A final decision on one of the sagas of the last 12 months, with good news for apartment owners, as common sense prevails.
Minister of Construction and Urban Planning Lovro Kuščević announced on Wednesday that he would change the Regulations on Energy Audits and Energy Certification of Buildings, which will abolish the provisions which obliged the providers of accommodation services in flats, apartments and holiday homes to acquire an energy certificate, reports Glas Slavonije and RTL on February 17, 2016.
“The European Directive does not require the certification of rental apartments. We have examined the legal structure and the issues, we have consulted with the Ministry of Tourism and with a wide range of experts, and I have made my decision – we will abolish the certification of apartments. My team in the Ministry is working on this issue and we have thus solved the dilemma about these certificates”, said Kuščević.
“I would like to thank Minister Kuščević and officials in his Ministry because they have shown they understand the problems of owners of rental apartments and have accepted their observations which were communicated through the Association of Family Accommodation Services and Tourism with the Croatian Chamber of Economy. Our commitment as the Tourism Ministry is to represent the interests of our sector, in this case the small owners of rental accommodation units, which represent almost 50 percent of the total accommodation capacity in Croatia. With this decision, we have shown that in dialogue with other ministries, by understanding the problems and effectively dealing with them, we can do a lot”, said Tourism Minister Anton Kliman.
The Ministry of Tourism pointed out in a statement that it will continue, in cooperation with the Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning, to encourage property owners to acquire energy certificates, because the positive attitude towards protection of the environment, which includes the responsible consumption of energy, is one of the steps towards the improvement of standards in the Croatian tourism.
The owners of rental units who have already acquired their energy certificates can use that document to apply for funds from the European Union aimed at improving energy performance of buildings. Also, incentive programs in the field of energy efficiency enable the co-financing of funds invested in acquiring the energy certificates. Since energy certificates are valid for ten years, the owners have enough time to apply for EU funds which will cover the costs associated with acquiring the certificates.
