STARTING this month of September, the City Buildings and Architecture Office (CBAO) will begin handing out notices of violation (NOVs) to penalize structure owners who have yet to acquire building permits.
CBAO Asst. Dept. Head Engr. Stephen Capuyan said this will be applicable to all buildings whether residential and commercial, ongoing or finished and whether located in titled or untitled lots.
Without a permit, structure owners issued NOVs are required to pay fines of P10,000, which Capuyan clarified would not replace the need to acquire a permit.
“The notion that they already are exempt from getting a permit once they paid the fine is wrong. They still have to get a permit even if they have paid the fine,” Capuyan said.
The start of issuance of NOVs is part of the city’s push since April to encourage building owners in the city to acquire permits for their structures.
According to inventories done earlier this year, at least 80 percent of the documented structures in the city do not have building permits.
The CBAO said the city has been collecting an average of P4 million from building permit violations since 2021.
