With the country facing new fire fronts every day, vacant lands, especially those located near forest areas, are becoming one of the biggest threats.
Lot owners are required, for the first time this year, to electronically declare the cleanliness of their lots, following the creation of the Register of Compliance with Precautionary Measures for Protection Against Property Fires. The relevant deadline normally expired today, June 30, but has been extended until July 15.
Why the decision to extend was made
“A new culture of prevention seems to be forming among the country’s citizens, as demonstrated by statements on the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection’s platform akatharista.apps.gov.gr.
459,252 citizens have so far declared on the platform that they have cleared their installments. Only in the last 4 days more than 189,500 declarations were filed, which proves that citizens realize how critical it is to clean their properties.
In this way, we protect our properties, our neighbors and our place and contribute decisively to the efforts made by firefighters and all Civil Protection forces during the difficult fire season we are going through.
For this reason, in order to complete the universal cleaning effort by citizens – and following a request from the Panhellenic Federation of Property Owners (POMIDA) – it was decided to extend the deadline for submitting declarations to the platform until 15.07.2024″.
The fines
According to the law, failure to declare a property on the platform results in a fine of 1,000 euros. If the owner has provided false information or fails to make any declaration, the fine ranges from 1,000 to 50,000 euros.
The amount of the fine depends on the size and dangerousness of the property and is at the discretion of each Municipality.
How will you make the declaration?
The Ministry of Digital Governance has created a special digital platform entitled “Gross Installments” at the email address akatharista.apps.gov.gr.
You are entering this platform and you choose Citizen Services.
Enter the taxisnet codes and select: Property compensation statement.
You should know the KAEK number or, if the area has not yet been mapped, the Coordinates (EGSA Coordinates).
You can find your KAEK here.
The debtors
According to the no. Fire Regulation No. 20/2024 “Definition of preventive fire protection measures for plots of land and other uncovered areas located in areas covered by approved land use plans, within the limits of agglomerations without an approved land use plan , in areas located within a radius of 100 m from the limits of the above areas, as well as on land not planned with buildings” which was issued at the beginning of May, determines the obligation of owners, city halls, usufructuaries, lessees or sublessees of land and other areas discoveries located at:
(a) areas within approved zoning plans;
(b) areas within the boundaries of settlements without an approved urban plan,
(c) land located within a radius of 100 m from the limits of paragraphs (a) and (b) above, after informing the competent forestry service e.
d) Off-plan plots with buildings, for areas not subject to the provisions of forestry legislation, in accordance with the forestry map of the area and after informing the competent forestry service,
for the cleaning of the above-mentioned facilities during the period from 1 to 30 April each year and their maintenance throughout the fire season, i.e. from 1 May to 31 October, to prevent the risk of fire or its rapid spread.
Landscaped gardens, maintained gardens or planted surfaces of uncovered areas of buildings, apartment buildings, etc. of the regions and lands mentioned above are excluded from this obligation.
What is included in the cleaning?
- Cutting and removing dry and broken trees and branches, as well as branches in direct contact with buildings
- Removal of combustible plant material on the soil surface, such as leaf litter, dry grasses and underlying dry branches.
- Branching of the base of the tree crown and increase in its initial height in relation to the ground surface, depending on the age and species of the tree.
- Thinning of shrub vegetation in terms of soil cover.
- Removal of any other abandoned burning, flammable, explosive or combustible materials, objects and waste.
- Safe collection and transportation of all cleaning waste.
However, the responsibilities of the municipalities have also increased, since, among other things and as stipulated by the respective fire-fighting provision, they need to inform those responsible, carry out regular or extraordinary checks, as well as carry out land cleaning, autopsy and also emergency cleaning on site.
Furthermore, among the responsibilities of the Fire Department is the notification by any appropriate means of the competent municipality, the performance of an autopsy at the request of the competent municipality and the certification of the competent Fire Department in urgent cases of immediate occurrence and particularly high risk of causing or rapidly spreading fire.