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Tuesday, 1 December 2020

Time’s up for illegal building settlements

If your home is in violation of the building code, your time to settle is officially up: The government has no plans to extend the settlement deadline for illegal construction past yesterday’s expiration date, Youm7 reports, citing unnamed officials. Construction will be allowed to resume in a six-month transitional phase until the Housing Ministry issues a new framework for building requirements. The framework will lay out the regulations on building heights, ratios, and usage, urban coordination, and the executive procedures needed to start construction work.

The government had pushed the deadline several times before, after originally setting a cut-off date of 30 September for settlement requests to be filed. The deadline was ultimately pushed to the end of October, and then again to the end of November amid a flood of settlement requests. The government also agreed to slash settlement fees after MPs raised concerns that they were not affordable for many people. Small protests took place in October against the fees in some parts of the country.

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