Filenews 29 December 2021 - by Vassos Vassiliou
The procedure for the electronic submission of applications for a building permit, which would come into force on January 1, 2022, has been cancelled and the Minister of Interior, at the request of the Union of Municipalities, gave an extension for one month so that all municipalities would be ready to respond.
Based on the new policy that had been announced and which was already implemented by the Town Planning (for planning permits) and the provincial administrations, applications would be submitted electronically and examined within ten days by the Municipalities.
The president of ETEK, Konstantinos Konstantis, expressed anger at the inconvenience to which, he argues, etek members are now being subjected simply to submit a paper application even for simple buildings.
It is not possible a few days before the implementation of the new procedure, to have municipalities that make appointments to architects and engineers ten days after contacting the technical services, just to submit applications and plans in writing, he said. Even in times of bureaucracy, architects took their plans and applications and went to the relevant municipality and deposited them on the same day, contrary to what is currently the case when the process is even more time-consuming, he said. According to Mr. Konstantis, this happens even in large municipalities and he brought as an example the Municipality of Strovolos. While in the past it was considered that the Department of Town Planning was lagging behind in the process of submitting / receiving applications for planning permission, today the situation has improved and what mainly complicates members of ETEK are the procedures applied by municipalities, said Mr. Konstantis. He clarified that both the Town Planning and the District Administrations accept applications in electronic form. He wondered if municipalities will eventually be able to manage the development after the approval of the local government reform. He also wondered how many appointments a day the technical services of municipalities book, suggesting that their number is small and that they could handle more applications but do not do so. He also expressed the wish that all municipalities would be ready within the one-month limit of the extension given by the Interior Minister.
However, officials in various municipalities consider, from their point of view, that several architects submit their applications "approximately", in the sense that they have many gaps that they expect to be filled by the employees of the municipalities, which, they argue, makes it impossible to process the applications quickly, as required by the ETEK.
The president of the Union of Municipalities, Andreas Vyras, asked by "F" about the postponement of the process of electronic receipt of applications, said that we must all realize that not all problems are solved with the push of a button. There are municipalities that need computers and training of their staff, said Mr. Vyras, who added that the world was not lost for a month. When we asked him if the problems in all municipalities would be solved within a month, Mr. Vyras said that the goal is achievable. He clarified, however, that the large municipalities are ready to implement the new procedure, but it was judged that it would be better for the new policy to be implemented uniformly by all municipalities.
Town Planning - Prefects act electronically
As it is known, as of October 1, 2020, the announcement of the Minister of Interior Nikos Nouris for the issuance of a permit for the construction of a two-storey house on an approved plot of land for up to 20 days was implemented and as he mentioned in an interview with the CNA, most of them (provided that they were submitted electronically) have been issued within ten days. He also said that in the first year of implementation of the above methodology, about 2,500 applications have been issued.
"Since October 1st, 2020, we have introduced a pioneering reform with the cooperation of private designers and etek and the issuance of a permit for the construction of up to a two-storey house on an approved plot is issued in a maximum of 20 days with most of them having been issued in 10 days when submitted electronically, because we simply succeeded in changing the methodology", he said.
He also said that the institution is paying off and the next step, which will be taken from June 1, 2022, concerns the expansion of the institution, with the issuance of a permit within ten days in even larger deployments of up to 20 units. As he said, this will also cover the apartment buildings, which will give the opportunity to both businessmen and some who may have the intention to build larger units than a residence, to issue their licenses within ten days.
