Unpermitted advertising construction

District Construction Supervision Office for the City of Poznań summed up the controls on the legality of advertising mediums, that were carried out in Poznań in 2018. The information on controls published on the authority’s website (link) shows that:

• out of 103 tested, freestanding advertising mediums, only 4 were legally placed;
• the activities of the officers of the building supervision authority led to the demolition of 17 freestanding, illegal advertising mediums; in other cases, administrative proceedings are conducted in the subject of the legalization of unpermitted constructions;
• the legality of one LED screen placed on the facade of the building was checked and as a result of the inspection, it turned out that it was not previously reported by the investor to the competent architectural and building administration authority.

The information published by the District Construction Supervision Office in Poznań illustrates the scale of the problem of illegal, freestanding advertising mediums, installed without obtaining a building permit. In practice, the main reasons for installation freestanding advertising mediums are inconsistencies with the provisions of the local spatial development plan or the lack of a decision on developement conditions that permit for location of such a structure. Often, the reason for unpermitted construction is also the lack of legal title to the real estate on which the advertising medium is placed. Frequently, illegal advertising mediums are located on land with unregulated legal status, and therefore the investor does not have the status of an owner or tenant of the property.

As a result, in many cases it is not possible to legalize the illegal construction works. The condition for legalizing a freestanding advertising medium built without the required construction permit is, among other things, compliance with the provisions of the local spatial development plan (or with decision on development conditions, if there is no adopted plan) and having a legal title to use the property for construction purposes. In addition, the investor must provide a technical assessment of the illegal building, on the basis of which assessment that it does not pose a threat to human safety will be made. Failure to meet even one of the above requirements results in the order to demolish such a advertising medium.