Which rules apply to your land or your application?

Article 245 keeps the permit as the rule and allows two exceptions: the simplified notification procedure (art. 294) and works needing neither a permit nor a notification (art. 299). A few of the latter, such as prosumers’ solar panels, still require advance notice to the local authority. A permit remains mandatory for any work the law does not expressly assign to one of those routes (art. 259(6)).

The Code allows works by the owner and by holders of other real rights over public property, in line with the act creating the right or with the owner’s consent. A personal right (drept de creanță, such as a lease) suffices only for the works listed in art. 245(4): temporary structures, repairs and non-structural, demountable interior partitions with the owner’s consent, certain oil-and-gas or water and wastewater works on the conditions set there, and other cases expressly provided by law. For public-interest engineering works, people other than holders of real rights may also apply for the permit (art. 248(2)), and art. 334 sets special rules for transport infrastructure.

The Code separates three families of construction and creates dedicated chapters for buildings, interventions, site improvements, engineering infrastructure and special structures.

An investment combining new construction with site improvements, interventions on existing buildings or partial or total demolition requires one building permit, which sets out each category of work separately. Where several investments are built on the same plot, the applicant may ask for a separate permit for each, on the basis of the same urban planning certificate, provided the investments are delimited in the technical documentation.

Article 252 lists works that may proceed without a new planning document, whether by permit, notification or with no formalities: for example altering, repairing or strengthening buildings that keep their use, footprint and volume, making the attics of existing buildings usable even beyond the zone’s floor-area ratio, works at military sites, and facilities generating or storing electricity and hydrogen from renewable sources outside the built-up area. For such generating facilities inside the built-up area that are not for self-consumption, the layout and relationship with neighbours must still be worked out in a detailed urban plan (PUD).

Article 253 classifies certificates by purpose into five categories: information, cadastral operations, buildings and site improvements, engineering works, and special-character structures. The information certificate contains only general data, is not an administrative act and gives no right to build; where the town hall has a working IT system it is issued automatically within five working days, and until the system is working, within 10 working days.

Article 249 starts the process with the application for an urban planning certificate and lists the stages: specialist studies, the permit design, the environmental procedure, technical opinions and consents, a detailed urban plan where needed, filing and issue of the permit. If the project requires a change to the planning rules, the process is suspended after the certificate until the change is approved and then continues on the same certificate, supplemented by the approval decision. Articles 262–280 detail each step through to the technical design for execution and the start and completion of works.

Where the intended works do not fit the planning documents, the certificate tells the applicant which of three situations applies: the plan cannot be changed, so the work cannot go ahead; a zonal plan must be initiated; or a detailed urban plan must be prepared. If a zonal plan is needed, authorisation depends on its approval; where the applicant funds the plan, it also needs an approval to initiate from the chief architect, approved by the mayor or, where applicable, the county council president.

Consent from neighbours or the owners’ association, in notarised form, is required where the technical expert report or preliminary technical expert report on effects on neighbouring properties shows that measures are needed to make neighbouring buildings safe; if the neighbouring property belongs to a defence, public order or national security institution, both the institution’s approval and the neighbour’s consent are required. A refusal is justified if the work breaches the law or affects the neighbour’s property without adequate remedies; an unjustified refusal is established by the administrative court, whose ruling replaces the consent. Neighbours must allow technical experts access, and the article does not apply to engineering works of national or local public interest.

The Code lists the minimum contents of a permit application, including the application form, land-register and cadastral extracts no older than 30 days, the permit design, technical opinions and consents, the report on effects on neighbouring buildings where needed, the general cost estimate and reports by certified technical reviewers. The statute also sets the content of the application and the design, and who prepares and signs designs (art. 317).

The Code keeps the deadlines for issuing opinions, the single round of clarification and tacit approval, and adds an optional route: the applicant may obtain technical opinions through the Single-Approval Committee, which issues them within 30 calendar days of filing complete and correct documents and, once all are issued, combines them in one consolidated approval. Environmental, water-management and Ministry of Culture opinions and neighbour consent stay outside the committee. The committee is mandatory for counties, municipalities and Bucharest’s sectors and optional elsewhere; until the national platform is operational, files are sent to members by email.

The issuing body may ask once, with reasons, for clarification, additional documents or changes, within its review period (usually 15 days; 30 days for heritage opinions and for the Romanian Civil Aviation Authority). The applicant must reply within 60 days or the opinion procedure starts again; after the reply, the body has 15 days to issue the opinion or refuse with reasons. If it stays silent within these deadlines, the opinion is deemed granted, except for opinions from defence, public order and national security institutions (SNAOPSN).

