Dostálová: The construction law will go to the government two weeks later

Prague – The draft of the building law will go to the Legislative Council of the Government in mid-April, two weeks later than originally anticipated. This was stated today by the Minister for Regional Development Klára Dostálová (for ANO) during a meeting with representatives of the Senate Committee for Regional Development, Public Administration, and the Environment. According to her, the reason is that the ministry reached out to non-mandatory actors during the preparation of the law.

The main goal of the new law is to accelerate and simplify the building permit process. However, critics argue that the law favors developers, undermines public interests such as environmental protection, and opens the door to corruption. The Environmental Commission of the Czech Academy of Sciences also expresses concern that the law is being prepared by entities that are supposed to be regulated by it. In fact, the draft of the new building law was prepared by the Czech Chamber of Commerce, which includes large construction and development corporations among its members.

"The new building law will bring fundamental changes. That is why we decided to reach out to non-mandatory stakeholders as well, so that the draft is properly discussed. We want to address all comments by April 15, after which we will send the draft to the Legislative Council of the Government," said Dostálová. The Ministry for Regional Development (MMR) had previously indicated that it had received 1,641 comments from other offices. Non-mandatory stakeholders include professional associations, interest groups of entrepreneurs or consumers, as well as scientific and professional institutions.

Dostálová expects that the Legislative Council of the Government could approve the draft by the end of May. "After that, we will be preparing the legislative text; we are already working on some points today. We anticipate that the law will go to the Chamber of Deputies at the beginning of next year," she added.

Both chambers of Parliament should have one year for approval. According to Dostálová, the law should come into effect in February or March 2021. "But we expect that there will be transitional provisions. This is similar to the Civil Code. It is a huge volume of changes, and it will take about a year for everything to settle down. For the Civil Code, it took two years," said the minister.

According to MMR, the new building law should shorten the permitting process for constructions from the current average of 5.4 years to one year. The territorial proceedings, building proceedings, and environmental impact assessments will be merged into a unified permitting process. The proposal anticipates the establishment of a Supreme Building Authority, which will be part of the state administration. The proposal states that if the relevant authority does not issue its opinion within 30 days (or 60 days in more complex cases), the so-called fiction of consent will apply. It will not be possible to grant a permit for construction retroactively.

The proposal is mostly welcomed by representatives of construction firms and developers. They consider the current state, where it can take over ten years to obtain approval for a larger project, to be unsustainable. They argue that this is one of the main reasons for the significant current rise in apartment prices. According to World Bank data, the Czech Republic ranks 156th in the world in terms of the speed of permitting buildings.

Since the MMR presented the draft at the beginning of February, a number of comments have emerged. Representatives of the Czech Chamber of Authorized Engineers and Technicians in Construction (ČKAIT) state that the law is rushed and favors developers. According to the Czech Union for Nature Conservation, the proposal undermines public interests such as environmental protection or heritage preservation, as well as the rights of neighboring property owners. The Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions is also opposed to the automatic approval of construction if the building authority does not issue a permit within the mandated time frame, as this opens the door to corruption according to the unions.

MMR rejects the majority of the comments. Thanks to electronic and digital processing, the ministry claims that the permitting process will be transparent and officials will be under the control of the state, applicants, and the public.