Notice from the municipality
What is a notice from the municipality?
The city makes sure that everyone follows the rules. Just like the police.
If you violate any laws, the municipality will send you a letter asking you to remedy the violation. This is called a formal notice.
The municipality is monitoring the following violations:
- building without an environmental permit
- use of land and buildings in violation of the provisions of the environmental plan
- keeping animals illegally
- disposing of household waste improperly
How does it work?
If you do nothing, the municipality will take care of it for you. In that case, you will be responsible for the costs. This is called administrative enforcement. The municipality may also impose a penalty on you. This means you will have to pay if you do not remedy the violation in time.
What should I do?
If you violate a legal regulation, you will receive a letter from the municipality. In it, the municipality will ask you to remedy the violation (a preliminary notice). If you disagree with this, you should explain why you disagree. This is called a statement of objection. You should send this statement of objection to the municipality.
You will then receive a final decision from the municipality. In this decision, the municipality will again ask you to remedy the violation. This is called a final enforcement decision. If you disagree with this decision, you may file an objection with the municipality within 6 weeks. However, you must have already remedied the violation by that time.
Avoiding administrative enforcement or a penalty
- You can ask the court for a preliminary ruling. You can only do this if you have filed an objection.
- You may request a postponement. The municipality will not take any action until it has ruled on your objection.
Violation by someone else
If you want the municipality to take action against someone else’s violation, you should report it to the municipality (this is called a request for enforcement). You can ask the municipality right away to send that person a warning letter.