TAP certificate in five days

An Interior Ministry amendment aspires to put an end to delays in the issuance by local authorities of the real estate tax (TAP) clearance, recorded in most municipalities of the country. The amendment establishes rules for the required supporting documents as well as the timeframe of their issue.

In particular, municipalities will be required to issue the relevant certificates within five days based on the data they keep electronically. The certificates will be valid until the end of the year of their issue. Local authorities will not be obliged to grant the certificate digitally, but it is “possible,” as the amendment states, which apparently shows that a few municipalities will follow the example of the municipalities of Athens and Zografou.

As far as the supporting documents are concerned, the Ministry of the Interior sets specific rules in order to stop the suffering of citizens. Today there are municipalities that ask for 10 and 15 supporting documents to issue the TAP certificate, such as for example the municipalities of Almyros and Skiathos.

Based on the provision for the granting of the certificate, upon the relevant request of the interested party for the area declared in his application, it will be required to present only two or three supporting documents. 

For properties with a power supply, interested parties will provide a photocopy of the latest electricity bill together with proof of payment and the building/divided property identity certificate.

For non-electrified properties, instead of the electricity bill, the applicant will provide a certificate of electricity interruption from the operator of the Greek electricity distribution network (DEDDIE) with the date of interruption, a formal declaration of the owner for the non-use of the property and a certificate of completeness of the identity of the building/divided property.

Nowadays most municipalities ask for a multitude of supporting documents, acting in a way like auditors of the transferred property, while there are municipalities even today that take up to two months to issue the certificate. That is the case for municipal authorities such as those of Agia Paraskevi and Agios Dimitrios in Attica, according to what notaries say.