In brief

  • Four privately owned plots, 637 square metres, 43,447.55 lei. The positions on the list are all in the town of Buftea, Ilfov County, inside the built-up area and in the „arable” land use category. The compensation is paid from the state budget, through the budget of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure.
  • The price works out at 68.21 lei per square metre, identical for all four positions. The ratio between the sum and the area gives 68.2065 lei per square metre in every case, so the differences between the sums come solely from how much is cut out of each parcel, not from different valuations.
  • A further 2,419 square metres are already in public ownership and pass over without payment. The State makes available 63 square metres administered by the National Agency for Land Reclamation, and the town of Buftea 2,356 square metres from two agricultural access roads. The area added to the corridor is 3,056 square metres, of which only 20.84% is bought from private owners.
  • This is not a new project, it is an additional site. The decision supplements the expropriation corridor of the „Buftea Bypass” works, on the basis of Article 11(6) of Law no. 255/2010, which allows the identification data to be updated when the site changes after the feasibility study is revised or the technical design is finalised.
Act: Government Decision no. 809/2026 on the triggering of the expropriation procedures for all privately owned properties, as well as the approval of the list containing the property in the public ownership of the State and of the list of properties in the public ownership of the administrative-territorial unit, located on the additional site, which form part of the expropriation corridor of the public utility works of national interest „Buftea Bypass”
Published: Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 855 of 12 October 2026, pages 2-5
In force from: 12 October 2026, the date of publication, since the decision does not itself set a later date

Four owners in Buftea find their land on a list published in the Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial), with the area cut out of it and the sum each of them is entitled to. Government Decision no. 809/2026, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 855 of 12 October 2026, triggers the expropriation of 637 square metres from four parcels in the town of Buftea, Ilfov County, for total compensation of 43,447.55 lei. The expropriator is the Romanian State, represented by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, through the National Company for Road Infrastructure Administration S.A., the company that manages national roads and motorways.

The areas are small, and for that reason they have to be read against the parcels they are cut out of. Position 1, with three co-owners, loses 147 square metres out of a plot of 1,202 square metres, that is 12.23% of it. Position 3 loses 341 square metres out of 4,234, or 8.05%, and takes the largest compensation on the list, 23,258.42 lei, slightly more than half the total. Positions 2 and 4 give up 88 and 61 square metres respectively, under 1.1% of their parcels. Taken together, the four plots add up to 20,711 square metres, and the corridor takes 3.08% of them.

Alongside the private land, the decision also approves two lists of properties that are already in public ownership and are therefore not bought from anyone. The State gives up 63 square metres from a parcel of 23,085 square metres administered by the National Agency for Land Reclamation, the institution that manages irrigation and drainage canals, and the town of Buftea 2,356 square metres from two agricultural access roads with total areas of 6,094 and 4,435 square metres. If those 2,419 public square metres had been valued at the same price as the private land, they would have cost around 165,000 lei, that is almost four times the sum the State actually pays.

What it changes in practice

From 12 October 2026, the four plots lie inside an expropriation corridor, and that sets in motion a procedure with deadlines fixed by Law no. 255/2010 on expropriation for a public utility purpose, a law in force in the version consolidated on 8 May 2026. The first step belongs to the expropriator: the estimated sums are deposited at the owners’ disposal, and the list of properties is posted before notification, under Article 7(1). Only then comes notification by post, accompanied by the list of properties, and its display at the premises of the local council and on the expropriator’s website, under Article 8(1).

From the moment of notification, the owner has 20 calendar days to appear at the expropriator’s premises with the documents proving ownership, a deadline written into Article 8(2). The same notification also sets the deadline for vacating the property, which cannot be shorter than 30 working days, under Article 8(2^2). Once those deadlines expire, the expropriator has 5 working days to issue the expropriation decision, under Article 9(1).

The expropriation decision is the moment at which the owner changes. Article 9(4) states that the transfer into the public ownership of the State and the administration of the expropriator „takes effect by operation of law on the date on which the expropriator issues the administrative expropriation act, after the sums corresponding to the compensation have been deposited”. So the estimated money is already in an account at the moment the land stops being the owner’s, but actual payment is a separate step, which comes later. A challenge against the decision does not postpone the transfer.

