Over 350 thousand un legalised construction in Kosovo

Such ones, in addition to ignoring construction permits, in many cases have not been spared even agricultural lands or public property. According to experts, around 1.2 million Kosovo residents live in objects without permission. And the state has proved powerless against this construction chaos around the country. Solving this problem has been attempted to be given with Law 04/L-88 for the treatment of illegal construction, which dealt with buildings by 2013. But the same has failed to carry out his mission. Because of almost the same procedures as when construction permits are required and high prices, the number of legalised objects with that law remains very symbolic. The process of legalizing construction without permission had been terminated, since the Law for Non-licensed Construction has been abolished early in 2017, which had a deadline to keep it in force for three years from February 4, 2014, to the same date in 2017, writes Koha Ditore.

The outgoing government (The Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning) has issued a new law last year for the treatment of construction without permission, simplifying application procedures and dropping the price per square metre. But the same has been delayed for six months to issue sublaw acts to make this law applicable, which has two years with the possibility of continuing for two more. And it's already been a year since it's been approved in the Republic of Kosovo Assembly, and the pace for legalising about 350 thousand unremitting objects is very small. Construction experts and civil society officials doubt the same could complete the process of legalising construction without permission. According to them, Pristina alone will take at least 10 years to complete this process.

The Law to Treat Free Construction

Environment and Spatial Planning Ministry officials (MMPH) say that from the past legalisation process, based on Law No.04/L-188 for handling illegal construction (which is currently abolished) the State Book of Free Buildings has been established, where they have been identified through the 2013 official ortophotos about 352 thousand construction without permission in the entire territory of the Republic of Kosovo. The senior official at the MMPH Public Communication Division, Bajram Kadriu, says the No.06/L-024 Law for dealing with the construction without permission approved in September last year recognizes this registry and provides access to other construction without permission until the time of its entry into power (according to Kadriut on September 5, 2018). However, he still does not know if this number of construction without permission has changed afterwards.