FAQ Booklet Related to the Law on t

Last month, the Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities issued a booklet elucidating Law No. 17 of 2019 on the Settlement of Building Violations (the “Law”)[1] that was issued earlier this year (the “Booklet”).[2] Aiming to clarify the provisions of the Law and its Executive Regulations (by virtue of the Prime Ministerial Decree No. 1631 of 2019)[3] and facilitate their implementation, the Booklet includes some of the common questions and answers in relation to the Law and its Executive Regulations as well as guiding examples to all cases of violations and the methods of calculating the settlement values in these cases.

Background

The Law itself was issued in April 2019 to allow for settlement in some building violations. Only violations that took place prior to the issuance of the Law are eligible for settlement under its purview. Additionally, the Law excludes the following from eligibility for settlement: (1) construction on state-owned land (unless the concerned party has applied for compliance); (2) construction that infringes on the structural safety of a building; (3) construction that infringes on antiquities land or the Nile; (4) breaches to special architectural style buildings; (5) exceeding aviation or military height restrictions; (6) changing the use of zones for which official detailed plans have been issued by an administrative authority; (7) infringing on approved organizational boundaries, or the legal rights of neighbouring constructions; and (8) building outside of approved urban boundaries (with three exceptions). In addition to setting the criteria for eligibility for settlement, the Law also provides for the establishment of technical committees in the relevant authorities listed in the 2008 Construction Law[4] – namely the New Urban Communities Authority, the Tourism Development Authority, the Industrial Development Authority, and the Armed Forces Engineering Authority – as well as committees at the governorate level. Whereas the role of the governorate committees is to set the price of the meter in the area, the technical committees inspect the documentation and conduct field visits and then determine the consideration for settlement based on the price per meter that was set by the governorate committee. Accordingly, eligible requests for reconciliation must be submitted before a technical committee within six months from 9 July 2019 (i.e., prior to 8 January 2020). The submission of the request has the effect of suspending any active lawsuits or sentences, as well as administrative decisions/procedures issued concerning the violation(s) in question. A technical committee must issue its report within four months from the date of submission of a complete request and is obliged to inspect all requests submitted before it within the six-month period. Rejected settlement requests can be appealed within 30 days from notice before a third committee of higher calibre. Following this, in July 2019, the Executive Regulations of the Law were published, providing further details on the formation of the aforementioned committees and the calculation of the settlement amount in addition to containing the template/form for the settlement request and the information that must be enclosed therewith.

The FAQ Booklet

The Booklet is divided into three main parts. The first includes a list of questions and answers relating to the Law and its Executive Regulations, which mostly reiterate what has been already stipulated therein. Among the most important regulations clarified in this section is that settlement applications can be made by any concerned party (the real estate owner, the tenants’ union, etc.) and that the list of documents submitted along with the applications is to include proof of the concerned party’s relationship to the violations in the building in question. The Booklet also defines “change of use,” as stipulated in the 2008 Construction Law, as changing the use of the building or any of its units to a purpose other than its authorized one without first obtaining the necessary approvals of the competent authorities; however, change of activity as per the provisions of the relevant laws does not constitute change of use. The second section of the Booklet presents guiding examples, listing seven possible cases of violations that are eligible for settlement and the guidelines for settling them (including the methods of calculating the settlement values for each). These cases include: (1) a building with all of its floors licensed but which has violations (architectural, construction-related, and/or change of use); (2) a building with some of its floors licensed while others are not licensed (but complying to the construction and planning requirements); (3) a building with some of its floors licensed while others are not licensed (and do not comply to the construction and planning requirements); (4) a building with some of its floors licensed while others are not licensed (some of which comply to the construction and planning requirements while others do not); (5) an unlicensed building; (6) a building with an unlicensed increase of the surface area of the service rooms on the roof; and (7) a building with service rooms constructed on the entire surface of the building and used residentially. Finally, the last part is an appendix that contains the text of both the Law and its Executive Regulations.   [1] Law No. 17/2019 on the settlement of building violations, Official Gazette, Issue No. 14 (bis) (c), 8 April 2019. [2] The Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities. (September 2019). Law No. 17/2019 on the settlement of building violations and its Executive Regulations: Questions and Answers. Available through this link (in Arabic). [3] Prime Ministerial Decree No. 1631/2019 enacting the executive regulations of Law No. 17/2019 on the settlement of building violations, Official Gazette, Issue No. 27 (bis) (k), 8 July 2019. [4] Law No. 119/2008 on Construction, Official Gazette, Issue No. 19 (bis) (a), 11 May 2008.