The permit is issued within 30 calendar days of filing a complete application. At the applicant’s request it is issued urgently within seven working days, and the local authority may charge a special fee. Where the applicant uses the Single-Approval Committee, the 30 days run from the issue of the consolidated approval.

The permit is signed by the county council president or mayor or their authorised representatives, the general secretary, the chief architect or the official responsible for permits, and the official who drew it up; responsibility for issue lies with the signatories according to their duties. Article 318 adds that anyone involved in checking documents and/or preparing or issuing permits may incur financial, civil or criminal liability, or a penalty for an administrative offence, as applicable, if they breach the law, and repeats that the issuing authority is not liable for harm caused by litigation over the property pending at issue; that risk lies with the applicant.

Works on monuments, in their protection zones and in protected built areas are authorised with the mandatory opinion of the Ministry of Culture or its county directorate, whether they are new buildings, interventions, site improvements or demolition; for new buildings in protected areas, the opinion is based on documents showing the impact on the cultural setting and the visual effect on monuments, and the ministry may refuse or require changes if the design would harm the area’s character, landscape or valued views. On monuments, the minor works listed in art. 284(4) (exterior finishes and joinery kept in the same material and form, conservation of artistic features) need prior notice to the local authority and the county culture directorate and the directorate’s written consent, deemed given after 60 calendar days. For buildings in the area that are not monuments, the Code contradicts itself: art. 284(3) exempts some repairs from a permit, while art. 294(3) requires notice and written consent for the same works.

Authorised building or demolition works may start and proceed only on the basis of the technical design for execution, subject to exceptions in the Code. The technical design develops the documentation on which the permit was issued, is prepared by specialist teams and checked, and works may not start without the required technical opinions and consents.

If changes to the brief require the permit to be changed, the holder must apply for an amendment permit before carrying them out and within the original permit’s period of validity. It is issued only if the change stays within the environmental decision, technical opinions, consents and planning rules; otherwise the authorisation process must be repeated under art. 249. Local changes to technical solutions may be made by a site instruction prepared in advance by the designer.

Notification applies only within rural built-up areas, outside protected zones and monument protection zones and outside rural localities in metropolitan areas, in line with the planning documents. Structures outside a single-family home (garages, covered terraces, pergolas, summer kitchens, swimming pools and the like) may not exceed 50 m² in total, including permanent ones under 20 m² built on foundations. The notification is filed before work starts, with a simplified technical design and the statutory fees.

Notification may be used for one single-family home with its own plot and access, in a rural built-up area outside protected zones and monument protection zones: ground floor, or semi-basement plus ground floor, no basement, and no more than 150 m² gross floor area. The design must be either a standard design made available by a public authority after a design competition, or an individual design by a team of an architect with signing rights and structural and building-services engineers; either way it must follow the Romanian Order of Architects’ rural design guide and be endorsed by the county chief architect.

Notification covers, only outside protected built areas and monument protection zones, listed interventions with precise limits, including: replacing a roof and raising it by no more than 0.50 m, with eaves and ridge within the planning height limit; converting existing lofts in single-family homes without changing the volume or needing structural strengthening; renovating and extending kitchens or bathrooms and uniformly enclosing balconies in flats; energy upgrades of the whole envelope or roof, without changing the structural system, on homes of up to three storeys; toilets or plant rooms of up to 25 m² within existing rooms; and changes to non-structural walls that keep the home’s size and do not affect fire safety. In protected areas, for buildings that are not monuments, art. 294(3) allows certain listed repairs after notice to the local authority and the county culture directorate and with the directorate’s written consent, although art. 284(3) exempts the same works from a permit.

Article 294(3) allows notification only for a closed list of works on buildings in protected built-up areas or in monument protection zones: repairs without extensions, demolition or structural changes that do not alter the volume, form or facade decoration, renewal of finishes and joinery keeping the same material and form, repairs to floors, stoves and internal installations, light partitions, change of use without building work, and fire-safety installations. Notice goes to the local authority and to the county culture directorate (the Ministry of Culture's local office), and the work proceeds on the directorate's written consent, which sets the conditions and deadlines. Listed historic monuments cannot use this route; the article also mentions buildings being considered for listing and buildings marked as valuable in planning documents, but does not say clearly whether they are excluded.

