What Article 150² of the Administrative Offences Code covers
Article 150² of the Code of Administrative Offences of Georgia protects the appearance of the Tbilisi municipality from disfigurement. The norm punishes the unauthorised execution of various inscriptions, drawings and symbols on building facades, shop windows, fences, columns, trees, and pedestrian and roadway areas; the placement of posters, slogans and banners in places not designated for them; and the abandonment of fences and buildings unpainted. This article governs the visual environment of Tbilisi, and its sanctions are considerable.
The article comprises seven parts, and the sanction grows both with repetition and with special locations — the buildings of administrative bodies and cultural heritage zones.
The basic offence and repetition
Under the first part, an unauthorised inscription, drawing or symbol, or a poster, slogan or banner placed in an undesignated place, entails a fine of 1,000 GEL. A repeated commission of the same act raises the fine to 2,000 GEL. The very first episode is thus expensive, and the second even more so.
Buildings of administrative bodies and heritage zones
The third part sets a separate sanction for the case where an inscription or image is executed on the facades of buildings of administrative bodies or on their adjacent territory, including streets: the fine there is 2,000 GEL, and on repetition 3,000 GEL. The fifth part punishes an act of the first part committed in a cultural heritage protection zone with 2,000 GEL, and its repetition with 3,500 GEL. In the historic districts an unauthorised banner is thus one of the most expensive administrative breaches.
The consequence of non-correction
The seventh part provides that non-correction of an act covered by the first part within 10 days of the fine entails a separate fine of 1,000 GEL. Ten days is therefore the window within which the inscription must be removed or the banner taken down — otherwise the fine practically doubles.
What a lawyer checks in such a case
The first line of defence is the fact of arbitrariness: whether a legal basis existed for placing the inscription or banner — a decision, an agreement or a designated place. The second line is the location: whether the place was designated, whether it was the building of an administrative body or its adjacent territory, whether it lay in a heritage zone — each answer means a different part and a different fine. The third line is repetition: which episode counts as a repeat and how the authority proves it. The fourth is the counting of the ten-day period.
The most important practical conclusion for a business: before placing an advertising banner, it must be established whether the place is designated for it. In historic districts this question is especially acute, because the fine there starts at 2,000 GEL and rises to 3,500 on repetition.
How we can help
The lawyers of legal.ge will assess the correctness of the qualification, verify the facts of repetition and of the periods, defend you before the reviewing authority and prepare an appeal. For a consultation, bring the fine decision, photographs of the banner or inscription, the placement documentation (if any), and your identity or registration documents. And remember the ten-day period: timely removal spares you the additional fine.
Who encounters this article in practice
The norm concerns a wider circle than it first appears. It embraces street art and graffiti, commercial communication — banners and posters placed by companies on facades, fences and shop windows — slogans of social or political content, and finally the inaction of owners who leave a building or a fence unpainted for years. Each of these groups falls under the same norm, though the sanction differs by place and repetition.
For companies the main source of risk is the case where a banner is placed for a single campaign but is not removed after the campaign ends. Such an abandoned banner may be assessed as a new episode, and if the place is in a historic district the fine rises to 3,500 GEL. Control over the end of a campaign must therefore be part of advertising management.
The second risk lies in episodes of unpainted surfaces: an owner often does not realise that the weathered exterior of his own building falls directly under this article. Periodic assessment of a building's condition and planned painting spares the 1,000 GEL fine.
For further questions our team is ready to consult — reach us through the contacts on this page and we will assess the case in full.