MEPA announces new penalties for illegal development, introduces daily fines

As part of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) overhaul of its penalties system for illegal development, the authority introduced daily fines for illegal development. The two legal notices will come into force as of 24 November 2012.  

"The new set of regulations bring about substantial changes in the way MEPA executes its penalty system and will provide the Authority with an additional instrument to dissuade and combat illegal development," MEPA said in a statement.

The legal notices 'Scheduling of Penalties Regulation' and the 'Daily Penalty Regulations', introduce the model of penalties and daily fines and clearly identify the penalties that will apply to a number of development breaches, including those that seek to be sanctioned.

MEPA explained that when applications to regularise breaches are accepted, penalties are applied prior to the issue of the development permit.  These penalties have increased substantially over the present ones.

The breaches and their relevant penalties have been categorised into four main sections namely  - developments that are not in accordance with a development permit; developments without any development permission (whether in ODZ area or not), minor developments and other offences.  "There is a distinction being made between infringements carried out within the development zone, and those carried outside the development zone.  Penalties for breaches carried out in a protected area can increase by 100% and can go up to as much as €50,000," it said.

The first type of breach, also referred to as Schedule A, tackles those developments that are not in accordance with their respective development permission or that are not according to official alignment.

The second category, Schedule B, tackles more serious cases where developments were carried out without any permission and here the penalty can go up to as much as 600 percent of the development planning fee (DPF) together with a fixed charge. In cases where the illegal development is carried out in a protected area, the penalties can be further increased by a 100 per cent.

Schedule C tackles those breaches that are minor development offences. Schedule D covers offences pertaining to the failure to submit the required commencement notices on time and to affix the development permit notice when works are ongoing.

"Tampering with any seals placed by the Authority's Enforcement section will invoke a fine of €1,500 on first attempt, and subsequently €12,000 for any further attempt," MEPA said.

Illegal development in an ODZ area, protected area or scheduled property, carried out after May 2008, is not sanctionable and so has to unconditionally be removed by the owner.

"These new penalties, clearly move away from the old structure, introducing a system were the penalty reflects the type of illegality," the authority insisted.

The 'Daily Penalty Regulations' outlines the daily fines that will start to be imposed on illegal or non-conforming developments.

The fines defined are divided into three categories with the lowest daily fine being of €2 and the highest being capped at €50 per day. The further the illegal development is retained, the higher the daily fines progressively become. 

In the case of multiple illegalities on the same site, the highest rate for the cumulative illegalities will be imposed.

The daily fines will only be applicable for any irregularities carried out after the adoption of the new laws, whilst the new penalties will apply for the sanctioning of applications submitted after the coming into force of these Regulations.  

A contravenor still holds the right to appeal against an enforcement notice at the Environment and Planning Tribunal. The daily fine takes effect 16-days after the enforcement notice would have been issued. During this period, a contravenor is obliged to remove the illegality.

MEPA also noted that these new regulations were discussed and agreed upon by Parliament's Standing Committee.