On 1 January 2024, the long-awaited new Construction Act No. 283/2021 Coll. (“NStZ“) came into force, which has been the subject of heated political and academic debate in recent years and was even amended several times before it came into force.
Transition period
One of the amendments to the brand new Building Act was the addition of the provision § 334a, which regulates the so-called transitional period. The transitional period is the first half of 2024, i.e. until 30 June 2024. During this period, the new Building Act is effective, but in matters of building plans (in the terminology of the old Building Act: in zoning and building procedures) , the existing legislation is followed. The only exceptions are so-called reserved constructions (these are mainly infrastructure constructions such as motorways, railways, power plants, etc.). At the same time, Section 334a(2) of the NStZ establishes a legal fiction that the date of entry into force of the NStZ on 1 July 2024 is considered to be the date of entry into force of the NStZ for construction projects subject to the transitional period.
Construction plans concerning ordinary buildings will therefore not be governed by the new regulation until 1 July 2024.
But what about the pending proceedings?
Transitional provisions concerning construction plans are regulated in Section 330 of the NStZ. The proceedings and procedures initiated before the date of entry into force of the NStZ will be completed in accordance with the existing legislation. The zoning and construction proceedings initiated before 30 June 2024 will thus be conducted entirely in accordance with the “old” Building Act.
The introduction of the transitional period therefore brings a somewhat paradoxical situation in terms of legislation, when the old Building Act is already formally repealed and therefore ineffective, but not only can pending proceedings be conducted under it, but until 30 June 2024 new proceedings can even be initiated.
In the original version of the NStZ, the system of construction authorities was to be completely redesigned and new state construction authorities were to be created, including the Supreme Construction Authority. This concept was eventually abandoned by the amendment to the NStZ, so the competence to permit buildings will remain with municipal and regional authorities. Therefore, there will be no change in this respect in proceedings initiated under the old Building Act either.
What about cases where planning proceedings have been initiated or completed but construction proceedings have not been initiated?
The proceedings initiated will be completed completely under the old legislation, as mentioned above, this is quite simple. However, a slightly more complicated situation arises if the planning procedure is initiated by 30.6.2024 but the subsequent construction procedure is not. The NSTZ abolishes this two-stage procedure, and now the zoning and construction procedures are jointly replaced by a single procedure on the construction plan.
§ Section 330(6) of the National Planning Act states that final decisions in planning proceedings shall be deemed to be decisions in part of the case in planning permission proceedings under the National Planning Act. Since the planning permission procedure under the NSTZ replaces both the existing zoning and construction procedures, the zoning procedure itself is therefore equivalent to only part of the planning permission procedure. Therefore, in cases where the planning procedure has been completed, the construction will have to be “completed” under the NWTZ regime. This means that the planning permission procedure will be initiated with the understanding that the project will not be permitted again to the extent of the final planning decision or consent.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or guidance for any particular case.