Regularise your property, and put your mind at rest

We all know someone who has been stuck for years trying to sell their home or property but just couldn’t because of some unsanctionable illegality.  

Taking the liberty to extend that one room in the backyard, splitting your property into two units, extending your property into the front garden or building a smaller internal yard without planning permission can sometimes appear as the easiest thing to do.

“This is my home and I shall do whatever I please with it,” one might exclaim. Only it doesn’t really work that way, especially when you come to try selling or getting a bank loan for your property.

There are many people who, before carrying out work on their home or property, did not think or bother much whether they required planning permission or not.

Thinking that they’d make life easier and get the job done faster, many just went ahead with the works, without giving much concern to the major obstacles they would have to face should they come to sell.

One has to understand that not all illegal development is sanctionable.

As bombastic as the word may sound, what it really means is that a normal planning permit cannot be issued for certain illegal works – most of which are related to sanitary issues or specific planning regulations.  

There are, however, some options one may consider when faced with such a situation.  

Even though it might not always be simple or possible, the first and most obvious option is to return things back to how they were before.
The second, is to engage an architect and allow her to verify whether the illegal works can be put through a normal planning application. In which case, the architect will submit the planning application on your behalf.

To cater for the event where none of the two options above are possible, two and a half years ago, the Planning Authority introduced what is known as a regularisation process.

Through this new application procedure, the Planning Authority provides property owners with a ‘one-time opportunity’ to regularise existing unsanctionable non-conformant developments.

In order to be eligible for this scheme, your property needs to tick all the boxes when it comes to certain important requirements. Such requirements are; the property should be located entirely within the development boundaries; it should be ensured that the footprint appears in the PA’s aerial photos of 2016 - nothing later; the illegal structure cannot be creating an injury to amenity; and lastly, the use of the building in question must be in accordance with the Authority’s current planning policies and regulations.

In other words, if in the past you illegally changed your garage into a commercial panel beater undertaking, which is located in the middle of a residential zone, without permission, the chances of being given the required permission under this ”scheme” are close to none.   

Buying your peace of mind also has a cost.

Besides the professional fees of the architect you engage, every regularisation application is subject to a fee, calculated on the total and combined roofed over area of each floor of the property being regularised.

There’s also a minimum administrative fee of €50.

Since the scheme was opened in August 2016, the Authority has received nearly 10,000 regularisation applications generating close to €23 million.

Money which the Planning Authority injects back into the community.

To be precise, the Authority channelled €18 million into the popular Irrestawra Darek Scheme and the Marsamxett Balcony Grant Scheme, with most of the remaining money being directed to the Development Planning Fund for urban improvement community projects.

Once all these necessary steps are taken, and your property is in line with all the required permits, it would be expected that one would think twice before skipping all the processes, before carrying out any development works and apply for the necessary planning permission.

For this is the only way to surely secure your money, time and peace of mind.