Legal Acts in English

All the terms in this Law used in masculine gender shall imply the same terms of the feminine gender and vice versa.

Individual terms used in this Law shall have the following meaning:

1) the housing policy shall be the direction taken in an activity with the aim of improving the housing conditions, providing for affordable housing for citizens through housing support and preservation and improvement of the value and quality of housing fund, which is in line with the general orientations of economic and social development in the Republic of Serbia;

2) a building shall be a building structure with a roof and outer walls, constructed as an independent unit for use which provides protection from atmospheric and external influences, and which is intended for housing, for conducting of a commercial activity or for accommodation and keeping of animals, goods, motor vehicles, equipment for various production and service business activities, etc. Buildings shall also consider to include the building structures with a roof, but without (all the) walls (for example, a canopy), as well as the building structures that are predominantly or completely underground (shelters, underground garages, etc.);

3) a residential building shall be a building intended for housing and used for such a purpose, which shall consist of three apartments at the minimum;

4) a family house shall be a building intended for housing and used for such a purpose, which shall consist of two apartments at the maximum;

5) a residential and commercial building shall be the building consisting of a minimum of one apartment and one commercial space;

6) a commercial building shall be the building that is intended for conducting of business activities and used for such a purpose, which shall consist of one or more commercial spaces;

7) a building for public purposes shall be a building intended for public use and it can be a publicly owned building for public purposes on the basis of special laws (a building for the needs of state authorities, authorities of an autonomous province and of the local self-government, etc.), as well as the buildings for public purposes, irrespective of the building property form (hospitals, medical centres, retirement homes, buildings used for education, buildings for sports and recreation, cultural buildings, traffic terminals, post offices and other buildings);

8) a separate part of the building shall be a separate functional unit in a building that can be an apartment, a commercial space, a garage, a garage spot or a garage stall;

9) an apartment shall be a separate part of a building comprising a functional unit, it shall consist of one or a number of rooms intended for housing and, as a rule, have a separate entry;

10) a commercial space shall be a part of a building comprising a functional unit, it shall comprise of one or a number of rooms intended for conducting of a business activity and have a separate entry;

11) an auxiliary space shall be the space located outside of an apartment or commercial space and serving for the use of those separate parts of the building (a basement or attic, a shed, a lavatory and the similar);

12) a garage shall be a closed space in a building or outside it, comprising a separate functional unit, and it shall comprise one or a number of garage spots or garage stalls. A garage consisting of a number of garage sports, i.e. garage stalls shall additionally include the shared parts used for access to each individual parking garage spot, i.e. garage stall;

13) a garage spot shall be a separate part of the garage comprising a space designated with a marked surface for vehicles' parking;

14) a garage stall shall be a separate part of a garage comprising a room intended for vehicles' parking;

15) a parking spot shall be an adequate space designated with a marked surface for vehicles' parking outside a building;

16) the shared parts of a building shall be the parts of a building that are not separate or stand-alone parts of a building, which serve for the use of the separate or stand-alone parts of the building, i.e. for the building as a whole, such as: the shared spaces (staircase, entry spaces and windshields, shared corridor and gallery, attic space, basement, bicycle room, laundry drying room, a shared balcony and other rooms intended for common use by the owners of the separate or stand-alone parts of the building, etc.), shared construction elements (foundation, load bearing walls and structure columns, mezzanine and other structures, structural part of the wall or core of the wall, insulation and wall finishing towards the outer space or towards the shared part of the building, eaves, façades, roof, chimneys, ventilation channels, light wells, construction and spaces for the lift and other separate structures, etc.), as well as the shared installations, equipment and devices (interior electrical, water supply and foul drainage, gas supply and heat supply installations, lift, lightning conductors, fire extinguishing, detection and alarm devices, safety lighting, telephone installations and all utility connections intended for common use, etc.), where they are not integral parts of a stand-alone part of the building or integral parts of a separate part of the building, i.e. not a part of installations, equipment or devices that serves only for the use of one separate part, within the meaning of this Law;

17) the spaces and building structures outside the building that are not auxiliary spaces within the meaning of this Law (platforms, sidewalks, pools, playgrounds and other spaces and building structures with their associated elements and equipment) shall be the spaces and the building structures located on the land for the regular use, i.e. on the cadastral lot on which the building is located as well, and which the owners of such spaces or building structures are obliged to maintain in compliance with the provisions of this Law pertaining to the shared parts of the building in cases where they belong to all owners of the separate parts of the building, i.e. in compliance with the provisions of this Law, the owners of the separate parts of the building in case that such spaces or building structures belong only to certain owners of the building or to the person that does not have a single separate part in the building;

18) the stand-alone parts of the building shall be the room with technical devices, the room for the power substation and shelters (of the building and for the block of buildings);

19) a room with technical devices shall be the room with installations and/or equipment necessary for the designed use and functioning of the building and it is a shared part of the building, unless specified otherwise by means of a special regulation;

20) the room for power substation shall be a technical room used to house the transformer and other equipment and devices that are used by such substation, and the use of the room for power substation shall be regulated in compliance with the law regulating the field of energy and in compliance with regulations passed based on it;

21) a shelter shall be a room in a building or in a family house that is, in compliance with the law regulating activities in emergencies, intended primarily for the protection of population from the natural and other disasters and that, in peacetime, may additionally be used for other purposes, without any possibility to adapt or reconstruct it in such a manner as to impact or potentially impact the proper functioning of the shelter or to use it for any purposes that may impair the hygienic and technical conditions thereof;

22) building management, within the meaning of this Law, shall include all the organisational tasks and activities that are continuously performed by a selected or appointed person (a manager or a professional manager), i.e. a management body, for the purpose of building management, which includes accountable measures' taking for the purpose of organising building maintenance, decision making on the use of financial means and determining the use of the building, i.e. of the parts thereof in accordance with its purpose, as well as other issues of significance for building management;

