The procedure for legalizing unauthorized construction in Ukraine in 2024

What is unauthorized construction?

Construction is considered unauthorized if it can be attributed to any of the following cases:

the building is constructed on a land plot whose designated purpose does not provide for the possibility of erecting a building;
the construction is carried out without a declaration of commencement of construction works (for buildings of minor complexity), or without a permit for construction works or without an approved construction project (for complex buildings);
performed with a significant violation of building codes and regulations.

The official definition of unauthorized construction is provided for in Article 376 of the Civil Code of Ukraine.

Legalizing unauthorized construction in Ukraine

Why legalize unauthorized construction?

It's a rhetorical question, but let's go through the main reasons why unauthorized construction needs to be legalized. For the sake of uniformity, we should note that by legalization we mean a legal process that results in the state registration of the ownership of a building for the person who owns it. So, the reasons:

А. Liability for violation of the law. The current legislation provides for several types of legal liability for unauthorized construction, including:

Warning. Order of the State Inspectorate of Architecture and Urban Planning (SIAP) to eliminate violations of the law.
A fine.
Forced demolition of the building.

B. Impossibility to exercise the owner's rights. The fact is that under the current legislation, the person who constructed the building unauthorizedly does not acquire ownership of it. This means that you will not be able to transfer the rights to an unauthorized building to other persons (sell, donate, exchange, lease, bequeath, etc.).

C. Impossibility to legally connect the building to utility networks (electricity, gas, water, heat, etc.), since the basis for concluding the relevant energy supply agreements is a registered declaration of readiness for operation.

Thus, the state generally does not support those who build unauthorized houses by imposing liability for them and restricting their ability to acquire ownership of such objects. However, there are exceptions, which we will discuss below.

The procedure for legalizing unauthorized construction

Today, there are, in particular, two possibilities to legitimize unauthorized buildings administratively, among them:

legalization of houses built before August 05, 1992;
legalization of buildings constructed between 05.08.1992 and 09.04.2015.

These options apply only to individual residential, garden, and country houses with an area of up to 300 square meters. There is also a possibility of legalizing an unauthorized house through the court, but this will be discussed in another publication.

А. Legalization of houses built before 05.08.1992

The current legislation provides for the possibility of legalizing an unauthorized building built before August 05, 1992. The main feature of the legalization of buildings constructed before 1992 is that such a building does not need to register a declaration of readiness for operation in the Register of Construction Activities. Registration of ownership of unauthorized construction is carried out by the state registrar on the basis of the following documents:

An application for registration (to be prepared on-site by the state registrar);
Receipt of payment of the registration fee;
Technical passport for the building;
Certificate or decision on address assignment (not required if the land plot under the building has a cadastral number and is entered in the state register of real estate rights); or
A title document for the land plot (including information from the economic book or a decision of the local council on the transfer of the land plot for use or ownership);
An extract from the household book issued by the local executive committee or archive.

Б. Legalization of houses built between August 05, 1992 and April 09, 2015

In September 2018, a new Procedure for Conducting Technical Inspection and Acceptance of Individual Residential, Garden, and Country Houses came into force. The main feature of the legalization of houses built in 1992-2015 is the need to register a declaration of readiness for operation in the Register of Construction Activities. That is, another bureaucratic link is added to the procedure - the SACI. Accordingly, the procedure for legalizing such buildings currently consists of three stages:

Conducting a technical inspection and drawing up a technical passport;
Registration of the declaration of readiness for operation in the Register of Construction Activities;
Registration of ownership of the building in the State Register of Real Property Rights.

Let's look at each of these stages in more detail

1. Technical inspection.

In essence, a technical inspection is a procedure for inspecting the condition of structural elements, determining the class of consequences and general measurements of the building, which results in a technical passport for the building. The technical passport, in turn, is one of the documents that is submitted for registration of the declaration of readiness of the object for operation.

2. Declaration.

After conducting a technical inspection and drawing up a technical passport, the following list of documents is submitted to the local ASC:

declaration of readiness of the facility for operation;
a technical passport for the building registered in the Register of Construction Activities with a mark on the technical inspection, which is placed on the schematic plan of the land plot;
title document to the land plot (state act, contract, certificate, etc.) with the cadastral number of the land plot.

The term for consideration of the above documents by the SNRIU is 10 working days (2 weeks). The result of the review is a registered declaration of the facility's readiness for operation or return of documents for revision.

3. Registration of ownership.

After conducting a technical inspection and obtaining a registered declaration, it is necessary to contact the state real estate registrar and provide him with the following list of documents in the originals:

an application for registration (to be prepared on site by the state registrar);
receipt of payment of the registration fee;
declaration of readiness of the object for operation, registered in the Register of Construction Activities;
technical passport for the building registered in the Register of Construction Activities;
a written statement or agreement between co-owners on the distribution of shares in joint ownership, if there are two or more owners.

The state registrar takes 5 business days to review documents on the registration of ownership of a building. The result of the review is an extract from the State Register of Real Property Rights, which confirms the registration of ownership of the building.

The construction amnesty for houses built in 1992-2015, which was introduced in 2018, has no expiration date, meaning that the opportunity to legalize unauthorized construction will remain until the legislation is changed. The same applies to houses built before 1992.

How is the procedure regulated?

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