Follow the construction of your future home long enough and you will hear three terms: Act 14, Act 15 and Act 16. They sound technical, but each one marks a specific, verifiable step towards a finished building.
Understanding them is not a formality. It tells you what stage construction is genuinely at, what has already been done, and what remains before you get the keys.
What Act 14 means
Act 14 is issued once a building reaches shell-and-core stage. That means the structure is complete — walls, slabs, roof — and the site now has the physical form of a building rather than a construction plot.
At this stage, the apartments still lack finishes and completed installations. The certificate is an important marker for a buyer, because it confirms that the hardest part of construction to change later is now behind it.
What Act 15 means
Act 15 is a certification act by which the developer, the builder and the design team confirm that construction has been carried out in line with the approved plans and is ready to be put into use. A commission inspects the site and signs the record.
This is a meaningful step forward: the building is now technically complete from a construction standpoint, and what follows is the procedure for its official approval.
What Act 16 means
Act 16 is the permit for use, issued by the competent authority (usually the national building control body or the municipality, depending on the category of the building). It confirms the building meets regulatory requirements and may legally be occupied.
Only after Act 16 can owners move in and register a permanent address at the property. That makes it the decisive document for a buyer — without it, a building remains formally incomplete, however finished it looks from the outside.
What can and cannot happen at each stage
At Act 14 stage, finishing works on the common areas are usually already under way, and off-plan buyers track progress and plan their own finishing schedule around the builder's timeline.
Between Act 15 and Act 16, the building is waiting for its official permit for use. Moving in before Act 16 is issued is not standard practice — the sensible approach is to wait for the document before planning a permanent move.
Why these stages matter to a buyer
The three certificates give an objective measure of construction progress, separate from visual impressions of the site. They are also a useful reference point for tying contract payments to the actual stage of construction.
Ask the developer which stage construction is at and request to see the relevant documents. Transparency on this point is a good sign in its own right.
