As the representatives of POMIDA pointed out to the minister, several OTAs of the country are claiming illegally, as can be seen from the well-known recent opinion numbered 23504/2017 of the “Citizen’s Ombudsman”, the payment of retroactive municipal cleaning and lighting fees for many years for empty properties that are never used or never had electricity, because their owners did not know that they had to declare the power cut to the relevant OTA in order to qualify for the exemption.
Mr Skurletis stated that the draft law for Local Self-Government will include a provision “which will fully clarify the procedure for exemption from municipal fees, for non-electrified vacant properties , so that there is no more room for any confusion”.
The POMIDA representatives also asked the Minister of the Interior to promote legislation to solve three more serious problems in relations between of owners with the OTAs, which are as follows:
- AUTOMATIC CERTIFICATION OF MUNICIPAL FEES OF LEGALIZED PLACES. The owners of recently legalized additional real estate spaces are afraid to come forward to voluntarily declare them to the OTAs in order to avoid the automatic imposition of heavy retroactive five-year municipal fees (from 8.8.2013) as well as other charges and fines (Article 105 par. 4 of Law 4495/2017). For this reason, they requested that the above regulation be amended so that the additional corresponding municipal fees are automatically charged to the next electricity bills without heavy retroactive charges, and without reactions and protests on this matter.
- REMOVAL OF MULTI-YEAR URBAN PLANNING PROPERTY COMMITMENTS FROM MUNICIPALITIES. Many OTAs across the country have for decades committed many thousands of private properties for the creation of common areas and facilities, without any real intention and ability to implement them, and without ever actually lifting these commitments in a reasonable period of time, even after the issuance of final court decisions!This practice creates an obligation for municipalities to show in their budgets reserved amounts for alleged compensation payments, resulting in a distortion of their fiscal picture, and endless and costly legal entanglements for citizens with OTAs, which, due to repeated abusive re-commitments, last even longer than a human lifetime! That is why they asked to finally legislate the automatic complete removal of these commitments, if they have lasted beyond eight years, and the prohibition of imposing any new commitment on the same properties.
- NEW REGULATION DEADLINE OWE TO THE LOCALITIES. The two-month deadline given by the previous regulation (Article 52 of Law 4483/2017) during the summer of 2017 and in combination with the impossibility of timely certification by most OTAs, due to the reinstatement of the TAP non-debt certificate for the transfer contracts, became impractical for most of the stakeholders, with disappointing results for the OTAs themselves. That is why they requestedthe establishment of a new deadline for settlement of debts to OTAs at least until 31.07.2018, in order to give the required time for declaration and certification of these debts.
For these issues, the minister stated that they will be examined in order to highlight the scope for interventions, in consultation where necessary with co-competent ministries.
