An occupancy permit is the document that turns a finished building into a lawfully usable one. In Slovakia it carries two different names, depending on which Building Act the project sits under. It is not the handover protocol. It is not practical completion, and it is not the day the keys change hands. It also says nothing about whether a given process may be run inside the building. It binds the building to one purpose, and everything else needs its own approval.
What an occupancy permit is in Slovakia
The rule is one sentence. Section 66(1) of Act 25/2025 Z. z., the Building Act in force since 1 April 2025, reads: “Dokoncenu stavbu alebo jej cast sposobilu na samostatne uzivanie mozno uviest do trvaleho uzivania az po kolaudacii.” A completed building, or a part of it capable of separate use, may be brought into permanent use only after the kolaudacia.
The kolaudacia itself is an inspection. It begins with an application carrying eleven attachments under section 66(2), from the site diary and the as-built documentation to the handover protocol, the equipment tests and the energy certificate. The authority then announces the inspection within seven working days of a complete application. The inspection has to take place within 30 days of that announcement. If the building is found fit for operation, the document follows within 15 days.
What arrives at the end is the point of this entry. Under section 67(1) the evidence of the kolaudacia is a kolaudacne osvedcenie, an occupancy certificate, issued as a special document rather than as an ordinary administrative decision. The full process, including the two lawful ways into a building before that document exists, is set out in why a finished Slovak hall waits.
Two names for the same permission
A hall handed over in 2026 may hold either of two documents, and the difference is not cosmetic. Until 31 March 2025 the kolaudacia ran under Act 50/1976 Zb., whose section 76(1) allowed a completed building to be used only on the basis of a kolaudacne rozhodnutie, a decision. Since 1 April 2025 the new act issues a kolaudacne osvedcenie, a certificate.
Which one applies was settled years before completion. Sections 84(4) to 84(6) of the new act keep the old rules alive for anything filed or started by 31 March 2025. They also keep them alive for any building that already held a zoning decision or an old building permit. That holds even for applications made long after the switch. A building whose zoning decision dates from 2022 or 2023 is therefore still inspected under the old regime.
For diligence the instruction is simple: ask for the document by both names and by its reference number, not for “the kolaudacia”. English-language market material almost always describes the older decision, because that is the regime that produced most of the standing stock.
What the certificate covers, and what it does not
Section 67(2) states what is being certified: the structural and technical fitness of the building for the purpose it was designed for. That is a narrower statement than most occupiers assume, and the next subsection makes the boundary explicit. Section 67(3) reads: “Kolaudacne osvedcenie nenahradza povolenie prevadzky podla osobitnych predpisov.” The certificate does not replace an operating permission under other legislation.
Everything a process needs to run lawfully therefore sits outside the document: hygiene approvals, environmental permissions, the fire safety regime of the operation, licences tied to particular goods. A certified building is a building that may be occupied, not a building in which any activity may be carried on.
The second limit is the use itself. Section 68(1) provides that a building may be used only for the purpose set out in the certificate. Section 68(2) then requires a separate decision where the prevailing use changes. The same applies where technical parameters affecting fire safety change. A hall certified for storage is not certified for production. This is where the permitted use clause of the lease and the permit have to be read against each other. It is also where conversions run into trouble: the paper trail of an older building is usually older than the use somebody now has in mind.
What an occupancy permit is not
It is not practical completion, which is a contractual state between the developer and the contractor. It is not the handover protocol, which is one of the eleven attachments to the application rather than its result. It is not the day the keys change hands. And it is not a snagging list: defects found at the inspection interrupt the process under section 66(5) rather than being carried into a later fix.
The distinction becomes a money question in the lease. A clause tying the start of the term, or the rent commencement date, to “kolaudacia” names an event with three candidates: early use under section 70, trial operation under section 69, and the certificate itself. The first two are lawful ways into an unfinished or unverified building, they run for at most twelve and twenty-four months respectively, and both expire the moment the certificate is issued.
A lease that does not say which of the three it means leaves the commencement date open to argument at the worst possible moment. Three related items belong in the same clause. What happens to the rent-free period if the certificate slips. Who carries the running costs during trial operation. And whether a fit-out contribution funds work outside the verified project, because such work can hold up the certificate for the whole building.
What it costs to use a building without one
Both regimes price early occupation seriously, and both reach the owner as well as the user. Section 80(4)(c) of the new act sets a fine of between EUR 10,000 and EUR 150,000. It falls on a business that uses a building without the occupancy certificate or contrary to it. It falls on the owner as well, for allowing such use. The floor is mandatory.
The old act still states its fines in Slovak crowns. Section 106(3)(d) allows up to 5,000,000 crowns for the same conduct. At the statutory rate of 30.1260 crowns to the euro that is EUR 165,969.59, on our own conversion. Under either regime the landlord who hands over a building early is exposed alongside the tenant who moves in.
For most occupiers this is a diligence item rather than a live risk, because most Slovak stock is certified long before a tenant appears. In the first quarter of 2026, 105,159 square metres were completed across eight buildings while 203,200 square metres were under construction at pre-lease levels of just 35 per cent. The exposure concentrates on the pre-let and the build-to-suit, where the tenant’s move-in date sits at the end of an administrative chain the tenant does not control.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a kolaudacne rozhodnutie still valid in 2026?
Yes. Buildings inspected under Act 50/1976 hold a decision rather than a certificate, and nothing in the new act invalidates it. Sections 84(4) to 84(6) also keep the old procedure running for projects that already held a zoning decision or an old building permit, so new decisions under the old regime are still being issued.
Does an occupancy permit mean the building can be operated?
No. Section 67(3) of the new act says the certificate does not replace an operating permission under other legislation. Hygiene, environmental and operational approvals sit on their own timetable, and a building can be lawfully occupied while a particular process inside it still waits for its own permission.
Can a tenant move in before the certificate is issued?
Only through one of two lawful doors, and only with the authority’s decision. Early use covers a building or a separately usable part of it before completion, for at most twelve months and never beyond five years in total. Trial operation covers the case where fitness for use can only be verified by running the building, for at most twenty-four months and never beyond four in total. Both end when the certificate is issued.
What should the lease say about it?
It should name the document rather than the process. Say which of the three events starts the term. Say what happens to the rent-free period if the certificate is late. Say who pays the running costs of any early period. And put the reference number of the decision or certificate into the schedule, rather than describing it in a sentence.