
The Municipality of Bar said that the phenomenon of illegal construction represents one of the long-standing urban and legal challenges in Montenegro, and this problem has not bypassed that municipality, nor many others.
Among the main causes are inherited problems in spatial planning, inadequate control in the field, avoidance of legal procedures, and a high degree of centralization when it comes to spatial planning.
"We believe it is important to emphasize that local self-government has very narrow jurisdiction when it comes to the problem of illegal construction. The Municipal Supervision Service - Municipal Police of the Municipality of Bar is not competent to control the construction of facilities for which a building permit is issued. The competence for acting in cases of illegal construction lies with the construction inspection, which operates within the framework of the competent state authorities," they told "Vijesti".
Despite this, they are actively cooperating with the relevant institutions, providing full logistical support in order to prevent and sanction illegal construction, said the local administration headed by Dušan Raičević.
Since August 2024, the Municipal Police of the Municipality of Bar has received a total of 28 requests related to reporting illegal construction in the territory of the Municipality of Bar and, in accordance with the law, forwarded them to the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, i.e. the Directorate for Construction Supervision.
Also, as they stated, upon their own initiative, six requests for inspection supervision were sent to the same Ministry due to the observation of construction works being carried out without a visibly displayed construction site sign.
"We believe that stopping illegal construction requires a fundamental change in the current decision-making system and responsibilities in terms of spatial planning. By this, we mean the more than justified need to return the original responsibilities to municipalities in terms of spatial planning and, consequently, strengthen the capacities and control mechanisms with an increased presence in the field in order to respond preventively to any attempt at illegal construction," the Municipality of Bar emphasized.
The Bar local government, they concluded, unquestionably supports all measures taken by the state in the fight against illegal construction, but they believe that it is necessary to further improve control and accountability mechanisms in order to combat phenomena that threaten the spatial and urban development of local communities.
Some of the accommodation providers that "Vijesti" spoke to believe that illegal construction in Bar is closely linked to one of the municipality's main activities, tourism. In this regard, they are surprised that there are no more solutions for demolishing illegal buildings in Bar, as they believe they can count at least 50 such buildings themselves.
One of the main problems, claims one of the interviewees, is that illegal construction is flourishing where tourism is flourishing – in suburban settlements with private accommodation. It's not even about complete buildings, he claims, but also illegal extensions, renovations and adding floors, all for the sake of greater profit.
JK, the director of a private tourist accommodation company, thinks that legal providers and those who operate legally are the worst off because that way the authorities have them on file, and inspections are regular. Those who operate illegally, and in illegal facilities, are an "open secret" and none of the authorities visit them, until they endanger other people's property, she says explicitly.
Tivat: Example of “Gugi commercial”
Since the demolition of several illegally constructed structures on a large plot of state land in Krtoli at the end of November 2021, there have been no serious actions to remove irregularly constructed permanent structures in the Tivat area.
Then, the operatives and machines of the state-owned company “Zaštita prostora Crne Gore” doo from Podgorica demolished several illegally built buildings on state land. The demolitions were carried out on cadastral plot 424/10 KO Nikovići, with an area of 54.474 square meters, which is state-owned and over which the Government of Montenegro has the exclusive right of disposal. The plot, which is in nature a “3rd class forest”, had been intensively devastated in the previous few years because at least seven buildings were always, to a greater or lesser extent, roughly constructed on it, which were erected outside the valid planning documentation. Of the illegal buildings started here, most are “holiday houses”, that is, weekend houses whose investors are people from Montenegro, Serbia, but also from Europe. However, the basement and ground floor of a much larger building had already been roughly built here – most likely a residential building, which basically has dimensions of at least 30 by 15 meters and which is completely located on state land. The Tivat police also assisted in the demolition operation, which was not announced to the public at the time, and everything went smoothly without incident because the demolished buildings were not the primary residences of their investors, who were mostly unidentified persons, but rather weekend homes or future unintended apartment and tourist facilities.
Since the removal of these facilities more than four years ago, however, there has been no serious action by the state Building and Urban Planning Inspectorate, which is exclusively responsible for permanent facilities. This information is incredible considering the fact that, for example, due to illegally built private houses in Gradiošnica, under its very cables, one of the 35 kV transmission lines that supplies Tivat from the south has been forcibly disconnected for several years by order of the Electric Power Inspection. This is why, among other things, there are frequent interruptions in the city's electricity supply during summer peak consumption periods because the remaining available transmission lines cannot withstand such a load.
