In brief

  • For the first time, Romania has a Code of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and Construction: Law No. 169/2026, with 584 articles and 8 annexes, published in full in the Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) of 10 August 2026.
  • The code repeals Law No. 50/1991 (building permits), Law No. 350/2001 (spatial planning and urbanism), almost all of Law No. 10/1995 (quality in construction) and the two ministerial orders containing their implementing rules.
  • It enters into force on 25 August 2026, fifteen days after publication, and its application does not wait for secondary legislation: the law states expressly that entry into force is automatic.
Act: Law No. 169/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania No. 661 of 10 August 2026
In force from: 25 August 2026

The two laws that have governed construction and urban planning in Romania for three decades disappear in a fortnight. In their place comes a single 190-page code that changes how a building permit is applied for, who issues the approvals, and what happens to town halls that fail to update their general urban plan. Law No. 169/2026 was published in Official Gazette of Romania No. 661 of 10 August 2026 and promulgated by Decree No. 720/2026. It follows a string of recent interventions in construction rules, among them the staged acceptance of public building works introduced by Law No. 141/2026, but this time it is not a targeted amendment: it replaces the entire legal framework.

The code is divided into two books. Book One, “On spatial planning and urbanism”, takes up the first 110 pages and covers everything to do with planning the territory: spatial plans, urban planning documentation, protected areas, urban operations and, in Part Five, the regime for authorising construction and demolition. Book Two, “On construction”, takes over the field of quality in construction: performance requirements, roles and responsibilities on site, the life cycle of the investment project, construction materials and products and, at the end, penalties.

What disappears on 25 August is a short but heavy list. Law No. 50/1991 on the authorisation of construction works, republished and amended dozens of times since 1991, is repealed in full. So is Law No. 350/2001 on spatial planning and urbanism. From Law No. 10/1995 on quality in construction, Articles 1 to 9, 11 to 40 and 42 to 44 are repealed, that is nearly all of its content, the subject matter being taken over in Book Two of the code. Also repealed are Order No. 839/2009 containing the implementing rules for Law No. 50/1991 and Order No. 233/2016 containing those for Law No. 350/2001, except for three technical annexes on informal settlements and spatial data sets.

One detail matters in practice more than it may seem: Article 575(2) provides that entry into force is automatic and that application of the code is not conditional on the adoption of secondary or tertiary legislation. The wording is meant to prevent the familiar scenario in which a new law sits idle for months because the implementing rules have not appeared. From 25 August the text of the code applies as written, and ministerial orders and methodologies come on top of it, not ahead of it.

The first act under the code that touches owners directly appeared on 27 August: the procedure for the written agreement of the Ministry of Culture, with firm deadlines and tacit agreement for historic monument buildings.

What it changes in practice

Three distinct regimes for works, not one. Article 259(6) establishes that a building permit remains compulsory for new buildings, works on existing buildings and land arrangements, with two exceptions: works for which the law allows the simplified notification procedure and those that may be carried out without any formality. For notified works, the authority has at most 15 working days to reply, and the site may open 15 calendar days after that deadline expires. The right to carry out notified works remains valid for 3 years.

Approvals are granted in a single place. The code creates the National Commission for Integrated Approval of spatial planning and urbanism documentation, the equivalent local commissions and the single-consent commission. The Ministry of Development and local authorities have 45 working days from publication, that is until around 12 October 2026, to set them up and make them operational. The idea is that an applicant should no longer have to chase approvals institution by institution.

The urban planning certificate is split into five types. The code distinguishes between the certificate for information, the one for cadastral operations, the one for building or demolishing buildings and land arrangements, the one for engineering works and the one for special-purpose structures. The information certificate is issued to anyone who requests it and, where the town hall has a working IT system, it is issued automatically within at most 5 working days. Certificates for cadastral operations and for building that are issued without the content required by law are null and void.

