Same fines for arbitrary actions despite the fall in objective values

Ultimately, owners of unauthorized buildings who were waiting for objective values to fall in order to legalize their property with a lower fine have gained nothing. According to a decision (ref. no. 17046) signed by the Minister and Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy, Panos Skourletis and Yiannis Tsironis, the fine will be calculated based on the zone prices that were in effect on July 28, 2011.

In particular, they accept the opinion of the Legal Council of the State (No. 63/2016), which accepts that “the zone prices taken into account for the application of the provisions of Articles 18 and 22 of Law 4178/2013 are those in force on July 28, 2011, and, therefore, the method of calculating the single special fine is not affected by the operative part of Decision No. 4446/2015 of the Council of State (CoS), nor by the new zone prices set by Decision No. POL. 1009/18.1.2016 of the Deputy Minister of Finance.

It should be noted that last January, the Ministry of Finance, among other things, reduced the objective values in 63 zones and harmonized them with the decision of the Council of State (4446/2015) on the readjustment of objective values, with retroactive effect from May 21, 2015.

According to the reasoning of the State Legal Council, the legislator’s choice in the last two laws on the legalization of unauthorized buildings (4014/2011 and 4178/2013) of the zone price that was in effect on a certain date for the calculation of the fine (and not the zone price applicable at the time of submission of the legalization application or that applicable at the time of construction of the unauthorized building or commencement of use of the unauthorized space) aims to simplify the procedure and decouple it from the date on which the file for the legalization of an unauthorized space is opened.

Furthermore, as mentioned, Law 4178 specified the zone price used as a basis for calculating the uniform special fine for properties located in areas for which no zone price has been set, in accordance with the objective value system of Law 4178. 1249/1982.