Likewise, the Building Inspectorate has not yet removed a single illegally built private house located in the middle of the DUP route of one of the new roads in the Vrijes area, which is why the Municipality of Tivat, as the investor, is blocked from starting construction of the new streets the city desperately needs.
While the state Construction and Urban Planning Inspectorate does not show any determination to prevent the devastation of the already limited area of the Municipality of Tivat, which has been very pronounced in recent years, by demolishing illegal structures, the local services responsible for temporary structures are far more up-to-date. For example, Tivat became the first city in Montenegro without large advertising billboards along the roads because the Municipal Inspection removed several dozen of these illegally erected temporary structures, and there were also a series of interventions to remove parts or entire various illegally erected temporary structures in the coastal zone.
The extent to which the state's indolence and unwillingness to decisively deal with illegal builders by demolishing them has influenced their deterrence from further illegal construction in Tivat is most clearly demonstrated by the example of the Budva-based company "Gugi Commerc" and its owner, the controversial businessman Branislav Savić Gugi. Over the past ten years, he has illegally built two pontoons in Opatovo, namely Bašići, in Tivat, and exceeded the dimensions of the residential and commercial buildings he was building on Opatovo. The state has legalized the pontoons and Morsko dobro is now formally renting them to Savić for his private and business needs. In the meantime, he has also begun construction of a small hotel on Opatovo, drastically exceeding the dimensions of the building, which, including the underground garage, was supposed to have a total area of 1.025 square meters. The building inspection determined that Savić's company here, on one plot, beyond what the building permit allowed, "built an additional floor and a larger garage extension, while on another plot, without a building permit and the necessary documentation, a building with five above-ground floors and two underground floors connected to the garage and one floor to the primary building was built."
On February 19th of last year, the Tivat police filed criminal charges against “Gugi Commerce” and Branislav Savić for illegal construction. The police announced that Savić and his company are suspected of “obtaining over 1.100 m2 of residential space without obtaining a building permit and technical documentation, thereby causing damage to the Montenegrin budget of over 100.000 euros.” The Urban Planning and Construction Inspection has banned further work on Gugi’s hotel in Opatovo, but the illegally constructed parts have not been demolished to this day, nor has the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in Kotor, to which the police filed a criminal charge against the Budva businessman, yet completed the investigation it initiated against Savić and his company more than a year ago.
By the way, according to the data of the Secretariat for Spatial Planning of the Municipality of Tivat, in the period from 2017 to the end of 2023, a total of 2.227 requests for the legalization of illegal structures were submitted in the area of the smallest municipality in Boka Bay. The majority of these (1.763) are illegal residential buildings. During 2024, another 50 such requests were submitted. This is because the state has in the meantime, despite earlier promises by officials that after the production of an ortho-photograph of the entire territory of Montenegro, all illegal structures built in the direction of the image will be marked down without exception, once again allowing requests for legalization to be submitted without any time limit - in other words, illegal builders are still rampaging in the area in the hope of going unpunished and ultimately preserving the illegally constructed structures.
During 2024, the Secretariat issued 25 decisions approving the legalization of illegal structures, and 57 decisions rejecting such requests. The parties were also served with 44 requests for supplementing the documentation submitted with previously submitted requests for legalization.
Illegal construction is flourishing in the Žabljak municipality, and it seems to be most pronounced in the village of Borje. Dozens of houses are currently being built there, and it is difficult to estimate how many have sprung up in the last few years. In any case, the number is many times higher than the number of inhabitants of the village, which, according to the 2023 census, was only about forty. The village is located along the main road that leads from Žabljak to Đurđević Tara and Pljevlja. The good road connections and the relatively low price of land are probably the main reasons for the expansion of construction in the village. These are mainly holiday homes that the owners often rent out. The building inspection has repeatedly visited the site and sealed a small number of construction sites, but this has not had any effect on suppressing illegal construction on a huge scale.
"Human shield" against excavators
According to the documentation submitted through SPI, the state-owned company DOO "Zaštita prostora Crne Gore" (ZPCG), based on reports on the work carried out, in the period from 2020 to the end of 2024, was involved in around 60 cases of reported illegal construction. Of these, almost a third of the interventions were unsuccessful because there were no conditions for the removal of the structures.
