24.09.2026

Planning consent: what is changing and what requirements are set out in the Code on Spatial Planning, Town and Country Planning and Construction

Over the past 30 years, a building erected without planning permission could, over time, become almost ‘legal’ — a three-year period was sufficient for the administrative offence to become time-barred, and the owner could obtain a certificate of compliance based on a simple technical assessment. The new Town Planning Code (Law No. 169/2026) completely changes this approach and, in place of the certificate of compliance, offers a single route to legalisation — the regularisation permit, which is permanently available only for a limited category of buildings, and for the rest, only within a strict one-year timeframe and at a cost ten times higher.

The certificate of completion is the administrative document by which the local public authority that issued the planning permission could confirm that a building had been constructed in accordance with the planning permission and that a completion certificate existed upon the completion of the works. Although seemingly procedural, its role is essential: without this certificate, the building could not be registered (entered) in the land register, and without such registration, the right of ownership over the building is not enforceable against third parties and the property cannot be transferred with legal certainty. In practice, this building certificate was mandatory not only for the registration of a building but also for bringing it into compliance with the law.

Until 25 August 2026, the main legal basis for issuing the certificate was Article 37(6) of Law No. 50/1991 on the authorisation of construction works, read in conjunction with Law No. 7/1996 on the cadastre and the publication of property details (as amended by Law No. 150/2015) and with Law No. 7/2020 amending Law No. 10/1995 and Law No. 50/1991. The latter act introduced the possibility of issuing the certificate (in the form of a statement/certificate of compliance) even for constructions carried out without a planning permission, once the limitation period for administrative liability (3 years) has expired, on the basis of a technical assessment regarding compliance with fundamental quality requirements and adherence to town planning regulations.

Law No. 169/2026 (the Town Planning Code) introduces fundamental changes to the system governing building certification. Specifically, the old mechanism is abolished and the regularisation permit is now regulated. The application of the Code is not conditional upon the publication of implementing regulations — therefore, the Code takes full effect even if the regulations have not yet been issued.

Under Law No. 50/1991, a building erected without planning permission could become lawful, indirectly, simply through the passage of time: once the limitation period for administrative liability (3 years) had expired, the owner could obtain a certificate attesting to the construction on the basis of a technical assessment, without the need for a building permit as such. The new Code removes this mechanism. Under the new system:

• unauthorised buildings can no longer be accepted as such;
• the limitation period for bringing an action to demolish the building is extended to 10 years (compared with 3 years previously);
• the only exception that appears to remain is the special provision in Article 37( (2) of Law No. 7/1996 on the Land Registry (a special provision not yet repealed by the Code), applicable exclusively to constructions predating 1 August 2001, which may be registered on the basis of a tax clearance certificate and land registry documentation[1] .

In place of the old mechanism, the Code introduces a new institution, the regularisation authorisation, regulated by Article 301 of Law No. 169/2026, applicable in two situations:

• works carried out without a building permit;
• works carried out in breach of an existing authorisation.

The regime governing this is structured on two levels:

 a)     A transitional period of one year.  By way of exception to the permanent regime described in point (b) below, for a period of up to one year from the entry into force of the Code (i.e. until 25 August 2027), a regularisation permit may be granted, in practice, for any building constructed without a planning permission or in breach of it, regardless of type or floor area, provided that the works comply with the town planning regulations in force at the time the permit was issued, meet the fundamental quality requirements for construction, and that all tax obligations and any administrative penalties imposed have been fulfilled. For such cases, Article 301(8) provides: "In the situation referred to in paragraph (7), the amount of the fees relating to state supervision of land-use planning, town planning and construction is ten times the amount of the fees that would have been due had the works been carried out lawfully, and the fee for the town planning certificate and building permit due is ten times the amount of the fee established by Law No. 227/2015.” The tenfold increase therefore applies exclusively to this extended category, not to the regularisations under point (b), which are calculated at the standard rate of the fees.

b)     Permanent regularisation. Irrespective of the one-year time limit, the law permits regularisation at any time for a strictly defined category of works: single-family dwellings with a ground floor or ground floor and first floor, with a maximum gross floor area of 150 square metres, which are not listed buildings and are not situated in monument protection zones or in protected built-up areas; outbuildings attached to dwellings, domestic outbuildings or outbuildings attached to agricultural holdings, also up to 150 square metres of gross floor area; and works to enclose balconies, provided they do not encroach upon public land. For all other unauthorised constructions, the only recourse available to the local public authority, in the absence of regularisation, is legal action to have them demolished.

