Egypt’s Cabinet approves new draft bill on legalizing building violations

CAIRO – 13 October 2022: The Egyptian Cabinet approved on Wednesday a new draft bill on legalizing multiple cases of building violations that do not abuse structural integrity standards.

The new law widens the scope for the state’s reconciliation with citizens responsible for building violations, including the possibility to reconcile with buildings that exceed the height specified by the Civil Aviation Authority.

The new law, set to be discussed by the Parliament shortly, also allows reconciliation on buildings constructed illegally on the state-owned lands.

However, the law bans reconciliation over building on areas of land that are included under the antiquities and Nile River protection laws except in some conditional cases after the approval of the Cabinet.

Almost half of Egypt’s constructed buildings in cities and villages is declared by the state as “unplanned”, with thousands of buildings being built without licenses.

Of these thousands, a large number of buildings do not comply with safety regulations.

To date, the governorates received around 2.8 million requests to reconcile with the state on building violations under the old law in this regard, which was passed by the state early in 2019.

The initiative to allow reconciliation with the state in building violations in exchange for a fine was launched and approved by the president in an effort to legalize these buildings and end further unplanned construction.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli stressed that legalizing the illegally constructed buildings would help citizens maintain the prices of their appartements in case they want to sell them and would also protect them from being extorted by local officials and employees.

The reconciliation initiative does not include the buildings that are unsafe. Most importantly, only the buildings constructed before July 2017 can submit reconciliation requests.