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A penal fee between 5% and 15% of the evaluation of the real estate property will pay the Greeks who in the past few years have been illegally adding buildings to houses and apartments without having the necessary permissions for the change of the respective buildings. As illegal will also be defined the buildings which are not used according to the purpose they have initially been build for – attic rooms, outhouses and garret rooms not included in the initial sketch of the building, basements and ground floor areas which are rented as homes.

According to the new bill prepared by the Ministry of environment, energy and climate changes the owners of the illegal premises will have the opportunity to voluntarily declare them in eight months time after the coming into effect of the new enactment. In the case of voluntary declaring the fines will be lower that in the cases when a breach has been determined during check up made after the expiration of the eight months grace period. The payment of this penalty fee will provide the owners a guarantee that in the next 40 years there will be no litigations and complaints made against them and they will not pay additional fines, nor will they have to demolish the illegal outhouses.

The fines in case of voluntary declaring vary between 5% to 13,5% of the tax valuation of the respective region according to the size of the property in square meters for all the buildings which are included in the urban cadastre. The owners of illegal buildings which are not included in the urban cadastre will pay between 6% and 15% of the tax valuation of the property per square meter as well if they declare on their own the illegal building. After the expiration of the eight months for registering the changes which have been made the authorities will impose a 30% fine in the cases when they determine violations.

The Minister of environment, energy and climate changes Tina Bribili underlined that regardless of the new type of settlement and payment of the respective penal fee the illegal buildings will not be legalized. The funds collected from the penal fees will be invested in a special fund “Ecological business” and will be used for the development of a program related to the preservation of the environment and the improvement of the urban environment.