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Monday, 2 November 2020

Settlement deadline for illegal construction pushed until the end of November

Is your home in violation of the building code? You’ve got to an extra month to settle up. The deadline to pay the fines for building code violations has been pushed to 30 November, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said last week. The extension comes after the government received requests from property owners asking for time to complete the necessary paperwork, cabinet spokesperson Nader Saad said in an interview on DMC (watch, runtime: 5:49). The government has received 2.1 mn settlement requests and has taken some EGP 14 bn since it began taking a hardline approach towards code violations and wildcat builders at the beginning of September.

This is the second time the government has pushed the deadline, after originally saying that it would not negotiate the initial cut off point at the end of September. The deadline was ultimately pushed to the end of October and now to the end of November amid a flood of settlement requests. It also made concessions to MPs by slashing settlement fees after members raised concerns that many people would not be able to afford them. The policy provoked small protests in some areas of the country last month by people angered by the prospect of having their homes demolished.

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