Not a single request for legalization has been submitted yet, even though almost half a year has passed since the new Law on the Legalization of Illegal Structures, adopted by the Minister of Justice, came into force. Slaven Radunović, announcing that the decades-old problem of illegal construction will finally be solved.
"At 2022 prices, I would have to pay close to 90.000 euros for a 677-square-meter plot, and 13,5 thousand for the urban renovation of a 139-square-meter house. In total, close to 100.000 euros, so my monthly installment would be over 260 euros for 30 years, and I'm afraid it will now be twice as much," says the owner of an illegal house in Mali Brdo. Goran Grdinic za Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG).
In addition to the costs, the problem is that the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property (MDUP) still does not have data on how many illegal structures there are in Montenegro, how many are on state or municipal land, or how many are engaged in economic activity in such structures. They were also late in publishing the satellite image, and the laws are not harmonized, so the verification of the study for submitting the application has also been blocked. The deadline for submitting the application for legalization is February 14, 2026, but according to unofficial information from CIN-CG, the deadline will be extended by six months, after the holidays.
The situation in which the state does not know the number of illegal buildings is a consequence of decades of tolerating such construction, and the tolerance was based on the benefits that political structures derived from supporting illegal builders, the organization KANA/ko akto ne arhitekt pointed out to CIN-CG.
"During that time, a system that would monitor and regulate planning and construction was not developed, and we see the results of that in Montenegro at every turn. It cannot be surprising, therefore, that the situation is chaotic: the problem is huge and widespread, and the capacities to deal with it are weak and underdeveloped," said the NGO, which has been working to prevent the devastation of space in Montenegro for decades.
In the last decade, this is the second attempt to legalize illegally constructed buildings, of which there are an estimated 100.000. The state made a decision to legalize illegal buildings in 2017 and has changed the laws several times, but it has not moved any further than the beginning. Despite the new Law on the Legalization of Illegal Buildings from August 2025, the authorities still do not have a clear picture of the scope of illegal construction. No municipality has yet submitted the number of illegal buildings to the Ministry. Delays in key data, blocked procedures and dysfunctional administration have further rendered the process, which was supposed to bring order to the area and legal security to citizens, meaningless.
It is not yet known how much the land will cost, nor the "utilities" in Podgorica.
Illegal builders are required to pay urban rehabilitation fees in installments, and those who built on local or state land are also required to pay land fees.
The installments for those who have illegally built houses of larger square meters, in the settlement where Grdinić built his house at the beginning of this century, would be over 500 euros. How much that amount will be exactly is not yet known. Residents of Mali Brdo, one of the illegal settlements in Podgorica, believe that even the legalization prices from a few years ago are not acceptable, and they express fear that they could be much higher.
"We admit that we created a problem and would like to solve it, but they are putting us in a situation where we cannot pay. The public has been deceived, that the price will be low, we do not know the price, nor do we know what we stand for," said several residents of Mali Brdo in an interview with CIN-CG, who began building houses, mostly on state-owned land, in that settlement in the 1990s.
Until recently, this "wild settlement" was reached by a macadam road, it used to be a rocky area, there is no water, no dumpsters, and the electricity is quite weak, but everyone regularly pays taxes, electricity, and garbage collection.
Many people tried, even when the previous law was passed, to legalize their houses. In Mali Brdo, according to an estimate from 2022, 132 euros per square meter of land was being demanded. After the adoption of the new Law on the Legalization of Illegal Buildings on August 14 of this year, local governments are expected to provide new estimates.
Marina Izgarevic Pavicevic, State Secretary at the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, admitted to CIN-CG that "the valuations of state land where illegal structures have been built are not that low, with a tendency for those prices to be higher than they used to be."
Some local governments, such as the largest - the Capital City of Podgorica, have not yet made new decisions on the urban rehabilitation fee for illegal buildings, so it is not known whether this price will increase. According to the current Decision on the Urban Rehabilitation Fee for the Capital City from 2020, prices range from 141,5 euros per square meter of building in the first zone, to 48,81 euros in the fifth. For the sixth zone in Podgorica, which includes rural settlements, there are no urban rehabilitation costs.