For example, on December 14, 2021, ZPCG personnel and machinery were prevented from demolishing a residential building with a total of 5 floors on cadastral plots 3831,3829, 1/3826, 1/3827, 1/3827 and 50 in the Podgorica III administrative district. The police, water supply and sewage service and electricity distribution service did not appear on site. In addition, there were reportedly about XNUMX citizens present who did not allow the ZPCG team to reach the building, so the demolition was abandoned.
A similar situation occurred on May 5, 2022, when citizens prevented the team of LLC "Zaštita prostora Crne Gore" from demolishing an illegal structure in the area of Malo Brdo, on cadastral plot 1798/1 KO Podgorica, Municipality of Podgorica.
For the same reasons, a month later, a single-story residential building with a flat reinforced concrete slab owned by owner Ž. K., also on Mali Brdo, was not demolished.
ZPCG was not even able to remove the 90m2 steel structure on Nikola Kovačević Square in Podgorica because the owner DJ started the removal himself.
In 2022, the machinery of the "Protection of the Space of Montenegro" came in vain to Masline, to Rikavac Lake, below the Kučke Mountains, to Donja Štoja near Ulcinj and Perast. For different, but similar reasons, the demolitions were not carried out.
And the following year, in 2023, the demolition was prevented by a road blockade in the administrative district of Velje Duboko and Liješnje, in the Municipality of Kolašin. Then, on plot number 1404/12 in the administrative district of Podgorica I, the owner of the land plot did not allow the urban planning and construction inspection to carry out the execution of the demolition decision. In Ulcinj, in Dobre Vode, a large number of parked cars prevented the demolition of a building constructed in reinforced concrete and masonry works, with four floors consisting of two basements, a ground floor and an upper floor (2Su + P + 1), with a flat reinforced concrete slab above the upper floor.
The owner of the LM building from Dobrota, near Kotor, requested an exemption from the authorized inspector, so the demolition was postponed. The exemption from the acting inspector was also requested during the attempted demolition of an auxiliary building - a fence in Perast. The same recipe was used by the owner of an illegally built terrace in Budva, as well as BM from Morinje, who was supposed to have two buildings demolished.
The demolition of the foundation and a ground floor residential building with formwork installed on metal supports for the construction of an AB slab above the ground floor, located on cadastral plot 1798/1 KO Podgorica I IJ Podgorica - Malo Brdo, was prevented by the owner JB by blocking the road with passenger vehicles and a dozen adults.
In Budva, actually on Sveti Stefan, the demolition of an auxiliary building - a swimming pool built on cadastral plot number 1906/3 was not carried out. The D00 team "Protection of the Space of Montenegro" did not complete the work because the owner had already demolished half of the building, and the owner of plot 832/1 KO Budva prevented the demolition by parking his car against the wall, but instead a garage built without a permit in the Lazi settlement in Budva was demolished.
They also removed billboards.
On the other hand, the report of the Spatial Protection of Montenegro (ZPCG), a state-owned enterprise formed in 2020 for the purpose of, among other things, demolishing illegal structures, states as its first activity that on November 29, 2021, on cadastral plot 424/10 KO Nikovići, in the Municipality of Tivat, the demolition of eight structures and two lying concrete slabs was carried out.
In Budva, the upper floors of the extension were demolished, and in Tomaševo near Bijelo Polje, a building was removed, which was determined to have "endangered its stability due to deterioration and major damage, which poses an immediate danger to the life and health of people, neighboring buildings and traffic safety." In the same municipality, in Lijesak, a dilapidated building was also demolished. In Budva, a terrace was also demolished, and in the Kunje settlement, in the Bar municipality, a building measuring 23m x 13,2m was demolished. In Mahala, near Golubovaci, a concrete production plant owned by DOO Cijevna was dismantled, and the workers of this company dismantled the barracks themselves.
ZPCG also removed concrete planters, such as on cadastral plot number 3072/1 KO Budva, along Jadranski put street, according to the decision of the Municipal Inspector of Budva Municipality. In Sveti Stefan, a boundary wall was removed on plot 1340/1, as well as metal display cases with built-in glass surfaces on Njegoševa Street, in Budva, and a broom ramp was also removed in the same city.
In accordance with the work order of the Public Company for the Management of the Grne Coastal Zone, on July 20, 2023, on Ada Bojana, near the "Karaul Sveti Nikola", a solid masonry structure was removed.
