A building permit is the permission to build, and in Slovakia the document behind that English phrase changed on 1 April 2025: the new Building Act replaced the old permit with a decision on the building intent plus a separate verification of the project. Permits issued under the old act stay valid, so both regimes are in use at the same time, and which one governs a given hall was settled by the paperwork that started it.
What a building permit is in Slovakia
A building permit is the administrative permission that has to exist before construction work can lawfully start. Until 31 March 2025 Slovakia ran it as a two-step chain under Act 50/1976: a zoning decision fixed what could be built where, and the permit that followed authorised the works themselves. That is the chain most English-language market material still describes.
Since 1 April 2025 the chain looks different. Act 25/2025, the new Building Act, runs a proceeding on the building intent. It ends in a decision. A second step follows, in which the same authority verifies the project and issues a verification clause. The permission and the technical approval of the design are now two documents, not one.
For a tenant the distinction is not academic. When a developer says the permit is in place, the question that follows is which of the two documents is meant, because construction cannot start on the decision alone.
Which regime applies to which project
The transitional rules decide, and they look backwards rather than at the calendar. Section 84(1) of the new act keeps legal relationships established under the previous rules in force, so an existing permit remains an existing permit. Sections 84(4) to 84(6) go further. The old rules also apply to anything filed or started by 31 March 2025. They apply as well to any building that already holds a zoning decision or an old permit, even for applications made long after the switch.
In practice that means a hall being completed in 2026 is usually still running on the old regime, because its zoning decision was issued in 2022 or 2023. A scheme that only entered the system after the switch runs on the new one. Both are lawful and both produce a buildable project; they simply produce different documents with different names.
The one place this matters commercially is diligence. Asking for “the building permit” of a project started under the new act produces either confusion or the wrong document. Asking for the decision on the building intent and the verification clause, with their reference numbers and dates, produces the file that actually exists.
How long the permission takes
The new act puts the proceeding on statutory deadlines. Under section 58 the authority decides within 30 days from a complete application, where the matter needs no hearing and no site inspection. Other cases run to 60 days. The limit is 90 days for a reserved building, a linear building, a case with many parties, or where an expert opinion is needed. Verification of the project is a separate 30-day period under section 65(2).
Two shortcuts exist and both are worth asking about. Under section 57(3) the authority can decide the intent and verify the project in one go, where the applicant has already submitted positive consent clauses from the bodies concerned. And under section 65(2) the verification happens together with the decision where the intent was submitted with the project in the first place.
What those periods do not cover is the part that usually consumes the programme: assembling the binding opinions of the bodies concerned before the application is filed at all. The clock in the statute starts when the application is complete, which is a later moment than most schedules assume.
How long the permission lasts
Section 61(1) sets the validity of the decision at two years from the day it became final, unless the authority set a longer period. Linear and reserved buildings get three years, information structures one. The decision does not lapse if the application for verification was filed inside that window. It does lapse on the day the verification clause lapses.
Section 61(4) adds a provision that matters whenever a site changes hands: the decision binds the legal successors of the parties to the proceeding. A permission is therefore attached to the project rather than to the developer who obtained it, which is what makes a permitted site tradeable and what makes an expiring permission a real item in a purchase price.
Under the old act the equivalent question was the validity of the building permit and of the zoning decision behind it, which is one more reason to establish early which regime a project sits in.
What counts as starting, and what it costs to start too early
Section 41 defines the start of construction as the start of building works directly connected with putting up the building. Preparatory works are expressly outside that definition. Fencing, site facilities, access, water and power to the site, clearing vegetation, stripping topsoil and removing waste all sit outside it. A site that looks busy is not always a site that has started. Section 42(1) then requires a geodet to set the building out in the field before the works begin, and section 43 gives the authority control inspections while they run.
Building without the paperwork is priced accordingly. Section 80(4)(a) requires a fine of between EUR 10,000 and EUR 150,000 for carrying out a building without a verified project or contrary to it. The floor is mandatory, and the same range applies at the other end of the process to using a finished building without its occupancy certificate.
For an occupier the permitting chain is usually somebody else’s risk, and that is exactly why it belongs in the lease. In the first quarter of 2026 there were 203,200 square metres under construction, with pre-lease levels at just 35 per cent. Most of the Slovak pipeline is therefore speculative, and the developer carries the permit risk. On a pre-let or a build-to-suit the position reverses: the handover date sits at the end of a chain of administrative steps, and the lease should name the documents, not the word permit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a building permit issued before April 2025 still count?
Yes. Section 84(1) of the new act keeps legal relationships established under the previous rules in force, and sections 84(4) to 84(6) keep the old procedure running for projects that already held a zoning decision or a building permit. Nothing has to be re-applied for, and a project can be finished and put into use under the rules it started under.
Is a decision on the building intent the same as a building permit?
Not on its own. It is the permission for the project as described in the intent, and construction still needs the project itself to be verified by the same authority, with a verification clause as the result. In everyday English both steps get called the permit, which is why diligence should ask for reference numbers rather than for a label.
How long is a permission valid?
Under the new act the decision runs for two years from becoming final, three years for linear and reserved buildings and one year for information structures, unless a longer period was set. Filing the application for verification of the project inside that window preserves it. The decision also lapses if the verification clause lapses, so the two documents expire together.
Who carries the permit risk in a lease?
On speculative stock, the developer, because the building is finished before the tenant is found. On a pre-let or a build-to-suit the risk is shared by drafting: the lease should say which document the handover date depends on, what happens if a step slips, and who pays for the delay. Tying a start date to the word permit leaves the party with the least information carrying the timing risk.