In Podgorica alone, next to Mali Brdo, there are several "wild settlements", built by occupying state, municipal, and private land - in the Zagorič Forest Park, Kakaricka Gora, Dajbabska Gora...
Under the old Law on Spatial Planning and Construction of Facilities, 62.495 requests for legalization were submitted. In the legalization process that began in 2018, only 3.596 facilities were legalized.
The Government's Fiscal Strategy from July 2024 states "an indicative figure - that legalization would generate up to 183 million euros in revenue." The same document estimates that there are up to 100.000 illegal structures.
Immediately before the adoption of the Law, the Minister of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, Slaven Radunović, said that the law would introduce order and that anyone who engages in illegal construction would from now on have big problems.
"He expects that at least 300 million euros will be paid into the state and local government budgets based on legalization fees," said Radunović.
However, his associate says that the state has made huge mistakes in the legalization process even before. There are a large number of planning documents, she explains, that the Constitutional Court has invalidated since 2017, so some parts of Podgorica have no plans at all - Donja Gorica, Tološi, Momišići.
"We can say that the state has not fulfilled its job, because a large number of users who previously wanted to legalize their facilities were prevented from doing so due to the lack of planning documentation," emphasizes Pavićević Izgarević.
Delay in submitting the application
Under the new Law on the Legalization of Illegal Objects, from August this year, new requests have not yet been submitted, among other things because the Ministry was almost two months late in publishing the satellite so-called ortho-photo image, which was only published in November this year.
Only buildings that are on the so-called ortho-photograph, which proves that the buildings were built by July 2025, can be legalized. This is the only area where some work has begun. At the end of December, seven buildings in Žabljak that were built after the satellite image from July 2025 were demolished.
In addition to the recordings, amendments to the Law on State Survey and Cadastre are also awaited, in order to unblock the verification of the study, because that law was not harmonized with the Law on Legalization.
She explains that interested users could have submitted a request before, but it is incomplete without a completed and certified study, which cadastres cannot certify without amending the Law.
The Commissions that local governments are supposed to form under the new Law have not yet been formed, and they are also having problems with the selection of surveyors.
Because of all this, the Union of Municipalities requested that the deadlines for submitting applications, establishing records of illegal structures, the deadline for forming municipal commissions, as well as the deadline for selecting geodetic organizations be extended.
The main goal when the law was passed was to legalize as many buildings as possible, the State Secretary states, and that although illegal builders are partly privileged by this law, they are certainly in the space and perhaps it is better to regulate that space and provide them with basic living conditions.
KANA says there is no quick solution here.
"The only thing we can hope for is that the state starts building serious capacities to deal with the problem, and whether it will succeed in doing so remains to be seen."
The delay in KANA is interpreted as follows:
"These are all symptoms of what we have already said - a system that would seriously deal with these problems does not exist, and attempts to get it up and running are still full of mistakes. The initial deadlines were too short, the municipalities were not ready, the software tools did not work, the surveyors were overwhelmed with work... But none of this is surprising, because the problem is huge, and the capacities are nonexistent. It is like trying to organize a library in a day, where books have been piled into it for years without any order, and you do not even have a librarian."
The law also blocked real estate transactions for almost four months
The adoption of the new Law on Legalization also blocked real estate transactions for almost four months after its adoption. Namely, the new law stopped the inheritance of buildings without a permit, the sale of buildings without a use permit, the implementation of sales contracts that had already been signed, but not all the money had been paid...
The day after the adoption of the Law, the Notary Chamber addressed the Ministry with the question of whether the ban on the alienation and transfer of real estate applies exclusively to illegally constructed structures without a building permit, which are built after the Law entered into force in August this year. The Ministry responded that the bans also apply to structures built before the regulations entered into force.
Notaries have had to turn away clients who came with purchase contracts. They allege that the Real Estate Administration, which is part of the Ministry of Interior, rigidly interpreted the new law. Such an interpretation has led to confusion in the real estate market.
The Chamber of Notaries told CIN-CG that until August 14, the state allowed illegal properties to be purchased, and that they were in circulation just like any other. Since August 14, they have not allowed you to dispose of your property, the Chamber of Notaries emphasizes, adding that this is a violation of domestic and international rights - the right to peaceful possession.
