A new Greek draft law proposes the temporary legalisation of illegal buildings in return for a fine.Or how state coruption becomes legale..

Paying through the roof

by Damian Mac Con Uladh

THERE are up to a million of them, according to government estimates, to be found all over the country, within towns and cities and far beyond them, some large, in your face mansions and others smaller refuges against the summer heat.

They are Greece’s illegal homes, long a scourge on the country’s physical and natural environment and a problem that successive governments have abysmally failed to confront.

But under new draft legislation, presented to parliament on July 28 by Environment, Energy and Climate Change Minister Yiorgos Papakonstantinou, the owners of these illegal structures will be given a stark choice: to temporarily legalise these buildings – for up to 40 years in some cases – in exchange for a fine or have the structure torn down.

The legalisation fines, which can be paid in instalments over 24 or 26 months, will be calculated according to the specifics of each individual structure. Among the criteria that will influence the amount are whether the property has been built with a permit or not, whether it lies inside or outside the town plan, whether it is the primary residence of the owner, local objective property values, the structure’s dimensions and whether it has additional illegal features such as swimming pools.

Structures built outside the boundaries of the municipal plan will be subject to greater fines than those built within the area where construction is permitted, for example.

The draft law also proposes that only illegal structures built within the municipal plan will be eligible for the 40-year legalisation period. For illegal buildings built elsewhere, the legalisation will be limited to 20 years.
Fines raised will be paid into a special “environmental balance” fund, to be used by municipalities to free up space in the urban fabric and finance the demolition of other illegal structures.

Ineligible

The proposals are not a free for all, however, and Papakonstantinou has stated that certain illegal buildings – structures built on forestland, on the shoreline, along stream and river beds and on archaeological sites – will not qualify for legalisation under the provisions.

However, in a major concession, even properties which are currently the subject of court cases between owners and the state may also benefit from the draft law’s provisions.

In offering legalisation, albeit temporary, to fully illegal structures, Papakonstantinou’s plan goes far beyond a programme introduced by his predecessor, Tina Birbili, that allowed property owners to legalise imiypaithrioi, or illegal additions to legal structures such as converted balconies.

The Birbili programme, the deadline of which has been extended as a result of huge demand, has already received 630,000 applications, representing a 550-million euro windfall for a special “green fund” set up to absorb the money and 175 million euros in fees for state coffers.

Though the former minister had repeatedly stated that illegal buildings would have to be demolished, her successor has taken a more pragmatic approach to the question which has bedevilled governments for decades.

“We have the following choice: either we ignore reality and let people live with a threat dangling over their heads or we try to apply some rules,” Papakonstantinou told parliament on July 28.

He added that since the government last tried to seriously deal with the issue of illegal structures 30 years ago, piecemeal interventions and half-hearted attempts to levy fines by the state had utterly failed to tackle the problem.

Although existing laws specify fines for illegal buildings, the ministry says these were so exorbitant that few property owners paid them. In addition, it says that previous legislative efforts to deal with illegal buildings were solely revenue-making exercises, where the proceeds were not used in any way to the benefit of the environment.

Levying fines in return for temporary legalisation is a means of compensating the environment for the damage that has been done to date and “restoring a disturbed balance” between the rights of citizens and the rule of law.

He added that the new law would draw a “red line”, after which no illegal developments would be tolerated.
In an interview with the Kathimerini on Sunday newspaper on July 31, Papakonstantinou also said that property owners who apply for legalisation will not have to fear the decision being revoked by the Council of State in the future as the draft law “has taken into consideration the jurisprudence” of the country’s supreme administrative court.

Glossary
Αυθαίρετα (afthaireta)
Literally “unlicensed”, meaning illegally erected buildings
Ημιυπαίθριοι (imiypaithrioi)
Literally “semi-open”, meaning illegal additions, extensions or alternations to a legal structure such as conversions of balconies, verandas, garages or terraces to rooms

A history of sprawl

The history of illegal building in Greece dates back to the 1920s, when the country’s population increased by a fifth almost overnight as a million refugees arrived from Asia Minor. Ramshackle settlements such as Kesariani and Nea Smyrni in Athens sprung up around major cities and towns. As the urban population swelled after the civil war, private homes were demolished and replaced by high rise apartment blocks under a Greek system (still in practice and known as antiparochi) whereby property owners received an apartment or two from builders in exchange for the land. With growing prosperity in the 1970s and 1980s, urban middle class Greeks turned their attention to the countryside and an explosion of summer homes occurred. More recently, devastating fires in the Attica region have left wide areas vulnerable to encroachment.

Sample fines

For a 150m2 house in Dionysos municipality, northeastern Attica, where the objective property value is 2,054 euros/m2

Primary residence, 20% above the building coefficient €34,660
Second home, 20% above the building coefficient €69,322
Primary residence, with no building permit €69,322

For a 150m2 house in Avlonas, eastern Attica, where the objective property value is 557 euros/m2

Second home, above the building coefficient €18,800

For a 200m2 maisonette on the island of Mykonos, where the objective property value is 900 euros/m2

Second home, outside of municipal plan, with no permit €162,000
For a 70m2 rooftop studio (or doma in Greek) in Neo Psychiko, northeastern Athens, where the objective property value is 2,400 euros/m2

Second home, 20% above building coefficient and height limit €45,360

Source: Environment ministry

http://www.athensnews.gr/issue/13455/45878