Municipal Complementary Law (LC) No. 192/2018, published on July 19, establishes special conditions for the licensing of buildings (future improvements – named “mais valerá”) and additions in buildings (improvements – named “mais-valia”) in order to stimulate the regularization of buildings in the city of Rio de Janeiro and increase tax collection of the municipality. In 2015, when another improvements law was enacted, legalization of additions yielded R$ 1 billion for municipal public coffers.

The “mais-valia” is the amount paid to the city government to legalize improvements/additions built on residential and commercial real estate without the proper license. The term “mais-valerá” is a novelty of LC 192/2018, as it is also expected to regulate additions on real estate that are still under construction.

The new legislation makes it possible to legalize modifications and/or additions to constructions done irregularly, that is, without proper authorization, by means of payment of a sum to the municipality. The alteration and/or addition shall be accepted provided that (i) the construction does not exceed more than one floor in addition to the plan permitted for the property and its respective approved plan and (ii) does not constitute use in disagreement with what is allowed for the property.

The “mais-valia” also allows the closing of balconies, both at the front and back of properties. In this case, the rate charged by the city government is proportional to the area of ​​the enclosed space, calculated based on the appraised value of the property for the purposes of calculating the Urban Property Tax (IPTU) and based on the purpose of the property, whether residential or commercial. The closing of balconies with so-called "glass curtains" will be exempted from the payment of the fee due to the provisions of the Municipal Complementary Law No. 145/2014, amended by Municipal Complementary Law No. 184/2018.

The “mais-valerá”, in turn, allows horizontal enlargements under the roof, provided that it is within construction standards. For commercial buildings, LC 192/2018 provides conditions for mezzanine construction of up to 50% of the floor area on the floors above the first floor, which was only allowed in shops on the ground floor. This change will be allowed throughout the city, including in the South Zone.

Interested parties will have 90 days to legalize their projects (extendable for the same period) as of the publication of the law. Those who adhere to project within 30 days from the date of entry into force of the law (July 19, 2018) will have a 5% discount on the tax due. If the fee is paid in cash, there will be a further 7% discount. Only those taxpayers who are in good standing with their tax obligations with the municipality may join this benefit of the new legalization.

According to the decree regulating LC No. 192/2018 (Municipal Decree No. 44.737/2018), the concession of the license for the execution of construction of the “mais-valerá” is conditioned on the payment of the first installment of the sum. A possible extension of this license is conditioned on the payment of the other installments. The concession of the legalization license of construction works already executed, in turn, depends on full payment of the sum.

Applications must be submitted through the online application system of the Municipal Department of Urbanism (SMU), available at: http://www.rio.rj.gov.br/web/maisvalia/requerimento-online.

Then, the applicant must deliver in one of the units of the SMU the printed application, the architecture plans, and other documents necessary to prepare the fee counterpart report.