Construction Licenses in the Republic of Serbia

According to the Law on Planning and Construction (hereinafter: “Law”), the construction of facilities in Serbia requires all companies/entrepreneurs engaged in construction activities (design and construction) to be registered, since the adoption of amendments to the Law in 2018, in a special register led by the ministry in charge of planning and construction activities.

However, as bylaws regulating the procedure have not been adopted, the registration is currently only necessary for the construction/design of complicated facilities prescribed by Article 133 of the Law, such as bridges, state roads of the first and second order, high dams, facilities over 50m high, power plants over 10MW, etc. (hereinafter: “Large Licenses”).

The procedure for obtaining Large Licenses is regulated by the Law and the Rulebook on the manner, procedure and content of data for determining the fulfilment of conditions for issuing licenses for technical documentation and licenses for the construction of facilities for which a building permit is issued by the ministry or autonomous province, as well as conditions for revocation of such licenses (hereinafter: “Rulebook”).

Large Licenses are not necessary for investment or current maintenance and for all works that do not change the appearance of the building, i.e. works that do not affect the common areas of the building and their utilization.

Conditions for obtaining licenses, competence and duration

The Law and the Rulebook stipulate that Large Licenses for construction activities can be obtained only by legal entities or entrepreneurs who have appropriate professional results and full-time engineers with personal engineering licenses, and with appropriate personal professional results. For design activities it is necessary to meet only the second condition, i.e. to hire engineers with personal professional results.

The term professional results refers to participating in the preparation of technical documentation, conducting technical control, i.e. participating in the construction and constructing complex facilities prescribed by Article 133 of the Law (hereinafter: “Facilities”). The exact number of engineers and licenses they must have, as well as references in a particular field, are precisely prescribed by the Rulebook.

The competent authority for issuing the licenses is the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure (“Ministry”), which forms an expert commission that assesses the relevance of references and fulfilment of the required conditions.

Large Licenses are issued for a period of two years, with the possibility of a renewal for an unlimited number of times, if the conditions are still met. In case of potential changes in the conditions based on which the Large License was obtained, the legal entity is obliged to immediately notify the ministry in charge of construction, and within 30 days submit a request for a new decision along with the evidence of compliance with the conditions for registration into the register for the preparation of adequate technical documentation, i.e., construction of facilities or execution of works.

The register is especially important because the preparation of technical documentation and construction of Facilities can be performed only by legal entities with appropriate Large Licenses, and investors can inspect the Large Licenses of legal entities that will potentially design or build Facilities.

Sanctions envisaged for construction/preparation of technical documentation without a Large License

An entity which prepares the technical documentation or performs works on Facilities without the appropriate Large License may be fined for an offense in the amount of up to 3,000,000.00 dinars.

A legal entity that does not immediately notify the Ministry of Construction in writing of any change in the previously determined conditions and does not submit a confirmation of fulfilment of the conditions for entry in the appropriate register within 30 days, will be fined to the same extent.

Moreover, the person responsible for the legal entity that performs works without a Large License or does not inform the competent authority about the change of conditions is threatened with a fine of up to 200,000.00 dinars for the same economic offence.

Large Licenses can be obtained only by residents of the Republic of Serbia (which includes legal entities, entrepreneurs and branches of foreign legal entities that operate in the Republic of Serbia), and accordingly, Facilities cannot be designed/built by non-residents of the Republic of Serbia.

For more information about this topic, you can contact Milosevic Law Firm.