This week, as part of our "Tuesday Mornings for Construction Workers" series, we've prepared an alert for you regarding issues that, while not introduced or changed by the amendment to the Building Law, will soon come into effect and will certainly impact ongoing investments. This concerns, of course, changes to building energy efficiency standards known as the "WT2021 Standard."
The legal act constituting the basis for this analysis is the Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure of April 12, 2002, on the technical conditions to be met by buildings and their location (the “ Regulation ”). The first information about changes to § 329, that additional requirements regarding energy efficiency of buildings will apply from January 1, 2021, appeared in the amendment to the Regulation of July 5, 2013. Pursuant to the amendment, a gradual tightening of the requirements is planned from January 1, 2014, 2017 and 2021. Since then, these provisions have been subject to several amendments and in their current legal status will apply from December 31, 2020.
Due to the multiple amendments to the Regulation, there are no transitional provisions regarding these standards . As a general rule, the existing regulations should apply to proceedings initiated and not completed on the date the new regulations enter into force. Therefore, it would be good practice for the existing standards (WT2017) to apply in cases where applications for building permits or construction notifications were submitted before December 31, 2020. However, this is not so straightforward, and it cannot be ruled out that in cases where a decision granting a building permit has not been issued or the deadline for filing an objection to a submitted notification has not yet expired, architectural and construction administration authorities will request supplementation of applications or even refuse to issue decisions (raise objections) due to failure to meet the applicable WT2021 Standard.
Moving on to the details, a number of building energy efficiency standards are being revised, which investors will be required to meet. The changes will significantly reduce the energy efficiency index (EP) for heating, ventilation, and hot water, cooling, and lighting. This means that, starting in 2021, buildings will have to meet even more stringent requirements regarding non-renewable energy demand.
The table below indicates what changes will be made to the EP indicators for heating, ventilation and hot water preparation.
The table below shows what changes will be introduced in terms of EP indicators for building cooling.
[table id=2 /]In the third table we indicate what changes will be introduced in terms of EP indicators for lighting purposes.
[table id=3 /]The above will undoubtedly force investors to use solutions in new investments that use renewable energy to a much greater extent than before .
The amendments to the Regulation coming into force in 2021 also include new standards regarding the heat transfer coefficient of walls, roofs, ceilings, and flat roofs for all building types, i.e., the heat loss coefficient resulting from building insulation (regulated in detail in Annex 2, § 328 of the Regulation). Under this amendment, buildings for which the investment process begins after December 31, 2020 (as a rule) will be required to meet more stringent requirements in this regard. This will undoubtedly also impact the costs of the investment.
It's also worth noting that the above provisions of the Regulation may still change. On September 11, 2019, the Minister of Development appointed a team for energy efficiency and transformation of buildings, whose tasks include analyzing and recommending changes to the law regarding the energy performance of buildings. It's possible that the currently applicable WT2021 Standards will change further, and the issue of transitional provisions will be clearly clarified. We will, of course, keep you informed.
We invite you to follow our articles regularly: last week we wrote about the transitional provisions of the amendment to the Construction Law, which entered into force on September 19, 2020, and next week we will present the topic of legalization of unauthorized construction.
This alert is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
author:
