A problem has arisen for thousands of owners throughout the country, who are in the process of settling their illegal constructions in order to transfer their properties in 2018 and to avoid the upcoming increases of transfer taxes in 2019.

The reason for this is that, although owners are obliged, prior to the settlement, to have the property plans inspected by the competent architectural committees which were established pursuant to par. 5, article 125 of Law 4495/17, the meetings of the committees are lagging, therefore the competent engineers cannot proceed with the required settlements.

This issue is brought forth by the regional consultant Kostas Halevas, an appointed consultant in issues regarding the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change from Thessaly, in his statement in the local press, in which he mentions that while thousands of owners are worried about the transfer of their properties, the competent committees are delaying the process.

Mr. Halevas attributes this delay to the fact that the law in question stipulates that, until the establishment and the beginning of operations of the committee of paragraph 3, article 116, the committees which were established pursuant to article 12 of Law 4178/2013 continue to be responsible for the subsumptions of said article. However, if the mandate of such committees had expired, it was extended until 31.7.2018 with the possibility of a new extension pursuant to the decision of the Minister of Environment and Energy.

Mr. Halevas notes that the local authorities have promoted this issue, however, until this day, there has been no result and thus dozens of files have piled up. He calls upon the competent minister to find a solution and mentions that this will be done promptly, since in a communication he had with the minister’s office, they assured him that the issue will be dealt with and resolved rapidly.