Status date: 29 September 2026. Status: In force. Instrument: Pravilnik o sadržaju zapisnika o izvršenom pregledu bespravnog objekta i visini naknade za rad članovima komisije (Rulebook on the content of the inspection record for an unpermitted building and on the remuneration of commission members), Official Gazette of Montenegro 140/2026, registration no. 2406, published and in force 25 September 2026. Legal basis: Article 14(12) of the Legalisation Act (91/25, 18/26, 117/26).
In August we read the 117/2026 amendment and wrote that the owner of an unpermitted building now pays for the on-site inspection, "at an amount the Ministry has yet to set". The Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property has now set it, in a five-article rulebook signed on 18 September. The number is small. What deserves attention is who pays it, when, into which account, and which of four bands your building falls into — because the band is ticked by the commission on the day it visits.
What the text says
Article 3 carries the whole change. Paragraph 1 repeats the statutory rule word for word: "Troškove izlaska na lice mjesta i pregleda bespravnog objekta snosi vlasnik bespravnog objekta" — the owner bears the cost of the site visit and the inspection. Paragraph 2 says the remuneration of commission members is fixed by a decision (rješenje) of the authority that formed the commission. Paragraph 3 puts the payment on the applicant: on the basis of that decision, the person who filed the legalisation request pays into a dedicated account of the municipality or the competent administrative body. Paragraph 4 sets the ceilings, per member:
| Building | Ceiling per commission member |
|---|---|
| Basic-housing building (objekat osnovnog stanovanja) | up to 20 € |
| Building up to 500 m² | up to 30 € |
| Building over 500 m², or in a protected zone | up to 60 € |
| Hotels, 4-5 star tourist settlements and resorts, business and retail buildings, warehouses, industrial buildings, and "other buildings for tourist and catering activity" | up to 200 € |
The commission itself comes from Article 14 of the Act: an odd number of members, at least three. With three members the ceilings add up to 60, 90, 180 and 600 euros. The official form annexed to the rulebook (Obrazac 1) leaves five lines for members; a five-member commission would take the ceilings to 100, 150, 300 and 1,000 euros. These are caps. The actual amount is whatever the authority's decision says.
Article 2 lists what the inspection record must contain, and the form turns that into boxes. Two of them matter for your file. Item 7 records the actual gross and net area "on the ground". Item 8 records the use of the building, with one box to tick: basic housing, residential, residential-commercial, commercial, 4-5 star hotel or resort, other. Article 4 repeals the earlier rulebook on the record's content (Gazette 110/25). Article 5 puts the rulebook in force on the day of publication.
What the text does not say
It puts no separate figure on the site visit itself. Article 14(12) of the Act, as amended by 117/2026, asked the Ministry to prescribe two things: the amount of the inspection costs and the remuneration of the commission and its secretary. The rulebook prices only the second. One reading is that the commission fee is the inspection cost. The other is that the authority may still bill travel and inspection costs on top. We cannot show which reading the municipalities will apply.
It gives no amount for the secretary. Article 1 mentions the secretary's remuneration; Article 3(4) sets figures only for "each member of the Commission".
It does not say where a holiday home let to tourists belongs. The fourth band ends with "other buildings for tourist and catering activity". A two-bedroom villa on short-term lets is under 500 m², which points to 30 euros, and used for tourism, which points to 200. The text does not decide it.
And there is no transitional rule. Nothing says whether a request filed before 25 September, with the inspection still to come, is inside or outside the new scheme.
Our reading
If you do not live in Montenegro, do not plan on the 20-euro band. Article 10 of the Act defines a basic-housing building as one of up to 200 m² net in which the owner and household live, with residence (prebivalište) in that place, and with no other home in Montenegro. A holiday home owned from abroad does not meet that definition as we read it.
Prepare for the visit as a classification hearing. The commission writes down the area it measures and ticks the use box; the fee band follows from both, and so does the rest of the file. If the building is residential and not let commercially, have that documented before the visit. If it is let, expect the question and decide your position in advance rather than at the gate. Our owner's checklist for the 14 August 2027 deadline sets out the filing itself, and our reading of the 117/2026 amendment explains where the payment obligation came from.
What did not change
The deadline did not move: Article 48(1) still runs to 14 August 2027. The 91/25 fee structure — the urban-sanitation fee, its instalments and its reductions — is untouched by this rulebook, which deals only with the inspection. The commission's composition rules in Article 14 stand, including the licensed geodetic engineer required since 117/2026. The July 2025 satellite image remains the evidentiary baseline under Article 7.
How to verify
The rulebook is on the Official Gazette's site: sluzbenilist.me/propisi/398513. The record shows Gazette 140/2026, registration number 2406, published 25 September 2026. The text is embedded as page images; Article 3 is on page 1, Article 5 on page 2, and the form from page 3. The Act as adopted is in the Assembly's file EPA 600 XXVIII: zakoni.skupstina.me/zakoni/web/app.php/akt/3763 — Article 10 for basic housing, Article 14 for the commission.
If you hold an unregistered building and want the file prepared around the classification question, our team works through these files in the order the commission will see them; other changes on this subject appear on our Legal Updates page.
