What is self-building and how to make it legal

Self-construction ▶️ these are illegal construction sites that violate the norms 🚫🏠 Find out what is a self-construction and what is not 🚧 THE Capital™ will tell you how to make it legal

“Why spend extra time legitimizing self-construction if you don’t have to do it,” - after reading our material you will understand that there is no more erroneous opinion than this.

Illegal construction is scary not only because of its illegality, but also because it ties the hands of its owner. Without the necessary documents, you will not be able to leave an inheritance, exchange, or sell your property. Such pleasant bonuses as subsidies or benefits will never please you with their favor. And you will also have to give up a quiet life for the simple reason that living in a house without communications is a dubious pleasure.

We will show you that the procedure for legitimizing unauthorized construction is not as scary as it is made out to be. By taking care of your property once, you will save yourself from headaches for the rest of the time it will spend with you.

An article about how it was in 2021: "(2021) What is squatter construction and how to legitimize it?"

Samostroy: what it is and cannot be

It’s easy to guess what a squatter building is by its very name. This is an unauthorized construction, that is, a real estate object during the creation of which the owner did not bother to draw up the necessary documents for permission, and therefore the object violates construction and urban planning regulations. Simply put, an unregistered building is not accepted by the state and its very existence is considered unacceptable and therefore prohibited.

Violators of the law and owners of unauthorized construction can be not only unscrupulous developers and builders, but also inspired owners of land plots who, wanting to quickly realize their grandiose ideas, may accidentally (or of their own free will) forget about the importance of the letter of the law.

Don’t rush to conclusions and don’t count yourself among the people described if you remember how last summer you and your children decided to build a tree house. Not everything can be called self-construction. Such objects include:

• construction started without documents with permission
• construction on a plot of land that is not intended for this purpose. That is, there is a violation of the intended purpose
• construction, the purpose of which is to reconstruct real estate
• construction that is started to expand the area of ​​the facility
• construction of an extension

“Extension” is a rather broad concept. Therefore, in order not to mislead you, we will also explain that it definitely cannot be a self-construction:

• engineering and technical arrangement
• fortification
• loggia and glassed-in balcony
• greenhouse
• gazebo and canopy
• cellar
• pool
• other temporary structures

Self-construction that appeared on the streets of a city or region before 1992 also does not require a building permit. To register ownership, you only need a registration certificate and documents of the owner.

Different procedures for different squatters: how to stop being a lawbreaker

The procedure for legalizing unauthorized construction depends on the object itself - on its functional purpose (residential/non-residential), year of construction (before 1992 or after), as well as on the size (up to 300 sq.m., up to 500 sq.m., over 500 sq.m.). The category of residential unauthorized buildings includes not only the residential at home., but also garden and country houses with all possible elements of their “upgrade”, such as a bathhouse or sauna, a barn or garage, a summer kitchen or a swimming pool and other outbuildings. How to register what and what is needed for this - in the table below you will learn all the most important things.

On the way to transforming your unauthorized construction into a legal building, you will have to cooperate with several government organizations:

• State Inspectorate of Architecture and Urban Planning (GIAG) will help you both with obtaining permission to begin construction and with putting the finished facility into operation
• To obtain a construction passport, go to the architecture department
• For a technical passport, you can contact a company with a certified engineer or Bureau of Technical Inventory (BTI)

Registration of self-construction is a complex procedure that requires your attention, time and expense. If we are talking about a residential property in Kyiv, be prepared to pay from 28 hryvnia. In the Kyiv region, prices are slightly lower - from 500 hryvnia. The processing time is the same everywhere and is at least a month.

Bill No. 5655: should owners of self-built houses be afraid of it?

Let us immediately warn you that there is no need to get scared ahead of time. This bill was registered on June 11, 2021 and is still under consideration. During this time, it was repeatedly discussed and criticized even by those deputies who are members of the party that created it.

What is the essence of the scandalous bill No. 5655? The three pillars on which it is based are aimed at updating norms, raising standards and responsibility:

• digitalization of all processes
• significant increase in the responsibility of participants
• strengthened control over illegal construction and unauthorized construction

In the context of our topic, the last point is key. If previously fines for owners of self-built buildings were at the level of 50 tax-free minimums for individuals and 20 subsistence minimums for legal entities, then with the entry into force of bill No. 5655, they would increase to 950 subsistence minimums. And in some especially serious cases, it would not be possible to get away with a fine alone, and for illegal construction one would have to bear criminal liability with imprisonment for up to 5 years.

Such measures caused a wave of indignation, but further consideration of the bill led to even more indignation. Many points were aimed in favor of developers. According to experts, blatant injustice towards decent players and outright scammers coexists on the pages of the document. One could forget about responsibility and punishment in those situations where they are really required. It would not be amiss to say obvious things - criticism from the Main Legal Department of the Verkhovna Rada, the Association of Ukrainian Cities and the mayors of 39 cities became an eloquent assessment of the new project. It is not surprising that back in December 2022, a petition to veto Bill No. 5655 received the required number of votes faster than you could finish reading this sentence.

Decisive changes in the field of urban planning, recorded on paper, caused controversy not only within the state, but also beyond its borders. The European Commission fully supports the successful petition. Transferring control from the state to private companies and local organizations will not only be unhelpful, but will also create additional “integrity risks,” as stated in the European Commission report.

At the moment, bill No. 5655 does not come into force and is not repealed; it is in limbo. Only one thing can be said for sure: in its current form, signing it is impossible. No matter how the situation with this bill develops, experts THE Capital They recommend that you not tempt fate and legitimize your self-construction as early as possible.