The second problem they see is that the state has reduced real estate sales, and therefore its sales tax revenue. And the third problem is that 100.000 properties on offer have been made unavailable, while demand is huge, so prices are rising.
In November, the Ministry changed its mind. They provided interpretations of the Law that allowed real estate to be traded without a use permit, that illegal buildings could be inherited, that they could be given as gifts, but only between parents and children, not between spouses, that a mortgage could be registered...
Pavićević Izgarević states that they have unblocked these procedures and provided a new interpretation, and that the Constitutional Court will assess how these matters are in accordance with the adopted Law.
Law before the Constitutional Court
Nine initiatives to initiate proceedings to review the constitutionality of the Law on Legalization of Illegal Buildings have been submitted to the Constitutional Court of Montenegro, the last of which was received on November 25, the court told CIN-CG.
According to CIN-CG, one of the initiatives was submitted by the Association of Banks, and the other was submitted by a Serbian citizen who was supposed to buy a property in Kotor. He scheduled the purchase for August 15, but after the new law was passed, the purchase was stopped.
The Constitutional Court told us that the initiatives were submitted by lawyers, individuals, NGOs, and two foreign individuals.
"All initiatives have been consolidated, in order to conduct a unified procedure and decision-making," the Constitutional Court said.
The initiatives challenge the entire Law. In particular, Article 33 (Prohibition of alienation and performance of activities in an illegal facility), paragraphs 1 and 2, which specify:
"A facility that is built without a construction act or contrary to that act cannot be in legal circulation, that is, it cannot be alienated, and no economic or other activity can be carried out in it. An illegal facility that is not registered in the real estate cadastre or for which a legalization decision is not issued in accordance with this law cannot be alienated, and no economic or other activity can be carried out in that facility."
Then Article 12, paragraph 8: "The decision on the legalization of the facility shall also contain a statement that a certified statement has been submitted by the owner of the legalized facility waiving the right to initiate a court dispute against the state, a local government unit or a company providing services of public interest on any grounds related to the legalization and use of the legalized facility."
And initiatives were also submitted due to Article 15, which refers to documentation that requires a certified statement by the owner of the facility to waive the right to initiate legal proceedings against the state, municipality or institution.
"The petitioners in the initiatives claim that their right to peaceful enjoyment of property has been violated, that the principle of prohibiting the retroactive application of laws has been violated... Some of them have also submitted evidence that, as they claim, they are prohibited from registering, or from disposing of, real estate due to the disputed legal provisions," the Constitutional Court's responses state.
They added that if the Court finds that the allegations in the initiative are well-founded, it will issue a decision to initiate proceedings:
"At this moment, we cannot talk about when the decision will be made because it depends on the judge rapporteur, the complexity of the case itself, and the analysis of constitutional court practice."
Delays in satellite imagery, blocked verification of studies, and unclear procedures have shown that the state is not yet ready to implement its own law. Without institutional accountability and clear deadlines, the legalization process threatens to become another failed attempt at spatial planning in Montenegro.
You can't treat everyone the same, first you need to know how many there are.
The Spatial Plan of Montenegro emphasizes that the legalization process should be carried out with prior detailed records of illegal buildings, that not all illegal buildings can be treated the same, and that it is necessary to strictly control, prevent and prohibit further illegal construction.
"The process of legalizing illegal buildings should be reviewed and critically evaluated from the aspect of the 'damage' that these buildings have caused in the space, while respecting the principle of justice, which means making a distinction between construction that has a social character - the need to provide housing, in relation to those that serve market speculation, and often even usurp public space and state property," the PPCG emphasizes.
Illegal construction is particularly prominent in the most attractive areas of the Primorje region, as well as in protected areas.
"Such construction harms the general public interest and puts pressure on natural resources and the environment," the PPCG states.
This document states that there are around 120.000 illegal buildings and usurped and degraded spaces throughout Montenegro.
A particular problem is the plans from the early 2000s that "envisage" oversized housing construction in settlements, which exceeds the possibilities of even minimally equipping the space with infrastructure and amenities necessary for the normal functioning of the settlements.
"These plans are still in force, formally enabling the legal construction of unsustainable structures, which threatens to cause irreversible damage in urban areas," it warns.
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