In Njeguši, the owners of illegally constructed buildings removed the temporary structures themselves, but in Perast, a citizen prevented the demolition of the boundary wall by threatening to throw himself under the machinery.
ZPCG workers removed billboards, advertising panels and advertisements on the main road from Ada Bojana along Štoj, with representatives of the Municipal Police of the Municipality of Ulcinj, and participated in the partial demolition of Podgorica's Lamela C in Zabjelo.
Leković: "Illegal construction" is a "child of corruption"
The data showing that the municipality of Bar, along with Ulcinj and Žabljak, is at the very top in terms of the number of executive decisions to demolish illegal structures does not surprise the opposition councilor in the Bar assembly, Momcilo Leković from the Democrats. For him, they are just another symptom of deep-rooted problems in the Montenegrin socio-political system, primarily corruption, clientelism and long-standing institutional negligence.
"We cannot look at the expansion of illegal construction in Bar in isolation - it is a consequence of a decade-long lack of urban order, inefficient institutions and conscious ignoring of the law by local and state structures in the past, which often directly or indirectly benefited from such activities. For years, the former regime created an environment in which the law applied selectively - strictly to ordinary citizens, and flexibly or not at all to the "connected" and "suitable" ones. Remnants of that model, unfortunately, are still present at the local level today," he told "Vijesti".
The current local government, instead of showing a clear political will to solve this problem, continues to practice selective application of regulations and uses planning chaos as a means of political and economic bribery, Leković said. In Bar, in his opinion, investors often receive tacit support for construction without permits, until the political context changes or a conflict of interest arises - then the insistence on demolition is used as a tool for showdown, rather than for establishing legal order.
"Slight improvements at the state level regarding this issue are being noticed, but they must be even more intense and decisive," he emphasized.
He sees transparency in the work of institutions, the willingness of the prosecutor's office and courts to tackle the urban mafia, and the fact that corruption must not go unpunished as socio-political indicators that must stop such phenomena.
"Without this complete systemic reform and an uncompromising fight against corruption, we cannot expect either an end to illegal construction or healthy urban development. Illegal construction is essentially the "child of corruption," he said.
At least it deserves better, Leković concludes, but that requires courage to stop bad practices, not just replace them with new faces.
KANA: Systemic consequence
"Illegal construction is a serious problem in Montenegro, but not only because it represents a violation of the law, but because it reveals deep and long-term weaknesses in our system of spatial planning, housing and urban management. It is a phenomenon that has a history of several decades and which cannot be understood solely through the prism of (non)compliance with procedures, but must also be viewed as a consequence of the state's inadequate response to the needs of citizens for affordable, safe and decent housing," said the members of the KANA Group (Ko Ako Ne Arhitekt) in response to the question of how serious a problem illegal construction is in Montenegro.
According to data from 2020, according to KANA, it is estimated that there are around 100.000 buildings built without permits in Montenegro. The legalization of these buildings is proceeding slowly and with very limited effects – according to the data we have, around 2020 applications were submitted by 51.000, but only 734 of them were officially legalized (i.e., less than 2% of all submitted applications had the desired outcome).
"This information, along with your data on the number of demolition decisions and the actual number of demolished buildings, clearly shows that the system is not effective in either preventing or sanctioning illegal construction," they point out.
What should be done to prevent illegal construction?
First, it is important to understand that illegal construction is not just a matter of “irresponsible individuals”, but a systemic consequence of unplanned urbanization, inadequate housing policies and selective application of laws. In this sense, measures that would have a real effect must approach the problem from multiple sides. In addition to the urgent need to strengthen inspection control and provide human and technical capacities for its implementation, it is crucial to establish a fair and functional spatial planning system; in Montenegro we still do not have this. Such a system would entail the adoption of missing planning documentation that would have a real (and not just declarative) long-term public interest as its goal, as well as consistent implementation of plans, which again requires political will and resources. It is also necessary to develop policies that offer an alternative: affordable housing models outside market conditions. This includes the development of policies and models for cooperative housing, the construction of publicly owned apartments that could be allocated to families for life, the improvement of tenants’ tenancy rights, as well as tax mechanisms that discourage the accumulation of privately owned housing units. Without such options, many citizens, especially those with lower incomes or those who come to larger cities in search of work and a better life, will continue to be forced to either live in unsafe conditions as tenants or build illegally – because they essentially have no other options.
