Today, we've covered the changes to the Construction Law regulating the conditions for connecting to the water and sewage network. The amendment to the Construction Law provides very specific solutions aimed at curbing the often illegal practices of water and sewage companies.
The changes discussed were introduced in the Act of 7 June 2001 on Collective Water Supply and Collective Sewage Disposal. Under Article 19a, added to the aforementioned Act, a water and sewage company is required to issue network connection conditions upon written request from an entity applying for connection to the network or provide justification for refusing to issue them. The water and sewage company has 21 days from the date of application submission in the case of single-family residential buildings , including those located in farmsteads, to do so, and 45 days in other cases .
In particularly justified cases, the water and sewage company may extend these deadlines by another 21 or 45 days, respectively, after notifying the entity applying for connection to the network. Furthermore, they must provide a justification for the extension. The regulations also specify that these deadlines do not include deadlines specified in law for performing specific actions, deadlines for supplementing the application, or periodic delays caused by the fault of the entity applying for connection, or for reasons beyond the control of the water and sewage company.
The water and sewage company will be obliged to provide written confirmation of the submission by the entity applying for connection to the network of an application for the issuance of connection conditions to the network, specifying in particular the date of its submission.
Importantly, the regulations will explicitly specify the contents of an application for connection conditions.
Connection conditions obtained under the new regulations will be valid for two years from the date of their issuance. Furthermore, a water and sewerage company will not be able to refuse to accept a water or sewer connection if it was completed in accordance with the connection conditions. The company will also not be able to make acceptance conditional on obtaining a building permit or reporting construction work, unless these are required by the Building Law.
We would like to draw your attention to another key change. The amendment explicitly prohibits charging fees for issuing grid connection conditions, as well as for amending, updating, or transferring them to another entity . Fees will also be waived for accepting a water or sewer connection, connecting the connection to the grid, or for other related permits.
The amendment also provides for the imposition of fines on water and sewage companies that fail to issue connection requirements within the deadlines specified in the act. The fines will amount to PLN 500 for each day of delay.
We invite you to follow our articles regularly, in which next week we will tell you how high-profile events related to escape rooms have influenced the adoption of solutions aimed at increasing fire safety.
We would like to remind you and cordially invite you to our next webinar, which will take place on Tuesday, September 1, 2020, at 10:00 AM. With only three weeks left until the amendment to the Building Law comes into force, we would like to join you in summarizing the changes to Building Law as part of another online training session organized by the Real Estate Department of Graś i Wspólnicy Law Firm. We encourage you to send to j.barzykowska@kglegal.pl . We will do our best to answer them during the training.
Download the table containing the changes
This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
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