Incomplete files now have a clear calendar. If the authority finds that the building permit application is incomplete or needs clarification, it must notify the applicant within at most 10 working days of registration and communicate all the shortcomings at once. The time allowed for completion may not exceed 3 months.

Town halls that fail to update their general urban plan lose access to funding. Article 573 gives them 3 years from entry into force, that is until 25 August 2029, to approve the update of plans older than 7 years. The penalty for those that do not is not a fine but a ban on applying for or receiving repayable or non-repayable funds, in any form, from the moment the finding issued by the State Construction Inspectorate becomes final.

A new local tax appears, an optional one. Local councils, the General Council of Bucharest and county councils may, from the date the code enters into force, introduce a local territorial servicing tax. The money may be used exclusively for the public infrastructure needed for urban development: roads, utility networks and educational, social, health, cultural, sports and environmental facilities serving the area covered by the approved planning documentation.

The regime for administrative offences breaks away from the general law. Article 581(3) provides that Government Ordinance No. 2/2001 on the legal regime of administrative offences does not apply to the code. This means the usual mechanisms of that field no longer apply automatically here, and the procedure for finding and sanctioning breaches is the one set out in the code. The amounts match: for breaching the permit as regards the authorised number of storeys, the code provides an additional fine of 50,000 to 500,000 lei for each unauthorised storey.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Until now, anyone wanting to build in Romania had to read at least three laws and two sets of implementing rules in parallel, plus government decisions scattered across several fields. Law No. 50/1991 said how to obtain the permit, Law No. 350/2001 said how urban planning was done, and Law No. 10/1995 said who was responsible for the quality of the works. The three were written in different years, with different logics, and were amended separately dozens of times. The code puts them into a single text, with one numbering and one set of definitions, gathered in Annex No. 1.

The second substantive change is the move from fragmented to integrated approval. Under the old system each approval was obtained separately, from each institution, with its own deadlines. The code places the integrated approval commissions and the single-consent commission on top of that, analysing the file together. Approvals already obtained remain valid: Article 582(2) allows procedures started earlier to be continued in simplified form, through analysis in the integrated approval commission, taking account of what has been obtained so far.

The third difference is digitalisation written into the law rather than left to each town hall. The code refers to the National Single Window for filing documentation and sending notifications, requires a qualified or advanced electronic signature on documents issued digitally, imposes GIS format for newly started urban planning documentation, and organises five public registers: of building energy auditors, of technical experts, of design checkers, of site supervisors and of technical execution officers.

Finally, one change with a delayed effect concerns Bucharest. Article 584 provides that, from 1 November 2028, the urban planning powers exercised today by district mayors pass to the general mayor, and the specialist directorate will be headed by the city’s chief architect, assisted by 7 deputy chief architects. This applies the results of the 2024 local referendum, but with two years of transition.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • A single text to consult instead of three laws and two sets of rules written 10 and 25 years apart, with definitions unified in Annex No. 1.
  • Explicit deadlines where there used to be silence: 10 working days to flag an incomplete file, 15 working days to answer a notification, 5 working days for the information certificate where an IT system exists.
  • The duty to communicate all the shortcomings of a file in a single notification cuts out the practice of serial requests for additions, which used to stretch procedures by months.
  • The no-formality regime and the notification regime take minor works out of the permit circuit, works that today consume counter time with no real stake.
  • The pressure on town halls to update their general urban plans is real, because the penalty strikes exactly where it hurts: access to European funds and to loans.

What remains a problem

  • A code of 584 articles enters into force in 15 days, over the August holidays, and town hall staff and designers have very little time to read it before applying it.
  • The integrated approval and single-consent commissions must be set up by October, that is after the code is already in force. There is a window in which the new rules apply without the structures meant to put them into practice.
  • The local territorial servicing tax is a possible extra cost for developers and, through them, for buyers, and the code leaves the amount and the conditions to each local authority.
  • Excluding Government Ordinance No. 2/2001 from the code means the procedural safeguards offenders were used to no longer operate automatically in this field.
  • Real digitalisation depends on working IT systems at local level. Where these are missing, the short deadlines become a dead letter and the gap between town halls widens.
  • Government decisions adopted under the repealed laws remain applicable until the Government replaces them, which leaves a period with old rules operating beneath a new code.