Article 294(4) moves a closed list of site works into notification: campsites or holiday camps made of lightweight structures for up to 20 people, with access to local utilities, and their expansion by up to 20 more people; access routes, roads, parking, fencing, lighting and toilets at existing campsites and holiday villages; sports grounds without spectators; seasonal or temporary amusement parks of up to 2 hectares; public spaces and front gardens outside protected areas; pavements, retaining walls, steps and terraces inside protected areas, after notifying the Ministry of Culture; funerary works, with the cemetery administration's approval; access ramps for disabled people; and shelter belts and afforestation of degraded land.

Article 299 lists works that need neither a permit nor a notification, each with its own conditions. They include, on buildings outside protected areas, certain repairs, internal installations, air-conditioning units and photovoltaic panels for prosumers, and in rural areas, outbuildings of up to 20 m² and 2.5 m high that have no foundation, are temporary and demountable, and have a timber or metal frame. For some of them the text still requires prior notice to the local authority, for example photovoltaic panels and parcel lockers.

Article 300 allows, on a siting approval issued by the authority that grants building permits, racks for bicycles and scooters, charging points for electric or hybrid vehicles, air-quality and noise monitoring points, waste collection points, road signs and surveillance cameras, portable toilets, kiosks, parcel lockers and vending machines of up to 12 m² standing directly on the ground, with no foundation and no utility connection other than electricity, furniture for pavement trading, and temporary set-ups for shows, fairs or ice rinks. The common condition is that the item must not block pedestrian or road traffic.

Article 301 requires whoever carried out work without a permit, or other than as permitted, to apply for a retrospective regularisation permit. Under the permanent regime it may be issued only for single-family houses of ground floor or ground plus one storey with up to 150 m² gross floor area that are not monuments and lie outside protected areas, for home, household or farm outbuildings of up to 150 m², and for enclosing balconies without extending onto public land. Environmental, planning and quality conditions are cumulative, and quality is proven through technical expert reports. Separately from the Code’s wording, the administrative instructions approved by MDLPA Order no. 1,389/2026 interpret the permanent route as covering balcony or loggia closures in multi-storey residential buildings, except for ground-floor extensions onto public land. They say an application may be made at any time at ordinary fees; quality, environmental and planning requirements, technical expert reports and authority checks still apply. The instructions are administrative and interpretative; they do not amend the Law.

For one year from the Code's entry into force (25 August 2026), regularisation may also be sought for buildings other than the houses and outbuildings covered by the permanent regime, provided they comply with the planning rules approved at the date of issue and with quality requirements, tax obligations have been met, and offence measures have been applied. State planning and construction-control charges and the planning-certificate and permit fees are ten times what lawful work would pay.

For buildings put up without a permit or other than as permitted that had not been regularised when the Code entered into force, building tax rises by 100%. The surcharge runs from the date the local authority finds the unauthorised construction until a regularisation permit is obtained or the work is demolished.

The Code separates four situations: demolition requested by the owner, under a demolition permit, under the same permit as the new building or, for household outbuildings and structures outside single-family homes beyond protected areas, by notification (Article 302); demolition by the local authority of its own buildings in advanced decay that endanger public safety, except monuments (Article 303); measures ordered after unlawful work is sanctioned (Article 358); and administrative demolition, without court proceedings, of unauthorised and temporary structures on state or local-authority land (Article 359).

A permit is valid for three years from issue, and works must start within that period; it cannot be extended, but may be suspended once for up to 12 months. Validity then extends over the construction period set in the permit, counted from the start of works notified to the issuing authority or, without that notice, from issue; it may be extended once by up to 12 months for a fee of 30% of the original fee. If the holder changes during construction, the rights and obligations under the permit pass automatically to the new holder; before issue, those under the planning certificate and technical opinions pass in the same way.

Article 314 requires monthly public lists of planning certificates and of tacitly approved notifications, and within 30 days of issue, permits, with the project's technical data, and refusals, with brief reasons, must be made public. Before work starts, the client must enter the permit's number, date and title in the land register and in a widely circulated newspaper, and display the site board. Article 315 requires authorities to keep digital registers and send them monthly to the State Construction Inspectorate and the county planning structure.

Article 351 divides inspection between the State Construction Inspectorate, local and county authorities and the transport ministry's inspectors, for national transport infrastructure; defence, public-order and national-security institutions inspect their own military and special sites. When works are stopped, the inspector may also bar access to the site, seal it and order disconnection from site utilities, and a network operator that fails to disconnect can be fined 5,000–30,000 lei (Articles 353 and 357).

