11-04-2012 Arbitrary Campaigns

Heavy penalties for arbitrary “monkey business”

Tens of thousands of owners of unauthorized buildings who applied for regularization with only the engineer’s and owner’s affidavits as supporting documents may find themselves facing justice.

Following the decision of the Council of State, which ruled that regularization can only be achieved by presenting official public documents or aerial photographs, thousands of applications that have been submitted are now stuck in limbo.

Specifically, owners must submit public documents or aerial photographs, and if a violation is found after inspection, they face severe penalties. The law stipulates that false statements are punishable by up to six months’ imprisonment and a fine of up to €100,000. The engineer who implemented the application risks having their license temporarily or permanently revoked.

Meanwhile, from now on, applications for regularization based solely on private documents will not be accepted. This is because it was found that some owners had made false statements to “increase” the age of the unauthorized construction in order to obtain smaller fines.