Planning amnesty regulations to make up for compliance scheme shortcomings, government says

New scheme will help owners who had obtained a CTB under previous scheme, to regularise their position, while granting the PA the right to impose any conditions it may deem necessary

The three-year scheme launched by government on Monday was aimed at facilitating the way for ‘bona fide’ property owners who could not sell their property because of irregularities they did not know existed when they bought the property.

The scheme will apply for properties within development zones that appear on the Planning Authority’s aerial photographs for 2016, against a minimum €1,000 fees. Unlike previous regularization legal notices in 2012 and 2013, this scheme will not merely offer concessions but rather full planning permits.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the parliamentary secretariat for planning responded to criticism raised by the chamber of architects, which said the scheme risked “promoting the laissez-faire attitude of certain developers” by providing a mechanism to legalise illegalities.

The parliamentary secretariat said the scheme also empowered the Planning Authority to take action in case of illegalities dating to before 1993.

Under the previous legislation, one could stop the Authority from taking any enforcement action if the property was in an urban area and had been built before 1993.

The previous administration had introduced the CTB scheme, through which property owners could force the authority to completely ignore the zone’s amenity and turn a blind eye to the illegalities.

The secretariat said that many property owners who had obtained a CTB under the previous scheme, were under the misguided impression that they had obtained a full-blown permit from the authority, but this was not the case.

The new scheme would also help such owners regularise their position, while at the same granting the PA the right to impose any conditions it may deem necessary, including the execution of specific work within a stipulated timeframe of no longer than two years.

“And contrary to what happened with CTB up to now, decisions by the Authority will be taken in public,” the statement read. “And as pointed out the by the Chamber of Architects, the new regulations will not, in any way, encroach on the Authority’s duty to issue enforcement notices in the case of individuals who failed to regularise themselves.”