The Code keeps the crimes (Article 356), administrative offences (Article 357) and measures to bring work into line, regularise or demolish it (Article 358). The list of offences now also covers work carried out without prior notification or departing from the notified design, starting work without a technical design for execution, and unjustified refusal of technical opinions. Work without a permit, or in breach of one, is fined 50,000–1,000,000 lei depending on seriousness and impact on neighbours, plus 50,000–500,000 lei for each storey above the authorised height; work without notification or departing from the notified design, 5,000–50,000 lei; failing to notify the start of permit-exempt work that requires notification, 50,000–100,000 lei.

Articles 360–365 bring the special rules together: standing and suspension still follow Law no. 554/2004; normative acts on spatial planning, urban planning and construction permits may be challenged only for unlawfulness, not on the merits of the policy; once an act is suspended, hearings must be no more than 15 calendar days apart. Then come the effects of annulled plans, unjustified refusal, the fate of the building and specialised panels.

If a court annuls a general plan or metropolitan general plan in full, the previous plan automatically comes back into force, without going through the opinion procedure again, for up to 24 months, and the authority must initiate steps to prepare a new plan. If it has not done so or the period has expired, construction or demolition work may be authorised only on the basis of an approved zonal plan. When a zonal or detailed plan is annulled, the general plan in force or the zonal plan for the protected built-up area applies.

If a court annuls an unjustified refusal and orders the application to be decided, the authority may not reject a new application by the same applicant on the same subject matter for the same reasons. Nor may it rely on changes to planning documents made after the date of the annulled refusal.

On application by the holder of the annulled permit, the court may keep the building if it was built in line with the law and applicable planning rules and meets the basic quality requirements. To check this, the court orders a technical expert report, of its own motion or at a party's request.

The Code provides for specialised panels in tribunals and courts of appeal and expedited proceedings; the article’s transitional rule applies until they are constituted.

Articles 319–325 keep public tendering, advertised at least 20 days ahead, and a minimum concession fee that recovers, over 25 years, the land's market price plus the cost of the related infrastructure. Land in the private domain of the state or local authorities may be granted under concession without tender, or placed in free use for a limited term, only for non-profit social projects, relocating households hit by disasters, extending a building onto an adjoining plot of up to 300 m² with no public-road access, and works on historic monuments with the Ministry of Culture's binding opinion. Applications under Law 15/2003 take priority over any other application for allocation, concession, sale or lease.

Articles 326–350 bring together authorisation of engineering works (national transport infrastructure, energy, electronic communications, water management, hydraulic and mining works, and other engineering works of local and county public interest) and special-purpose buildings and structures, each with its own authorities, documentation and deadlines. Routine maintenance and repairs to transport infrastructure need neither a permit nor a notification (Article 326(2) and Article 341).

The Code retains the core but expressly separates the public interest, the possibility of restricting property use within constitutional limits, and participation by natural and legal persons in planning.

Article 8(1) keeps these objectives and adds explicit new ones: tackling and building resilience to climate change, risk prevention, sustainable mobility, digital planning and infrastructure matched to community needs. Article 8(2) requires plans to be aligned with national and local strategies.

Articles 6 and 9 keep these objectives and add accessibility and universal design, climate resilience, energy efficiency and renewables, nature-based solutions, sustainable mobility, the “15-minute city” and a smaller carbon footprint.

The Code regulates the two documents separately. The strategy, with 20–25-year objectives, is approved by organic law and must be carried into the national plan, development strategies, other plans and public-investment programmes. Romania’s Urban Policy, prepared by the ministry, is approved by government decision, and its mandatory elements must be carried into local strategies and urban plans.

The Code moves this distinction to the beginning and supplements it with express rules for coordination between planning levels.

Article 22 provides for six sections, approved by organic law (Article 30): national public infrastructure, natural-resource management, natural and cultural heritage, the settlement network, areas with tourism resources, and territorial infrastructure for defence. Natural risks no longer have their own section, though Article 21 requires the plan to integrate natural-risk areas; rural development no longer appears as a section.

The Code sets out the content, preparation, sectoral alignment, integrated review and approval of county plans (Articles 31–36) and zonal/inter-municipal plans (Articles 37–38). A county plan must be fully revised at least every 15 years, with section-by-section updates by a simplified procedure, and Article 109 requires plans to be checked every five years.

Article 45 keeps this definition and specifies that the general plan is also a mandatory basis for building and demolition permits and for public investment. Article 46 broadens the list of mandatory rules and leaves the general plan to identify zones where a zonal plan is required and zones where its rules cannot be changed by a zonal plan.

