Legalisation of illegally built construction works – deadline for application submission was 30 June 2018

Building without permit permanently devastates space and represents a loss for the entire community! Legal construction increases the safety and value of your property, and allows for good-quality spatial planning of settlements, and applying for grants from EU funds is possible for legal construction only.

If you own a construction work that you have built without obtaining valid permits, there is a possibility to submit, by 30 June 2018, an application for its legalisation. The requirements for legalisation have remained the same, i.e., only those buildings can be legalised that have been developed, i.e., that are visible on the digital orthophoto map of the State Geodetic Administration prepared on the basis of aerial images that were taken as of 21 June 2011, or on other state orthophoto maps, or cadastral plan or other official cartographic base generated prior to 21 June 2011. Legalisation of buildings built after 21 June 2011 will not be possible pursuant to the Act on Proceeding with Illegally Built Buildings neither on the basis of a new application

The legalisation procedure begins with the submission of the application for issuance of the certificate of the as-built state to the competent administrative department that issues building acts for the territory in which the construction work is located. 

The course of application processing can be followed through the data that is published in the Register of issued certificates of the as-built state. The Register is kept in electronic format, in which data entered by the administrative departments and the Agency for Legalisation of Illegally Built Buildings (AZONIZ) is updated on a daily basis.
 
To reiterate, the Act on Proceeding with Illegally Built Buildings entered into force on 4 August 2012. Up to 30 June 2013, which was the deadline set by this Act for submission of applications for legalisation of illegally built buildings, 826 948 applications were received. Up to 5 April  2018, 635 113 decisions were issued following these applications, corresponding to 76.80 %. The highest number of applications was solved by individual city offices, more specifically in the City of Dubrovnik, City of Vukovar, City of Bjelovar, City of Zagreb, City of Poreč and City of Virovitica – all these offices solved more than 90% of applications for which they were in charge.