All building permits from 2015 onwards will be issued electronically

By the end of the month, six cities will begin issuing building permits electronically, with the aim of having all urban planning departments in the country processing applications electronically by the beginning of next year, without the need for engineers to visit the building authorities. The system platform was developed under the supervision of the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change by the Technical Chamber of Greece with funding from the NSRF, with the aim of combating bureaucracy and enhancing transparency in order to combat “quick stamps” and any illegal transactions between engineers, citizens, and officials.

In the coming period, the TEE will proceed with the training of engineers in building services, without ruling out a period of parallel operation between the old and new methods of issuing building permits, in order to test the new system and the urban planning staff in practice and to avoid mistakes and omissions. The TEE needed months of preparation to create a reliable electronic transaction system that would be useful for the building services themselves, as well as to conduct tenders for the procurement of software licenses and technical equipment.

According to the Ministry of Environment, everything is ready for it to start operating from Athens, Piraeus, Heraklion, Chania, Komotini, and Corinth, arguing that the system will also be linked to the building’s electronic identity. “We have created a single platform for the electronic issuance of building permits and electronic identity with significant benefits. Today, for any changes made within the legal boundaries of the building, one had to revise the permit. By keeping a record of the identity, changes and plans, e.g., for changing the location of a kitchen or a room, will be entered directly into the building’s electronic identity database and will form part of the permit,” explains Christos Spirtzis, president of the Technical Chamber, to “business stories.” However, the system still has some weaknesses. At present, it is only intended to work with the Land Registry, with the aim of gradually communicating electronically with other services involved in issuing building permits, such as forestry departments, archaeological services, etc.

An additional objective is for the system to act as a kind of traffic cop in the use of supporting documents for permits, so that any services requiring a dependent topographical survey can have it forwarded to all services electronically, without the need for physical delivery to each service separately by the engineer. engineer. Based on the system design, the permit application will be entered into a control flow at the competent building department, where employees will check it and make any comments electronically, which will be communicated to the engineer in real time.

The permit will be issued after all the required stages have been approved and the required studies have been found to be complete, as well as after any additional supporting documents have been submitted. The entire inspection process, the history of changes, and the file will be kept electronically and will be available to the engineer, the owner, the competent building authority, and the Ministry of Environment, Energy, and Climate Change. The same system incorporates the electronic process for submitting requests for inspection, the random selection of building inspections, and their results.

It has not been clarified whether the TEE will receive any financial compensation for operating the system, as is the case, for example, with the platform for unauthorized buildings. The Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change maintains that no remuneration is provided for and points out that through the system, the Technical Chamber will be able to fully control the register of engineers.