Mayor Bruno Covas sanctioned on 10/16/2019 the Building Regularization Law, better known as the Amnesty Law, of the Municipality of São Paulo. The new legislation aims to deburocratize the process of real estate regularization.
Although the bill, during its passage through the São Paulo City Council, became known for its apparent amnesty, the City Hall is not forgiving real estate irregularities. In reality, anyone who has any type of irregularity in their property built up to December 31, 2014, as long as they fit the rules of the law, can seek regularization through the rules imposed by the City Hall.
Thus, 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, homes 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, buildings for mixed use (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 for declaratory regularization. Properties with an area greater than 1,500 m² fit into this mobility, as long as they are not included in the previous categories.
Once the regularization request is presented, the City will have a period of up to 1 (one) year to analyze the request. The interested party will have 90 (ninety) days, as of January 1st, 2020, to start the regularization of his property.
The Real Estate Law team at De Luca, Derenusson, Schutoff & Advogados is at your entire disposal for further clarifications and assistance in cases involving real estate regularization.