When you decide to do business in Slovakia, you often have to choose the place where you want to do business. Whether you are looking for an office, factory or warehouse, you can always choose between renting or building.

In the first article, we introduced the gradual steps leading to obtaining a territorial permit. In today's, second, we will explain in greater detail the second phase of the construction process, how to obtain a building permit.

1. Applicable law

The legal regulation of the building procedure is regulated by the Act on zoning and building order (hereinafter referred to as the “Building Act”) and in the Decree implementing certain provisions of the Building Act (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”).

2. Definition of building procedure

The construction procedure is the procedure for the possibility of construction. The result of the building proceeding is a valid building permit. Without a valid building permit it is not possible to carry out construction. Building proceeding can only be started after the zoning proceedings! The building permits is issued by the competent building authority on the basis of proposal for a building permit. The building office may combine the territorial proceeding and the building proceeding into one common procedure only in the case of:

            i.: simple building

            ii.: small building

iii.: for other construction, provided that the conditions for the location of the construction result from the zoning plan

Participants in the construction proceedings are the investor - the builder, the construction supervisor, the designer who drafted the project documentation, the owners of neighboring land and buildings.

Before submitting an application for construction proceedings, the investor must obtain the views of the authorities and organizations concerned that may object to the construction proceedings.

3. Necessary step

After the zoning permit comes into force, the investor should start preparing the documentation needed for the building permit.

Step no. 1 - the investor has to find and have the necessary project documentation for the construction and in-area roads and parking lots processed - it is necessary to find an architect and let him prepare the project documentation for the building procedure. This project documentation is more complex and must be prepared more specifically than the project documentation for territorial proceedings. According to our experience and previous realized development projects and the complexity of the development project, it may take several months to prepare this project documentation.

Step no. 2 - after drawing up the project documentation, an opinion must be sought from all authorities concerned. The request for an opinion shall be accompanied by project documentation and each body concerned shall give its opinion on the submitted project. The authorities concerned are obliged to issue an opinion within 30 days of the date of receipt of the application (in our experience, not all authorities comply with this deadline).

Step no. 3 - after receiving all the opinions from the authorities concerned, the investor will ask the competent building authority to issue a building permit. The application shall be accompanied by all the opinions of the authorities concerned and the project documentation. Depending on the complexity of the project and any conditions laid down in the opinions of the authorities concerned, construction proceedings will be initiated, usually by setting an oral hearing. After the expiry of the opposition period, which may not be shorter than 7 days, the building authority shall issue a building permit within 30 days. The building permit shall be delivered to all parties to the proceedings and to all authorities concerned. Any party to the building proceedings may appeal against the building permit within 15 of the day of delivery. If no one appeals the building permit takes effect. We know from practice that this phase can be of the order of one to three months if no one appeals.

In the event that one of the participants appeals, the appeal is decided by the relevant district office, and in this case the whole process will be extended by several months.

From our own experience we know that zoning and construction proceeding can take from 4 to 12 month depending on the complexity of the development project. For very complex projects with a large number of participants and possibly appeals, it may take several years. We believe that in our second article, we have provided you with enough information to make your process run smoothly.

In case of any further questions or requests, please do not hesitate to contact the experts in our VGD team. For more information visit our facebook or website, or Linked In profile.