Regardless of whether regularisation is sought under the permanent regime (b) or the temporary exception (a), authorisation is granted only if several conditions are cumulatively met: compliance with the fundamental quality requirements for construction, compliance with the applicable town planning regulations, and fulfilment of the conditions imposed by specific legislation on environmental protection — verified separately by the competent environmental authorities and requiring, where applicable, a prior environmental administrative decision or the classification of the environmental impact assessment notification, as well as the works not falling within the situations provided for by Law No. 292/2018 on the environmental impact assessment of certain public and private projects. If these conditions are not met cumulatively, the local public authority shall apply the legal provisions regarding the demolition of the works; however, if technical solutions for compliance exist, the authority may instead require the obtaining of a building permit or a permit for partial demolition.

At the same time, a series of additional obligations are imposed for the period during which the situation remains unresolved.Until a regularisation permit is obtained or the structure is demolished, the law provides for a continuing financial penalty: the building tax is increased by 100 per cent, from the date on which the local authority ascertains the situation until regularisation or demolition (Article 301, the provision relating to buildings not regularised as at the date of entry into force of the Code). Furthermore, according to Article 301(10), the local public authority may make the issue of the regularisation authorisation conditional upon the carrying out of works to bring the building into compliance with town planning regulations and/or technical quality requirements in construction.

Nevertheless, the Code maintains the validity of certificates already issued under the old legislation, subject to the conditions laid down by law — thus, certificates attesting to the construction of a building issued prior to 25 August 2026 remain valid.

A balanced assessment highlights numerous arguments in favour of the new regime. Beyond achieving genuine legislative unification within a single code — which puts an end to regulatory fragmentation that has built up over more than 25 years and reduces the risk of conflicting interpretations between separate pieces of legislation — the new Code imposes stricter discipline in the construction sector. The removal of ‘automatic regularisation’ through the mere expiry of the limitation period for administrative offences was a mechanism that had long been criticised, and the new regime explicitly discourages this behaviour.

On the other hand, it could be argued that the one-year deadline is particularly short given the actual volume of unauthorised construction in Romania and the time required to obtain the full documentation — the technical assessment must cover, by law, six distinct areas (mechanical strength and stability, fire safety, hygiene/health/environment, operational safety and accessibility, noise protection, energy efficiency and thermal insulation), to which must be added, separately, verification of compliance with town planning regulations and, where applicable, cadastral documentation. Owners who fail to submit a complete application within this deadline risk being left, after 25 August 2027, with no means of regularisation, except in situations falling under the permanent regime described in point (b).

The tenfold increase in fees and charges, plus the doubling of property tax for the period until regularisation or demolition, may significantly affect bona fide owners (for example, purchasers of buildings erected illegally by previous owners without their knowledge), and not just those who deliberately built without planning permission.

The implementation of the new regulations in the absence of methodological guidelines may lead to a period of uncertainty for both local authorities and professionals (architects, engineers, technical experts), who must apply a new piece of legislation without the usual detailed guidance.

The new Town Planning Code fundamentally changes the dynamics of bringing buildings into compliance: from a system where the passage of time compensated for the lack of planning permission, to a system where the lack of planning permission must be actively rectified, within a limited timeframe and at significant financial cost. If the one-year period provided by law for regularisation expires without the building being brought into compliance, the penalty is either an administrative one – the demolition of the building, with costs recovered from the owner – or, where applicable, a judicial penalty, with the mayor obliged to bring legal proceedings within 30 days of the expiry date, on the basis of the report of findings.

The implementation of the new regulations is likely to give rise to difficulties which the text of the law does not explicitly clarify. Even the correct classification of a building under the permanent regime (paragraph 2) or the temporary exception (paragraph 7) is not without its challenges, often requiring a careful interpretation of the applicable town planning regulations. At the same time, the situation remains unclear for buildings under co-ownership, where multiple and inconsistent unauthorised alterations by several owners to the same common area may overlap with unresolved issues of joint ownership or partition.

Therefore, as regards unauthorised constructions, the practical stakes are significant: the owners concerned must assess quickly, during this first year of implementation, whether they meet the conditions laid down by law and whether they should initiate the necessary formalities, bearing in mind both the short timeframe within which regularisation is possible and the significant cost difference compared to a standard planning permission.

An article by Oana Zamă (Partner) –ozama@stoica-asociatii.ro – STOICA & ASOCIAȚII.

[1] (2) Ownership of buildings constructed before 1 August 2001 – the date on which Law No. 453/2001 came into force, amending and supplementing Law No. 50/1991 on the authorisation of construction works and certain measures for the provision of housing – shall be registered on the basis of a tax certificate, which specifies the actual area of the building and the associated land, issued by the local public administration authority within whose jurisdiction the building is situated, as well as the cadastral documentation drawn up for this purpose.