Laws and Regulations
Expect fact-pattern questions: a plot, a permit, a plan, an objection, and the question "which authority and which article?" You need the hierarchy of norms and the competence of each commission.
Hierarchy and instruments
- National statute (Majles) → implementing regulations (ayin-nameh) → Supreme Council approvals → municipal bylaws. A lower instrument cannot contradict a higher one.
- Municipalities Law framework and the Article 100 commission: hears violations of a detailed plan and of the building permit - unauthorised construction, excess floors, non-permitted use, encroachment on setback or passage. Powers include fines and demolition of the offending part.
- Article 5 commission: subdivision, consolidation and land-use decisions for land outside an approved detailed plan.
- Building permit (parvaneh-ye sakhteman) plus supervised construction and a completion certificate; construction without a permit is the classic Article 100 case.
- Urban land law (1982) and expropriation rules: compensation based on current value, with the plan's implementation requiring acquisition of the affected strips.
Worked example
A three-storey building is erected where the approved detailed plan allows two. There is no permit. The correct forum is the Article 100 commission, not the Article 5 commission, because the site lies inside an approved detailed plan and the breach concerns permitted density and permit compliance. The commission may impose a fine and order removal of the third floor; the owner's remedy is objection through the stated procedure, not a fresh subdivision application.
Traps
- Sending every land-use question to Article 100; the plan boundary decides.
- Assuming a municipality can amend an approved detailed plan by resolution.
- Forgetting that a permit has conditions (setback, parking, occupancy) which are themselves enforceable.