Planning amnesty: 652 applications filed in three months to ‘regularise’ illegalities

The Planning Authority has already received 652 applications to regularise illegalities since an amnesty programme was launched on 22 August, a Planning Authority spokesperson told MaltaToday. This amounts to an average of seven applications a day.

Of the 652 applications, only 295 have contained the complete information required by the Planning Authority. Nine decisions have been taken with all the developments involved being regularised. 28 applications have been put on the PA’s agenda.  

The developments regularised include an entire dwelling and showroom in Triq l-Imdina, Qormi which was not built according to the specifications of a permit issued in 2008. 

Another regularised development consists of an “entire flat” which had been constructed illegally at basement level in Marsalforn. Most other illegalities consisted of irregularly built flats. Decisions are being published in the Government Gazette but no case officer report assessing these cases is accessible on the PA website, as happens in the case of normal applications.

282 out of the 295 complete applications received were residential and only two were commercial. 11 were classified by the PA as “other”.  The residential developments seeking regularisation consist of one bungalow, 17 villas or farmhouses, 16 penthouses and receded dwellings, three garages and 245 flats or maisonettes.

The regularisation scheme, which came into effect in August, excludes the regularisation of ODZ developments but includes illegalities carried out within the development zone – including urban conservation areas – carried out before 2016. 

Although anyone regularising an illegality will have to pay a hefty fine, which can rise up to €7,600 for a 175 square metre illegal penthouse, the scheme, unlike previous exemptions from pending enforcement orders introduced before 2013, will enable owners to sell such properties. The ‘amnesty’ is not automatic because a board assesses applications for regularisation.

The Planning Authority is legally obliged to refund 90% of the fees incurred by applicants whose applications to regularise illegalities are rejected, and is under no legal obligation to ask these owners, through an enforcement notice, to remove these illegalities.