Practical advice

  1. If you hold a valid urban planning certificate: do not throw it away and do not rush to file. Article 582(4) states clearly that certificates issued before 25 August remain valid, and the permit will be issued on the basis of them and of the approvals they required.
  2. If you have urban planning documentation under approval: the procedure stays under the old law, but you may ask for simplified continuation through the integrated approval commission for the approvals not yet obtained. Those already granted keep their validity, so nothing restarts from scratch.
  3. If you file for a permit after 25 August: note the registration date. The 10 working days in which the authority must tell you all the gaps, not one at a time, run from it.
  4. If you have minor works to do: check in the code first whether they fall under notification or under works without formality, before starting a full authorisation procedure. Note, however, that in protected built-up areas works without formality are allowed only where the local urban planning regulation expressly says so.
  5. If you are working on a listed historic building or within its protection zone: the approval of the Ministry of Culture remains compulsory. For first-urgency works on structures posing a public danger, the written consent is issued within 5 working days, and missing that deadline counts as tacit consent.
  6. If you are a mayor or work in local administration: put two dates in the calendar. By 31 December 2026 the organisational rules and operating procedures must be revised. By 25 August 2029 the update of general urban plans older than 7 years must be approved, otherwise access to funding is blocked.
  7. If you have works under way: you may request partial acceptance under the new code, even if the works began under the old law. This is one of the few provisions that applies retroactively, in the beneficiary’s favour.

Frequently asked questions

When does the new Code of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and Construction apply?
From 25 August 2026, that is 15 days after publication in Official Gazette of Romania No. 661 of 10 August 2026. The law states expressly that entry into force is automatic and that application of the code is not conditional on the adoption of implementing rules.
Which laws are repealed when the code enters into force?
Law No. 50/1991 on the authorisation of construction works and Law No. 350/2001 on spatial planning and urbanism are repealed in full. From Law No. 10/1995 on quality in construction, Articles 1 to 9, 11 to 40 and 42 to 44 are repealed. Order No. 839/2009 is also repealed, as is Order No. 233/2016, except for Annexes 4, 5 and 6 to the implementing rules.
Is the urban planning certificate I obtained in July still valid?
Yes. Urban planning certificates issued before the code enters into force keep their validity, and the building or demolition permit is issued on the basis of them and of the approvals they required, under Article 582(4).
Do I still need a building permit for every kind of work?
No. The code keeps the building permit as the rule for new buildings, works on existing buildings and land arrangements, but provides two exceptions: works that may be carried out under a simplified notification procedure and works that may be carried out without any formality. Which works fall into each category is set out in the code.
What is the local territorial servicing tax?
It is a tax that local councils, the General Council of Bucharest and county councils may introduce once the code enters into force. It is not compulsory and does not apply automatically. The sums collected may be used exclusively for the public infrastructure needed for urban development in the area covered by the approved planning documentation.
What happens if a town hall does not update its general urban plan?
Local authorities have 3 years from the entry into force of the code, that is until 25 August 2029, to approve the update of plans older than 7 years. If they fail to do so, they are barred from applying for or receiving repayable or non-repayable funds, in any form, from the moment the finding issued by the State Construction Inspectorate becomes final.
How large can the fine be for exceeding the authorised number of storeys?
In addition to the basic penalty, the code provides a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 lei for each storey built without authorisation above the approved height regime.
Does urban planning documentation already under approval have to start again?
No. Procedures started before the code entered into force remain subject to the law in force when they began. For approvals not yet obtained, the procedure may be continued in simplified form through the integrated approval commission, and approvals already granted keep their validity.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 661 of 10 August 2026 192 pages PDF, 801 KB the act starts on page 2

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.