Article 49 requires a general report with the diagnosis and spatial strategy, the local regulation, and an action plan with a public-investment programme, now backed by cost–benefit analyses. The action plan must show the investments, estimated cost, possible funding sources, phasing and who is responsible. The sustainable urban mobility plan is no longer a component of the general plan; Article 47 treats it as a sectoral document used in preparing it.

Article 51 puts the plan’s stages into statute, from initiation and the programme brief to approval by the local council, with deadlines: reviewing bodies send their conditions on the preliminary plan within 60 calendar days of its upload, and the integrated-review committees issue their opinion within 15 working days of the complete revised document being uploaded. Mandatory studies are listed in Article 55.

Article 109 sets no fixed period: documents remain valid until a new document of equal or higher rank is approved. Local authorities must check every five years whether the documents remain up to date and how far they have been implemented, and start updating them; updating becomes mandatory when significant legislative changes make the rules inoperative (Article 95(3)). As an exception, the decision approving a zonal plan may set a validity period, though its expiry does not affect investments whose authorisation procedure began before then (Article 76(11)–(12)).

Articles 62–76 regulate in turn the regulated and study areas, public or private initiative, the opportunity study, the approval to initiate, content, integrated review and approval. A zonal plan that changes approved rules may be prepared only in cases well founded on the general interest and after an approval to initiate; plans initiated by public authorities do not need that opinion.

Interested persons may initiate a zonal plan only for the purposes listed in Article 66(1), based on an opportunity study and an approval to initiate issued within 30 days. In the cases in Article 66(1)(d) and (e), site coverage and floor-area ratio may rise by at most 20%; for parts of protected areas the limit is 10%, once, without changing the area’s character.

The Code keeps the soil-quality opinion and adds conditions. Extension depends on the local authority’s technical and financial capacity to provide public infrastructure and facilities, whoever initiates the plan; outside the urbanisation or de-urbanisation zones set by the general plan, only the public authority may initiate the document. A private investor who extends the built-up area into an unserviced zone bears the full cost and shows it can operate autonomously, or negotiates a joint funding plan with the local authority.

The Code calls it a “detailed urban plan” and confines it to detailing the general or zonal plan. As an exception, Article 82 allows changes only in the listed situations and within set limits: setbacks, a site-coverage or floor-area-ratio increase of at most 20%, once and only for the stated purposes, extra height to cover blank party walls or align with cornices, one extra storey for public buildings outside protected areas to meet technical rules, and a single subdivision into at most 12 plots for individual housing, with road access.

The Code retains local regulations but directly incorporates a broad body of rules applying nationwide: zoning, land, siting and uses.

The ministry funds the territorial strategy, the Urban Policy, the national plan and the General Urban Regulation, and may, in justified cases, fund county plans, zonal/inter-municipal plans and other listed documents. Local authorities fund county plans, general plans and the zonal plans they initiate; inter-municipal plans and metropolitan general plans are funded by contributions from member authorities and other lawful sources, and privately initiated zonal plans by the interested persons.

Planning documents are reviewed only through integrated opinions: general plans, county and zonal spatial plans, and zonal plans for areas with World Heritage monuments go through both the national and the local committee, while other zonal plans go through the local committee only (Article 87). Strategic environmental assessment and the opinions of defence, public-order and national-security bodies (SNAOPSN) remain separate. Committee members send their conditions within 60 calendar days, and the single integrated opinion is issued within 15 working days of the complete documentation being filed.

The public is informed at the preparatory stage and when the final proposal is approved, and consulted during the supporting studies and on the proposals put forward for review. Planning documents approved without complying with the participation rules are null (Article 96(4)). A mayor, county council president or chief architect who endorses or submits a document for approval without consultation commits an administrative offence: a warning for a first breach or a fine of 20,000–50,000 lei (Article 144).

The Code distinguishes five types: for information, for cadastral operations, for building/demolition of buildings and site works, for engineering works, and for special constructions. The information certificate is not an administrative act; it is issued automatically where the local authority has a working IT system, within five working days, and otherwise within 10 working days until such a system is in place.

Article 110 restates the 15-day deadline for sending documents to the cadastre office and the ministry and extends entry in the land register to all approved urban plans. Plans are published online and in the National Territorial Observatory and loaded onto the national platform. A detailed project may be a regulatory or an individual act, depending on its characteristics.