23) building maintenance shall include all activities whereby preservation of functions and characteristics of the building are provided for in accordance with its purpose, and in particular with the aim of the regular use and functioning of the building;

24) the works whereby the dimensions and volume of the building are not modified shall be the works on daily and investment maintenance, joining, conversion and rehabilitation, as well as adaptation and reconstruction performed in compliance with the special law regulating construction of building structures and with the regulations adopted based on it;

25) regular maintenance shall be conducting of works undertaken for the purpose of preventing the damage caused through the use of a building or with the aim of removing such damage, and which comprise inspections, repairs and taking of preventive and protection measures, i.e. all the works whereby maintenance of buildings on a satisfactory level of usability is provided for, and the works on the regular maintenance of an apartment or commercial space shall include wall paining, painting, replacement of coverings, replacement of sanitary fixtures, radiators and other similar works;

26) investment maintenance shall be conducting of construction and trade, i.e. other works depending on the type of the building structure, with the aim of improving the conditions for use of such a building during exploitation;

27) joining shall be conducting of construction and other works whereby a part of the shared parts of the building are joined through adaptation to a separate part of the building and in which the floor area of the shared and separate parts of the building is modified, within the dimensions and volume of the building structure, in compliance with the special law regulating construction of building structures and with the regulations adopted based on it;

28) conversion shall be conducting of construction works whereby, a part of the shared parts of the building is converted through reconstruction into a separate or stand-alone part of the building, within the dimensions and volume of the building structure, in compliance with the special law regulating construction of building structures and with the regulations adopted based on it;

29) rehabilitation shall be conducting of works on the building whereby the existing elements of the building, devices, plants and equipment thereof are repaired, and whereby their exterior appearance is not modified, safety of adjoining building structures, traffic and environment is not impacted and the protection of natural and immovable cultural property, i.e. its protected environment is not influenced, except for the restoration, conservation and works on revitalisation, in compliance with the special law regulating construction of building structures and with the regulations adopted based on it;

30) energy rehabilitation of a building shall be conducting of construction and other works on an existing building, as well as the repair or replacement of devices, plants, equipment and installations of the same or a smaller capacity, which do not impact the stability and safety of the building structures, do not change the structural elements, are not impacting the safety of the adjoining building structures or traffic, which are not impacting fire protection or environmental protection, but which may alter the external appearance with the required approvals with the aim of increasing the energy efficiency of the building, i.e. reducing consumption of all the energy types by applying the technical measures and standards on the existing elements of the building, devices, plants and equipment;

31) works whereby the dimensions and volume of the building are modified shall be the extension and building onto;

32) an extension shall be conducting of the construction and other works whereby a new space under the building, above the building (building onto) or next to the existing building is constructed, that is comprising a construction, functional and/or technical unit with it;

33) building onto shall be the type of extension whereby the number of floors of the part of a building structure above the ground (or a part of it) is increased by a minimum of one level, counting in the roof level, and whereby the floor area of the separate parts is increased and/or the new separate and shared parts of the building structure are established, in compliance with the special law regulating construction of building structures and with the regulations adopted based on it;

34) a real property register shall be the cadastre of real property, i.e. another relevant real property register in the territory in which a real property cadastre has not been established, in which the proprietary right, other rights in rem in the real property, the facts, rights, burdens and other pieces of data are entered in compliance with the law;

35) the land for regular use shall be the land beneath and surrounding the building structure that is complying with the conditions for a construction plot and that, following a procedure conducted in compliance with the law regulating planning and construction, becomes a cadastral lot;

36) a beneficiary of housing support shall be the natural person that receives housing support and the members of his family household;

37) a homeless person shall be a person living in the street without a shelter, i.e. in a space that is not an apartment, i.e. another form of housing accommodation in compliance with this Law;

38) a programme of housing support shall be a set of measures and activities realised through housing projects and whereby housing support is provided to the beneficiaries of housing support;

39) housing allowance shall be a subsidy approved for covering a part of the determined rent to a beneficiary that cannot afford to pay the rent, i.e. non-profit rent from his own available income, in compliance with this Law;

40) a housing project shall be a set of activities whereby a relevant programme of housing support is implemented, and which pertain to acquiring of an apartment and improvement of housing conditions, through construction, reconstruction, extension, remediation, adaptation, etc., under non-profit conditions;

41) the costs of use of a garage spot or a garage stall shall be the costs of utility services rendered for the use of a garage spot or a garage stall, and they shall be calculated separately from the costs of use of the shared parts of a garage;

42) a member of a family household, within the meaning of this Law, shall be considered to be a spouse and a domestic partner, their children, whether born to married parents or outside of marriage, adopted or foster children, their parents and persons that they are legally obliged to support, who are living in the same apartment or family house;

43) a single parent, within the meaning of this Law, shall be the parent that is taking care of the child on his own in cases where the other parent is deceased or unknown or deprived of the parenting right, i.e. when the other parent is alive and not deprived of the parenting right, but does not exercise his rights and duties of a parent;

44) a person with disability, within the meaning of this Law, shall be a child or an adult with long-term physical, mental, intellectual impairment or impairment of sight and hearing and who, in interaction with various obstacles in his environment, has difficulties in complete and efficacious participation in the society on equal grounds with others;

45) a lacking profession, within the meaning of this Law, shall be the profession that is of interest for the local self-government unit, i.e. state administration authority, which cannot be provided when required and in the required scope, as well as when there is a lack of required knowledge and skills among the members of such profession for performing certain jobs or for the provision of a certain quality of products or services.