In case any of you think that all this has been smooth sailing let me remind you of some of the quirks of developing here:
• I am still trying to get around the whole aspect of how here you have to apply for technical conditions for a building that you want to build so they can tell you what you can build before you have designed it.
• How you can’t build a fence around your own land until a department advises you that you need to build a fence – and that it should be around your own land.
• How Kievgas are obliged by law to connect you to their gas mains within 3 months. So, they tell you that if you apply today (ONLY with a Gask approval document that your building is complete) – in exactly 3 months’ time (not before) you will be connected. But – if you don’t have the gas connected – the building is considered unfinished.
• However, the “cash fee” by GASK for a certificate that your building being complete is fixed at $30 psm.
BTW You need the patience of a Saint… and a wife who will tirelessly queue on a Wednesday after 1400 and before 1700 to get a small slip of paper signed and stamped so it can be taken to a bank 500m away in the pouring rain and a fee paid of 50 Kopeks there (after queuing) that allows the accompanying receipt to be brought back and stamped at another window in the same building on a different floor and thus validate the first slip of paper that must accompany the application form in a 3rd window in another building – manned part-time on Tuesday and Thursday mornings 0900 – 1100.