Is "illegal construction" primarily a consequence of insufficient coverage by spatial and detailed urban plans?
The lack of planning documentation is certainly an important factor, but it is not the only, nor the deepest cause of the problem. And in environments where plans exist, they too often serve the interests of powerful investors, instead of articulating the public interest. This is why even so-called legal construction often becomes illegitimate – because it disrupts the urban context, destroys cultural heritage, ignores the needs of the local community and creates spaces that are expensive, uncomfortable and often architecturally and socially inadequate. A few years ago, our organization published a paper entitled “Planning against the city”, as we called this pandering to investors, to the detriment of everyone else. The example of the reconstruction of the former Ljubović Hotel in Podgorica clearly illustrates this phenomenon – everything according to plan, but against the logic of urban development and public interest. When citizens see that plans are being changed to suit investors, and not the community, trust in the system is lost, and tolerance towards informal construction grows. In this sense, “illegal construction” is both a symptom and a reaction to a broader social problem – the problem of inequality of access to space, housing and the right to the city. To address illegal construction, it is necessary to simultaneously reform the system of planning, housing, and public resource management, with a clear commitment to developing cities in the interests of all, not just the most privileged.
"German investor"
"The house is of top quality, and the price is around 180.000 euros. It was built without a building permit, and whoever tells you that it is in this area is lying," said one of the sellers of the house in Donji Štoj.
Vijesti's interlocutor adds that this, and some other houses that are offered through advertisements, were built by a "famous German investor".
We also contacted the owner of the land from Borje, in Žabljak, whose value is over 240.000 euros. However, the agency representing the seller contacted us and told "Vijesti" that "temporary structures can be built on it."
"But the land does not have urban planning and technical conditions (UTU). We have to check for the road," the agency said.
Ražnatović: Less than five percent of illegal buildings have been legalized
"Based on the latest data from December last year, which the Ministry received from the competent local government bodies for the legalization process, since the beginning of the application of the Law on Spatial Planning and Construction of Facilities from 2017, 3.397 illegal facilities have been legalized out of around 62.000 submitted applications for legalization," said Nikola Ražnatović, Acting General Director of the Directorate for the Legalization of Illegal Facilities.
He states that there are several problems that are slowing down the legalization process.
"These are, first of all, the failure to submit the General Regulation Plan, which was one of the conditions for the legalization of illegally constructed facilities in accordance with the 2018 Law. Then, there is the inability to deliver notifications or decisions, according to the Law on Administrative Procedure, and in accordance with our Law on Planning and Construction of Facilities, to foreign citizens (Russia, Ukraine, Israel, UAE, ...), who submitted a request for the legalization of their facilities," points out Ražnatović.
According to the Acting Director of the Directorate for the Legalization of Illegal Buildings, according to the latest amendments to the Law from August 2020, which were related to the legalization process, the deadline for the legalization of illegal buildings is not fixed, so the competent local government bodies dealing with this procedure receive new requests for legalization every day.
"According to the current Law on legalization, illegal buildings can only be legalized if they are included in an orthophotograph, along with other documentation provided for by the Law. Also, the competent local government bodies, in accordance with the current legal solution, were obliged to systematize and establish a list of illegal buildings for which a request for legalization was not submitted, or which did not meet the conditions for legalization in accordance with this Law, but only a small number of them did so," explains Ražnatović.
He adds that owners of illegal buildings give up on legalizing their buildings at the moment when they are supposed to sign a contract on paying urban rehabilitation fees.
Nikola Ražnatović points out that according to the current Law governing the legalization process, illegal objects can only be legalized if they are included in an orthophoto from 2018, along with other documentation required by the Law.
"Also, the legalization of illegal buildings is linked to the planning document, or rather to the fulfillment of the criteria or guidelines given in the planning document. If the building is located on an orthophoto and is not recognized as such by the planning document (and there are most such buildings), then the legalization procedure is suspended until the adoption of the General Regulation Plan."
However, in 2020, the development of the General Regulation Plan was abandoned, and the legal regulations did not change and legalization could not continue," said Ražnatović, noting that the Ministry had prepared a Proposal for a new Law on the Legalization of Illegally Constructed Structures and its adoption is expected in 2025, where the legalization process will be simplified.
Ministry without response
The Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, after three weeks, as stated by the PR service of the department headed by Slaven Radunović, announced that at this moment it is unable to provide answers to the questions raised regarding illegal construction.
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