Building Committee fees

The Swedish Planning and Building Act, PBL, gives the municipalities the right to charge fees so that the municipality can cover the costs of all measures that are normally included in permit and registration matters. Work on detailed development plans can also be financed through fees.

The right to charge fees

Municipalities may charge fees for services and utilities that they provide. For services that the municipalities are obliged to provide, fees may, however, only be charged if pursuant to law or other regulation.

The Building Committee may not charge fees for advice and public supervisory activities since they should be financed by taxes.

PBL allows the municipalities to charge fees for decisions on:

• planning decisions
• preliminary decisions
• condition decisions
• start decisions
• completion decisions
• intervention decisions
• permits.

The municipality may also charge fees for:

• technical consultation
• completion consultation
• workplace visits and other inspection visits to construction sites
• preparation of new construction maps
• preparation of archive-quality documents
• processing and issuing of permits and preliminary decisions
• other time- or cost-consuming measures.

Planning fee

The municipality can finance its planning work in various ways. The financing can take place with tax funding, through agreements with the developer on compensation and through planning fees in connection with building permits. Planning fees are charged to cover costs that have arisen in the preparation of the detailed development plan and area regulations. Costs for programmes in the detailed planning process can also be charged as planning fees. The municipality may only charge a planning fee in connection with the building permit if the plan is of benefit to the property.

It is important that the size and distribution of the fees as well as the time at which they are going to be paid are made clear to affected property owners at the beginning of the planning work. The municipality therefore needs a principle for how the planning fees charged in the building permit phase are distributed within a planning area.

Level of the fees

The Building Committee's fees may not exceed the municipality's average cost for the type of notice, decision or processing that the fees concern, also known as the cost price principle. The grounds of how the fees are to be calculated shall be stated in a tariff that the municipal council decides on.

Who shall pay?

The Building Committee's fees shall be paid by the applicant or the person registering the matter that the notice, decision or processing concerns. The Building Committee may charge the fee in advance. The Building Committee can also charge a fee for applications that are rejected and other measures.