A legalised house in Croatia: what the rješenje o izvedenom stanju means

On Pelješac it is hard to find an old family house built entirely under a permit. Houses grew with families: a floor when the children married, a loggia when the first guest arrived, an apartment once it was clear the guests came back every year. Much of that was legalised after 2012, and among the papers of such a house you will find one document that buyers from abroad rarely know: the rješenje o izvedenom stanju, the decision on the as-built state.

This guide explains what that document means for you as a buyer, what it covers, what it does not and how to check it before you make an offer. It does not deal with the legalisation procedure from the owner's side, except where that affects a purchase.

The short answer: a rješenje o izvedenom stanju means the building may stay and counts as an existing building. It does not prove ownership, does not guarantee build quality and covers only what is drawn in the as-built survey.

What is a rješenje o izvedenom stanju?

A rješenje o izvedenom stanju is an administrative decision that allows an illegally built building, or an illegally built part of an existing building, to remain. It is issued by the physical planning and building department, for Pelješac the local office of Dubrovnik-Neretva County, under the Act on the Treatment of Illegally Built Buildings of 2012.

Under that act, a building is illegal if it was built without a permit or contrary to one. Only a building visible on the State Geodetic Administration digital orthophoto map, made from aerial survey begun on 21 June 2011, can be legalised, and at least the rough structure of one storey must have existed. What did not exist then cannot be legalised this way.

The decision always comes with an as-built survey, the snimak izvedenog stanja: drawings and a schedule of areas prepared by a licensed architect or engineer. That survey matters more than it looks, because it defines exactly what was legalised.

How does a house with a permit differ from a pre-1968 house and a legalised one?

In the papers of a Pelješac house you will meet three grounds of legality, often two in the same house:

• Building permit and occupancy permit: the building was built to an approved design and technically inspected. This is the standard for all recent construction.
• Built before 15 February 1968: the building is treated as legal without a permit, proved by a cadastre certificate on the time of construction. Most old stone village cores fall here.
• Rješenje o izvedenom stanju: for what was built without a permit between 1968 and June 2011 and legalised later.

A typical old Pelješac house has an old core proved by a certificate and an extension legalised by a decision. That is an entirely sound position, provided the papers together cover the whole house.

What does legalisation cover?

The act is precise. A completed building, or completed part of a building, for which a rješenje o izvedenom stanju has been issued:

• counts as an existing building under building regulations;
• may be used, reconstructed and connected to water, drainage, electricity and other infrastructure;
• can receive a decision allowing a business to be run in it, which is the basis for categorisation and holiday letting;
• can receive confirmation that a separate part of it is a self-contained unit, which makes condominium division possible.

The cadastre records such a building, and when the land registry court enters it, it adds a note to the possession sheet that the decision was submitted, with the name and reference of the act. So the legalisation is visible on the land registry extract itself, as we explain in the guide to the cadastre and land registry.

For a buyer who wants to live in the house or let it, that is enough in practice. A legalised house is not a second-class house.

What does legalisation not cover?

Does a rješenje o izvedenom stanju prove ownership?

No. The act states explicitly that the decision has no legal effect on ownership or other property rights in the building or the land it stands on. A decision can be in the name of someone who is not the owner, and a house can be legalised even if part of it stands on someone else's plot. Ownership is checked only in the land registry.

With old family houses this is a common trap: one family member carried out the legalisation, while the land registry still shows a grandfather who died long ago. How that gets resolved is covered in the guide to buying from heirs.

Does the decision cover what was added later?

No. The decision covers exactly what is drawn in the as-built survey and not a square metre more. A loggia enclosed, a pool added, an extra ground-floor apartment or a raised roof after the survey date are unlawful again, and unlike older extensions, anything that did not exist in June 2011 cannot be legalised afterwards.

That is why comparing the survey with the house as it stands is the most useful check a buyer can make. Take the drawings, walk through the house and count rooms, bathrooms and openings. Every difference needs an explanation before signing, not after.

Does legalisation guarantee the house is well built?

