On January 1, 2020, Municipal Law No. 17,202/2019 sanctioned on October 16, 2019, which deals with the Regularization of Buildings in the Municipality of São Paulo, better known as the Amnesty Law, went into effect. The new legislation aims to deburocratize the process of real estate regularization and seeks to reach around 750,000 real estate units in our city.
Although the law has become known for its apparent amnesty, the government is not forgiving real estate irregularities. In reality, anyone who has any type of irregularity in their property built up to 2014, as long as they fit the rules of the law, can seek regularization through the rules imposed by the City Hall. To speed up the processes, three regularization modalities were established, which take into account the complexity of the building, namely: automatic regularization, declaratory regularization, and common regularization.
The automatic regularization will not require a request from the citizen. Low and medium standard single-family properties with an appraised value of up to R$160,000.00 (one hundred and sixty thousand reais) that are totally exempt from IPTU (property tax) are included in this modality. However, it is worth noting that properties in protected areas or in areas of water catchment areas, environmental protection areas, or areas of permanent preservation will not be regularized automatically.
In the declaratory regularization, the interested party must file, electronically, the regularization form, together with the required documents, such as the property’s registration, and graphic pieces signed by a qualified professional, who will attest to the veracity of the information presented to the City Hall and the compliance with the necessary safety conditions. Buildings with a total constructed area of up to 1.500 m2, residences not contemplated by the automatic mode, vertical and horizontal residential buildings up to 10 m high and with 20 apartments, buildings made possible by the government for Social Interest Housing (families with monthly income between 0 and 6 minimum wages) and for Popular Market Housing (families with monthly income between 6 and 10 minimum wages), places of worship, mixed-use buildings (residential and commercial, for example), and commerce or services considered low risk (such as schools, offices, bakeries, markets, and beauty salons).
In ordinary regularization, the interested party must follow the same procedure as in declaratory regularization. Properties with an area greater than 1,500 m² fall into this category, provided they are not included in the previous categories.
Once the regularization request has been submitted, the City will have up to a year to analyze the request. It is necessary to point out that the interested party will have a period of only 90 (ninety) days, as of January 1st, 2020, to start the regularization of his property.
Municipal Law 17.202/19 can be checked in full at: http://legislacao.prefeitura.
The Real Estate Law team at De Luca, Derenusson, Schutoff & Advogados – DDSA is at your entire disposal for further clarifications and assistance in cases involving real estate regularization.