At each level the Code separates the council that approves, the executive head who proposes and the specialist department led by the chief architect; the mayor, for example, submits planning documents to the local council on the basis of the chief architect's report. Bucharest and its sectors have their own rules (art. 129–133).

The chief architect heads the specialist department, cannot be subordinated to any other civil servant or contract employee in the administration, and the chief architect's technical opinion is not subject to council deliberation (art. 124). The post is held by a civil servant: in counties, county seats, Bucharest and its sectors, an architect or urban planner with a bachelor's degree and a master's or postgraduate degree in urban and territorial planning; in other municipalities, towns and communes, the post requires specialist training and is also open to architectural technicians (conductor arhitect) and construction engineers (art. 126).

The Code retains the technical committee in Article 128 but separately adds national and local integrated-review committees with different procedural functions.

The Code separates the signing right, the institution and its duties into three articles.

Approved plans bind everyone (art. 108 para. (1)). Local authorities must implement the related action plans and public investment programmes for the projects they are competent to fund, and include the necessary funds in their budgets (art. 108 para. (2)–(3)). Monitoring falls to the specialist department and the State Construction Inspectorate (art. 143 para. (2)).

The Code separates administrative offences (art. 144), crimes (art. 145), nullity of planning documents (art. 146) and the liability of those who issue certificates, permits and opinions (art. 147). Offences carry a warning for a first breach or a fine of 3,000 to 50,000 lei, with a band set for each offence, and the offender may pay half the minimum fine within 15 days of receiving the offence report.

The Code keeps the prohibition (art. 146 para. (2)) with one exception: the zonal plan (PUZ) through which the local authority regulates certain informal settlements (art. 150 para. (14)). Documents initiated and approved in breach of the prohibition are void by operation of law, and the voidness is established by the administrative courts (art. 146 para. (3)–(4)). Intentional initiation by any individual or legal entity, the chief architect, the mayor, the county council president or staff, and intentional approval by local or county councillors, are punishable by three months' to one year's imprisonment or a fine (art. 145 letter b)).

The Code spreads the conditions across the definition of buildable land (art. 159: approved planning rules, the possibility of connecting to utility networks, direct access, or indirect access through a lawfully created right of way, to a public road, and access to public services and facilities), the urban planning certificate and the building permit (art. 253–259). Art. 252 lists works that can proceed without a new planning document, including capacity to generate and store renewable electricity and hydrogen outside built-up areas.

The Code applies the quality system at every stage of the life cycle (art. 375) and divides the investment project into phases: initiation (need, opportunity, design brief and feasibility), design, execution, handover and operation, which contain stages 0–7 (art. 478–479); the phases may overlap, and for simple projects in lower consequence classes they may be combined. After the end-of-life assessment, the structure may be demolished or folded into a new project (art. 537).

Art. 375 para. (4) expressly applies the quality system to all structures and their installations, including those that do not need a building permit, whatever the form of ownership, use, consequence class or source of funding. It applies differently according to the consequence class and does not cover production equipment or the installations that serve it.

The Code replaces importance categories with consequence classes CC1–CC4 (CC1 matches category D, CC4 category A) and sets standard service lives: 100 years for historic monuments that are both classified and entered on the List of Historic Monuments, 50 years for other permanent structures and 25 years for agricultural, industrial and storage structures. Temporary structures have their life set by the permit or by the agreement issued after notification, at most five years except where the Code provides otherwise, and must be permitted or notified again for each new placement cycle.

The Code keeps the seven requirements and adds an eighth: emissions from buildings into the outdoor environment (art. 386 para. (3)). Each requirement has its own articles, and art. 397–399 deal separately with accessibility, safety against terrorist attack and civil-protection shelters. Resilience to natural and human-made hazards is set out in art. 384–385, apart from the list of fundamental requirements.

The list in art. 376 para. (1) has 18 components. Compared with the old law it expressly adds continuing training for construction workers, the authorisation and approval of construction, the roles and responsibilities of the parties involved, and the liability and insurance system.

The Code regulates construction rule-making again, while Article 10 of the old law continues to exist.

The Code keeps the prohibition and ties product quality to the fundamental requirements (art. 378). It lists the documents a manufacturer, authorised representative or importer must hold as applicable, such as the declaration of performance, CE marking and certificates where these are mandatory (art. 563), refers to Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 or, where applicable, Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 (art. 560), and organises market surveillance: the State Construction Inspectorate for all products and the General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations for certain fire-protection products (art. 567).