No. The decision confirms the building may remain, not that it was built well. An occupancy permit follows a technical inspection of works built to a design, whereas legalisation relies on a survey of what exists. For older extensions it is therefore worth checking the structure, roof, waterproofing and services separately, as with any old house.

Are there unpaid costs attached to the legalisation?

There can be. Before the decision is issued, the owner pays a fee for retaining the illegally built building, or its first instalment if payment by instalments was agreed. Once the decision is enforceable, the municipal contribution falls due, and depending on the date of the decision, the water contribution as well. If any of that is unpaid, a buyer does not want to discover it after handover. Ask for confirmation from the issuing office and the municipality that the obligations are settled.

Can a house be legalised today?

It can, and that is new in 2026. The original application deadline expired on 30 June 2013. Amendments in 2017 opened a new window until 30 June 2018. Amendments in force since 16 May 2026 abolished the deadline altogether, so an application can now be made at any time, electronically through the eDozvola system.

What has not changed is the 21 June 2011 cut-off. A house or extension that was not visible on the orthophoto map then still cannot be legalised. Buildings on certain protected land, for example the maritime domain, are also excluded.

For a buyer this means two things. A house with an unlegalised extension from 2005 is no longer a hopeless case, because the owner can apply now. But a promise to legalise is not a decision. If you buy before the procedure is complete, legalisation should be a condition in the preliminary contract, and the price should reflect the risk that it fails.

How do you check a legalised house before buying?

This is the list we go through for every legalised house we take on:

• The rješenje o izvedenom stanju with its finality clause. A decision without one is not yet final.
• The as-built survey, with all drawings and the schedule of areas, compared with the house as it stands.
• For the old part of the house: the cadastre certificate that it was built before 15 February 1968.
• The land registry extract: whether the building is registered, whether the decision is noted, who the owner is and whether there are encumbrances.
• Confirmation that the retention fee and municipal contribution have been paid in full.
• Whether the plots in the decision match the plots you are buying. Decisions often list several plots, including ones that carry only part of the building.

The as-built survey usually states the gross building area, because the fee is calculated from it. That figure is not the usable area of the house and must not be used to work out the price per square metre. How one becomes the other is explained in the guide to usable and gross floor area.

What does this look like on a real house?

Take the stone house in Trstenik we currently have on offer, because it shows almost everything described above.

The 61.00 m² core of the house was built before 1968, as a cadastre certificate from February 2013 confirms. The upper floor and a small ground-floor extension were built later without a permit. An as-built survey was prepared for them in March 2013, within the deadline of the time, and the rješenje o izvedenom stanju was issued in December 2015. The survey classifies the building as less demanding, because its gross building area does not exceed 400 m².

The survey gives a gross building area of 162.61 m². Adding up the rooms from the same drawings gives a net usable area of 116.10 m². The listing publishes the smaller figure. The survey also lists every room, so the layout in the drawings can be checked against the house room by room.

What the legalisation does not answer in this case, and what we check separately, is the land registry: who is registered as owner and whether there are encumbrances. The listing says so.

Does legalisation affect the price?

When the papers are complete, in our experience a legalised house does not sell for noticeably less than one with an occupancy permit. What pulls the price down is unfinished business: an extension that was never legalised, a decision that does not cover the whole house, or ownership that does not match the decision. How that enters a valuation is covered in the guide to what a property is worth.

If you are buying to let, legality is a precondition, not a detail. Without an occupancy permit or a rješenje o izvedenom stanju there is no categorisation, and without categorisation there is no legal letting. More on that in the guide to holiday letting.

What if the house is not legalised?

If the house, or the part in question, existed in June 2011, the cleanest route is for the owner to apply and complete the legalisation before the sale. If that is not possible, the price has to reflect the cost and risk of the procedure, and the preliminary contract has to say what happens if legalisation fails.

If part of the house did not exist in June 2011, legalisation this way is not possible. What remains is to bring the building in line with the current spatial plan and obtain a permit for reconstruction, which is not always possible, or to allow for removing that part. What that means for a renovation budget is covered in the guide to stone houses for renovation.

If you are looking at a specific house and are unsure what its papers mean, send them to us. Before you make an offer, we will tell you what they cover and what they do not.