1. Can an illegally built house be legalized after it has been completed?
According to Clause 16, Article 16 and Clause 1, Article 81 of Decree 16/2022/ND-CP, illegally built individual houses (villas, independent houses, townhouses) are legalized if they meet the prescribed conditions, specifically:
(1) Under construction.
(2) Belonging to one of the cases where the housing construction permit is adjusted, specifically:
Clause 1, Article 98 of the 2014 Construction Law stipulates that during the construction process, if there is a design adjustment that changes one of the following contents, the investor must request an adjustment to the construction permit:
- Changing the architectural form of the exterior of a building for urban buildings in areas with architectural management requirements.
- Change one of the factors of location, construction area; scale, height, number of floors of the building and other factors affecting the main load-bearing structure.
- When adjusting the interior design of a building to change its functionality, it affects safety, fire and explosion prevention, and environmental protection.
Note: Construction that is not in accordance with the granted construction permit but is not subject to the above-mentioned construction permit adjustment is not considered an act of construction that is not in accordance with the granted construction permit.
Thus, completed houses (violations have ended) will not be legalized, instead, they will be fined and forced to dismantle the violating construction or part of the construction.
2. Time limit for legalizing illegally built housing
Clause 1, Article 81 of Decree 16/2022/ND-CP stipulates that the time limit for legalizing unlicensed individual houses is 30 days from the date of issuance of the decision on administrative sanctions.
That means from the date of issuance of the decision to sanction administrative violations of construction acts that are not in accordance with the content of the granted construction permit, the organization or individual committing the violation must complete the application file to request the competent authority to issue a revised construction permit within 30 days.
If after 30 days the construction permit is not adjusted, it will not be legalized.