Art. 379 prohibits using products, processes or equipment, traditional or new, without a technical approval. The exception covers only techniques and materials rooted in local culture and identity, or used to restore historic monuments, buildings in protected built-up areas or protected landscapes, provided they are specified in the design and meet the fundamental requirements. Art. 561, however, keeps the old wording on traditional products and requires a technical approval only for products without CE marking and a declaration of performance.

The Code keeps metrology on the list of components (art. 376 para. (1) letter d)) and states that it covers the administration, metrological confirmation and use of measuring equipment. The Regulation on metrology in construction, annexed to Government Decision 766/1997, stays in force until it is amended (art. 577 para. (3) letter a)).

The Code expressly states the State Construction Inspectorate’s authorisation role and retains ministerial approval of the procedure.

The Code keeps the same split: the ministry certifies design checkers, technical experts and energy auditors, the State Construction Inspectorate authorises technical execution officers and site supervisors, and each periodically confirms the right to practise (art. 382). The same article names the energy regulator (ANRE) for design checkers and technical experts in the natural-gas sector and the culture ministry for historic-monument specialists, and art. 435–459 set out the conditions, duties and liability of technical experts, design checkers, site supervisors and technical execution officers.

The Code provides for setting up the Romanian Association for the Certification of Construction Operators, a private-law body of public interest formed through voluntary participation by employers' organisations, professional associations and universities, which will certify firms carrying out construction works or building systems and keep a public digital register. The criteria and procedure are to be set by a regulation approved by Government decision.

The level of checking depends on the consequence class. CC1 designs need no certified checker (NVP1), CC2 designs get a qualitative check (NVP2), and CC3 and CC4 designs get qualitative and quantitative checks (NVP3, NVP4). At NVP4 the checker repeats the calculation independently; if the results differ from the designer's by more than 5%, the design is revised and checked again.

The Code says when an expert report is mandatory, bars an expert from reporting on a design that the expert, or the firm employing or subcontracting them, drew up or checked, and requires the right to practise to be confirmed every five years; from age 70, health and work capacity are confirmed yearly. The expert is liable for the conclusions for the building's whole designed service life or, for defects missed because the evaluation rules were not followed, until a new expert report (art. 439(2)). A report on an existing building goes into the building logbook, and its summary is entered in the National Construction Register.

The client (beneficiar) holds a principal real right or a claim over the property; the investor funds the contracts, oversees the project, carries out completion inspection and acceptance and takes over the building from the contractor; the developer funds and carries out the works, including for sale. Where the Code provides for it, one person may hold several of these capacities: the client may also be the investor or the developer.

The developer is primarily responsible for the construction work and cannot transfer the responsibilities of that capacity to the client; it may perform its duties directly or through contracted third parties. The client also remains primarily responsible for the building and may transfer part of its responsibilities to the developer by contract.

For units in future condominiums and future individual homes, the pre-sale agreement must be notarised and may be signed only after the permit is noted in the land register and a land-register extract for the future unit or home has been obtained, and, for condominiums, only once the future units have been registered in the cadastre and given their own land-register entries. A reservation lasts at most 60 days and cannot exceed 5% of the price (otherwise it is void), and if the agreement or sale fails solely through the developer's fault, the money is refunded in full within 30 days. Advances are held in a separate account and may be spent only on that project, with the 'approved for payment' (bun de plată) stamp of the responsible person or site supervisor: at most 25% of the price for the structure and, once it is finished, at most 20% for installations; using them for anything else carries a fine of 1% of the previous year's turnover, unless the act is a crime.

The developer hands over the building only after completion acceptance has been granted and authorised, permanent utility connections have been commissioned, for both new buildings and works on existing ones. The client and developer must commission all connections before allowing the building to be used, and acceptance together with the connections remains mandatory for housing estates, public-use buildings and access roads.

The Code separates specialist designers, lead designer and project lead, defines interdisciplinary coordination and distributes duties across project stages.

The main contractor is liable to the client or developer for the whole of the works, and the specialist contractor it engages is liable to the main contractor for its share. Contractors are liable for hidden defects that appear within 10 years of completion inspection and acceptance; after that, for the building's whole life, only for structural defects caused by failure to follow the design or the execution rules in force when it was built.

The site supervisor works for the developer or client, independently of the other parties, and may not design, build, check or report on the works it supervises; the technical execution officer (RTE) works for the contractor and ensures the quality of execution. Both stop work after technical accidents or departures from the design and notify the State Construction Inspectorate within 24 hours, and the RTE also stops work when it finds non-compliance that could affect quality; both keep electronic activity registers and carry professional insurance. The Inspectorate may authorise one person for both professions, practised according to each contract and subject to the incompatibility rules.

