In today's Valentine's Day edition of our series, "Tuesday Mornings for Construction," we'd like to introduce you to the next stage of digitization in the investment and construction process: the planned electronic Construction Project Database ("BPB") . The database appears in the draft bill amending the Building Law and certain other acts, published on the Government Legislation Center website under list number UD427. It includes changes that introduce the basis for posting construction projects in a specially designed database.
The Construction Project Database is to be maintained in the System for Handling Administrative Proceedings in Construction ("SOPAB" – which we will write about next week). According to the project plan, it will collect construction projects, including plot or land development plans, architectural and construction designs, and technical designs prepared electronically and uploaded by account users, as well as all legally required project attachments and attachments to applications, notifications, and notices received as part of the investment and construction process, which are subject to archiving requirements. The proposed changes, according to the project's justification, aim to reduce the amount of documentation collected in paper form by both investors and public administration bodies. It is worth noting that, according to calculations by the General Office of Building Control, in 2020 alone, paper consumption by the administration processing building permit applications reached 22,500 tons, occupying a total storage capacity of 34,000 cubic meters.
Returning to the BPB itself, account users will be able to upload document files and share documents and files with the designated account user on the e-Budownictwo portal. The SOPAB system will assign a unique identifier to files uploaded to the Construction Project Database. Of course, architectural and construction administration and construction supervision authorities will have access to the BPB.
According to the proposed changes, instead of attaching designs to applications, investors will be able to provide a project number previously entered in the Construction Design Database. This will apply to construction notifications, demolition permit applications, and, of course, building permit applications. Changes will also be introduced to the submission of notifications of completion of construction or occupancy permit applications. Instead of a paper technical design, investors will be able to submit an individual project identifier for these documents, provided it has been entered in the Construction Design Database.
According to the draft, the changes were to take effect on January 1, 2023, but the bill is still being considered by the Council of Ministers. We believe these changes will take effect later this year.
In summary, we believe that a solution whereby construction projects in investment and construction proceedings would be published only once, in a single system, should be welcomed. Instead of receiving large data files, authorities will have them in a system that is intended to streamline their operations.
Next week we will describe the latest change related to digitalization, the regulation of which is planned in the above-mentioned draft amendment to the Construction Law, namely the System for Handling Administrative Proceedings in Construction (SOBAP).
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Legal status as of February 13, 2023
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