Ukraine’s updated construction design documentation rules introduce targeted changes to the Procedure approved by Order No. 45 of 16 May 2011, which affect both the preparation of new projects and changes to approved designs.
The main requirements apply to the construction customer (i.e. the party commissioning the project) and its design team. Additional cost-documentation requirements apply to projects involving budget funds, funds for state and municipal enterprises, institutions and organisations, or loans provided under state guarantees.
Checking project inputs
The customer must now ensure the accuracy of documents submitted for the preparation of design documentation.
In practice, developers should determine who checks the documents and technical information provided to the designer, including information obtained from consultants and other third parties. Identifying inconsistencies early can help avoid later revisions, approval difficulties and additional costs.
For projects involving budget funds, the funds of state or municipal enterprises, institutions and organisations, or loans provided under state guarantees, the customer must provide a list of material resources and prices for the investor’s cost-estimate documentation and confirm the list with a qualified electronic signature (QES).
Electronic preparation and approval
Previously, the Procedure allowed design assignments to be prepared electronically. Under the amended Procedure, electronic preparation is now mandatory, subject to specific exceptions. They must be approved by the customer using a QES, in agreement with the general designer or designer.
Assignments containing state-secret information must be prepared on paper. During martial law and for one year after its termination, this applies to specified critical infrastructure and defence assignments with information classified “For Official Use”.
Electronic preparation, professional signing and uploading of design documentation were already part of the framework. The amendments require the person who supervised its preparation to certify the accuracy of uploaded data using a QES.
The customer must approve design documentation through the Building Activity Register using a QES. Where expert review is required, approval follows receipt of a positive expert report.
Where approval also requires an administrative act or collective decision, it takes effect when the customer’s head or authorised representative applies the QES through the Register. This must happen on the date of the relevant act or decision.
Project teams should coordinate formal decision-making and electronic signing, rather than treating them as separate administrative steps.
Additional cost-documentation requirements
For projects financed from budget funds, the funds of state or municipal enterprises, institutions and organisations, or loans provided under state guarantees, codes from the Construction Products Codifier must be included in the consolidated statement of principal material-resource requirements.
Together with the customer-confirmed material and price list, this requires closer coordination between the customer, designer and cost-estimate specialists. Material descriptions, prices and codes should be checked before approval to reduce inconsistencies between project inputs and cost documentation.
These requirements do not apply to every privately financed development.
When approved designs need to be revised
The amended Procedure identifies the following circumstances for revising approved documentation:
- New or amended building regulations.
- Changes to principal design solutions or the scope of construction works arising from circumstances that could not have been foreseen during the design stage, which cannot be implemented within the approved design documentation and result in changes to technical and economic indicators.
- For projects within the specified funding categories, cost estimates that are no longer current when procurement takes place.
- For specified publicly funded or state-supported projects, exhaustion of the approved cost limit or justified increases in the labour and material resources needed for the completion of the remaining works that cannot be covered by the inflation allowance.
- Other cases decided by the customer, subject to construction legislation.
Where the right to carry out construction works has already been obtained, amendments prompted by new or amended building regulations are made at the customer’s discretion.
The Procedure also confirms that a change of a construction customer during construction does not require the design documentation to be amended.
The reference date for applicable technical requirements has changed. Documentation must comply with the relevant building regulations, sanitary regulations, national standards and mandatory codes of practice in force when the expert report is received. Previously, the Procedure referred to the date the documentation was delivered to the customer.
Project teams should monitor applicable requirements through the expert-review stage and assess the specific amendment rules before revising an ongoing project.
Further review, purchaser consent and registration
Design amendments can have consequences beyond the technical changes.
Where amendments increase the class of consequences from CC1 to CC2 or CC3, or from CC2 to CC3, the revised documentation is subject to mandatory expert review.
Purchaser consent may also be required where a special property right or relevant encumbrance has been registered for a person who has partially paid for a future real estate asset. This requirement applies in cases specified in Article 31(12) of the Law on the Regulation of Urban Development Activities. It is not a general consent requirement for every design change.
Revised documentation must be entered into the Building Activity Register when submitted for expert review. Where expert review is not conducted under the applicable procedure, it must be entered before the application to register changes to information for the right to carry out construction works. The system automatically assigns a registration number.
Developers should assess these steps before implementing revisions, particularly where changes affect the class of consequences or the rights of purchasers of future premises.
Sensitive projects and civil-protection facilities
Design documentation containing state secrets is not entered into the Building Activity Register.
During martial law and for one year after its termination or cancellation, the same exclusion applies to specified critical infrastructure and defence documentation with information classified “For Official Use”. Applicable rules on handling classified information must also be observed.
For civil-protection shelters and dual-purpose structures, the name of the construction project must identify the type of collective protection facility, its protective characteristics—class or group—and its capacity.
Practical priorities for project teams
Developers and construction customers should:
- Allocate responsibility for verifying project inputs and, where applicable, material-resource lists, prices and codes.
- Coordinate design preparation, expert review, formal approval and electronic signing.
- Assess proposed revisions for their effect on technical requirements, costs, the class of consequences and purchaser rights.
- Build any required review, consent and registration steps into the project timetable.
- Check whether special documentation rules apply to sensitive projects or civil-protection facilities.
The amendments make responsibilities and procedural steps more explicit. Addressing them early can help project teams manage approvals and design changes more effectively.
For more information on the updated design documentation rules in Ukraine, contact your CMS client partner or the CMS experts who contributed to this article.