Consultants answer to their clients under their contracts and, as a rule, have no quality-assurance responsibilities. They become part of the quality system only on publicly funded works where consultancy or technical assistance is mandatory, for the stages in their contract and jointly with the designers and contractors. The project manager, employed or contracted by the developer, plans and coordinates the project and is liable for the duties assigned by contract.

The building logbook must be kept in electronic form, prepared on the developer's behalf, and uploaded to the National Construction Register, which is permanently linked to the cadastre and land register; the client registers it. During construction the site supervisor coordinates updates, and when the building changes hands the logbook passes to the new owner in both paper and digital form. The register excludes special structures authorised by the national defence, public order and national security institutions (SNAOPSN), and logbooks for buildings those institutions administer are not registered.

The register takes data from site supervisors, the general designer, the permit holder, the client, experts (report summaries) and the State Construction Inspectorate, and uses them to identify performance problems and update technical rules. The database allows in-use performance to be compared across buildings; access is tiered, and public access is subject to personal-data and copyright protection. The reference cost-index application becomes operational on 1 September 2027 for individuals and firms in urban planning, spatial planning and construction, for a membership fee.

Acceptance still has two stages: completion inspection and acceptance, then final acceptance when the warranty expires. The first must be completed within 30 days of the contractor's notice, and the client must organise the second within 10 days of the warranty's expiry. Partial acceptance is allowed for engineering works and, for buildings, for at least one physically and functionally distinct section that is safe and compliant; the client or investor decides, at the contractor's request and with the designer's technical opinion.

The minimum warranty, running from completion inspection and acceptance, is 5 years for CC3 and CC4, 3 years for CC2, 1 year for CC1 and 2 years for planting; the warranty for structural defects lasts for the building's whole life. Liability is set separately for each role: designers are liable for 10 years for hidden defects; checkers, for their check conclusions, and contractors are liable for 10 years and then for the building's whole life for structural defects caused by breaching the rules or the design; the expert is liable for defects missed by not following the assessment rules, for the designed service life or until a new expert report.

Monitoring of in-use behaviour applies to all buildings except those in CC1. Within 10 years of completion inspection and acceptance, and at 10-year intervals thereafter, a technical expert investigates and assesses the building; periodic assessments normally fall every 10 years unless an earlier expert report sets a different interval.

The Code links end-of-life use to final assessment and allows either demolition or integration into a new project through change of use, modernisation, strengthening, restoration or extension.

The State Construction Inspectorate (ISC) carries out state inspection of all buildings, whatever the owner, class or source of funding, with one exception: CC1 buildings in rural areas and in villages belonging to municipalities and towns, temporary structures and works that need no permit fall to local authorities. The emergency-situations inspectorate (IGSU) inspects fire safety, the local police check unauthorised works, and the defence, public order and national security institutions have their own inspection units.

Designers and consultants must carry professional liability insurance for the duration of the contract, and certified or authorised specialists for as long as they hold the right to practise, with policies of at least one year renewed annually. Contractors insure the construction and installation works; anyone building for others insures against defects affecting the fundamental quality requirements that appear within 10 years of acceptance; developers and contractors take out 10-year civil-liability insurance for damage after acceptance and must present it when work starts. The client must also carry civil-liability insurance, except for a single individual home it owns and uses.

Designing, checking, assessing, building or altering a structure in breach of stability and structural-resistance rules is punishable by one to five years in prison if it endangers people's life or physical integrity, and by three to ten years if it causes deaths, serious injury or the destruction of the building; for negligence the limits are halved. Administrative offences carry fines of 10,000–100,000 lei with no warning option, and the right to establish them and impose the fines lapses five years after the act. For building energy auditors, technical experts, design checkers, site supervisors and technical execution officers, the right to practise can be suspended for 6, 9 or 12 months as an additional penalty for certain offences found by the State Construction Inspectorate.

The Code repeals Articles 1–9, 11–40 and 42–44 of Law no. 10/1995 but leaves Articles 10 and 41 in force. The regulations on metrology, quality management, importance categories, behaviour monitoring, technical approvals, design checks and expert reports, acceptance, state inspection and technical rule-making stay in force until amended. Publicly funded projects already under way, with procurement started, funding approved or documentation received or submitted for approval keep the old rules on technical and economic documentation, and until the reference indices are working, cost estimates follow the law in force when the Code was approved.