Today, there are no longer many apartments located in houses built 30 or more years ago, where the plan has not been changed. Whether the previous owners have made changes or the new owner wants to make changes.
Whether construction work can be carried out without a project or needs to be legalized depends on the work planned. For the purposes of the Building Code, all work is based on a project; Annex 1 to the Building Code specifies in which case it is necessary to submit it to the local government in order to apply for a building permit or submit a building notice.
In case of reconstruction of a residential building, if the load-bearing and stiffening structures of the building are changed or replaced, the external appearance of the building is changed, technical systems (incl. Air heat pumps, fireplaces, etc.) are changed and submitted to the local government together with the construction notice.
If the fireplace and / or air source heat pump are now installed as additional heating sources in addition to the main heating, documentation is required to prove that the heating stove is safe and usable. Project, consent of the cooperative and entry in the building register as a type of heating. Once the necessary approvals and documents have been lost, the licensed potter will inspect the fireplace and assess its safety during the notification process.
When installing an air source heat pump, the consent of the cooperative is also required, ie the consent of all co-owners, the project and the consent of the local government, which makes a corresponding entry in the register.
Can non-load-bearing partitions always be removed?
All parts of the building, both external and internal walls and equipment for common use (eg central heating system) that are necessary for the maintenance or safety of the building, are co-owned by the apartment owners, whether or not they are located in the real estate. Thus, in order to make changes to the walls within the limits of the real part of the apartment ownership, the consent of all co-owners is required in the case of a significant change in the matter.
For each construction work, it is necessary to assess whether there is a significant change or not.
There is no single answer to this without assessing the facts. According to the Building Code, the removal or addition of a non-load-bearing wall is not a construction work that would require a permit within the meaning of the Building Code, but still requires the co-owners (cooperative) to be notified of the planned work. The older the house, the more it has sunk and, for example, the owner of the upper apartment has a large Soviet-era sectional cabinet full of crystals, services and encyclopedias on a removable partition downstairs. If the owner of the lower apartment now unknowingly removes the partition in his apartment, the whole house could be badly damaged.
There have often been changes in the plan where it is desired to make a bathroom with a window instead of the current kitchen or bedroom. Here, too, it is necessary to discuss with the designer or another competent person that the changes made will not infringe the rights or interests of other co-owners. For example, a neighbor under a planned bathroom has a bedroom on the site.
In order to increase the living space of an apartment at the expense of Łódź, the decision of the general meeting, the project and the permission of the local government, which makes an entry in the building register, are also required. In order to change an entry in the land register, it is necessary to go to a notary and this requires the presence of all the residents of the apartment building, which often fails and therefore the data in the building register and the entries in the land register do not match.
The local government requires the consent of the co-owners for changes to the plans that change the share in the joint ownership (although this may vary from region to region, but this is always required in the city of Pärnu). The decision of the general meeting may be replaced by the separate consents of the co-owners. In small houses, the consent of the immediate neighbor whose interests could be damaged or affected by the changes.
Under current law, all construction work must be carried out, managed or inspected by a competent person and is responsible for it. A person is competent if he or she has a qualification appropriate to the specifics of the job. A person may not provide misleading information about his or her qualifications or perform work for which he or she does not have a qualification (§ 23 of the EA).
Therefore, a competent person should be involved for all construction work, who should be contacted in case of later problems. If you invite a neighbor, it is worth considering whether he is still so competent and responsible after the low-quality work.
If such property is for sale, where the layout and heating systems have already been changed, the buyer may find that the missing permits and approvals need to be repaired by the current owner and may take time, but may not be legalized at all. If you are interested in such property, we recommend that you immediately research and check www.ehr.ee to see if the work has been legalized and the corresponding entries have been made in the Building Register.
Some leading major banks have changed their lending policies due to changes in heating types and plans in apartment properties. Namely, there have been situations when the bank does not want apartment ownership as collateral, where the construction work has not been legalized, even if the work has been carried out for years.
This is not malicious by the banks, but rather that the construction work that requires a permit is legalized. In the end, the victim is still the owner, ie the consumer’s desire to sell later, etc.
Source: Delfi