For the part of the parcel that remains, the effect is just as immediate, even if it goes unnoticed. Article 11(2) provides that the cadastral offices assign a cadastral number ex officio for the area not expropriated and issue a rejection ruling for the properties inside the expropriation corridor, while Article 9(7) states that, where only part of a property not registered in the land book is taken, the cadastral number is given only for what remains. In practice the land is split in two, and the piece inside the corridor leaves private circulation.

The money for the compensation is identified by name in the budget. Article 3(1) of the decision refers to the State Budget Law for 2026, Law no. 43/2026, chapter 84.01 „Transport”, title 56 „Post-accession projects financed from non-reimbursable external funds (FEN)”, article 56.48, the line for the European Regional Development Fund for the 2021-2027 financial framework. Article 3(2) also fixes the deadline within which the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure transfers the sums into the treasury account opened in the name of the National Company for Road Infrastructure Administration: no more than 30 days from the date on which the request to open credits is approved.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Until 12 October 2026, those 3,056 square metres were not part of the expropriation corridor of the bypass. The private plots were ordinary property: they could be sold, mortgaged or built on within the limits of local planning rules. The two agricultural access roads of the town of Buftea and the strip of 63 square metres administered by the National Agency for Land Reclamation remained at the disposal of their holders.

The decision does not start the project again and changes nothing of what had been approved before. It is added to it, and the basis for that addition is Article 11(6) of Law no. 255/2010: if the site of the works changes „as a consequence of the revision of the feasibility study, the finalisation of the technical design or of the execution details”, the expropriator updates the identification data of the properties subject to expropriation and the tables displayed publicly. Article 1 of the decision matches that basis, since it approves the additional site „in accordance with the final version of the feasibility study”.

The second basis invoked is Article 5(1) and (1^1) of the same law. Paragraph (1) is the one that requires the Government to approve, by decision, the site, the source of funding, the triggering of the procedure, the list of owners, the individual sums estimated on the basis of a valuation report and the deadline within which those sums are transferred. Paragraph (1^1) is the one that, for roads of national interest, requires the same decision to approve the lists of properties in the public ownership of the State and of the administrative-territorial unit. That explains why a single act contains both expropriations and inventories of public land.

One thing has not changed and is worth saying plainly: the decision does not name the act by which the initial corridor of the bypass was approved. The preamble mentions only Government Decision no. 1.280/2024, which re-approved the technical and economic indicators of the investment objective, that is the cost estimate and the parameters of the works, not the list of properties. A reader who wants to see what this supplement is being added to has to look for the earlier expropriation decision on their own.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • Every owner can identify themselves without asking anyone: the annex gives the cadastral number and the land book number, the field block, the parcel, the total area, the area taken and the exact sum.
  • The figures in the annex add up. The four areas, 147, 88, 341 and 61 square metres, give exactly the total of 637, and the four sums, 10,026.36, 6,002.17, 23,258.42 and 4,160.60 lei, give exactly 43,447.55 lei.
  • The price per square metre is the same for everyone, 68.21 lei, so there are no neighbours paid differently for land in the same category and the same area.
  • The source of funding is identified down to the budget article, not left at the level of a general promise, and the transfer deadline required by Article 5(1) of Law no. 255/2010 is written into the act.
  • Almost 80% of the area added to the corridor is already public, so only 637 square metres are actually taken from private persons.
  • Article 4 says who answers for the accuracy of the data in the lists, namely the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, through the National Company for Road Infrastructure Administration, which gives the owner a clear addressee for a complaint.

What remains a problem

  • The 30-day deadline for transferring the money runs from the approval of the request to open credits, an administrative moment that is published nowhere. The owner cannot calculate a date, while their own deadline, 20 calendar days from notification, is strict.
  • The single price of 68.21 lei per square metre draws no distinction between the parcel that loses 12.23% of its area and the one that loses 0.94%. The depreciation of the remaining land does not appear in the valuation at this stage.
  • The expropriated plots all fall, without exception, in the „arable” land use category, but the decision says nothing about removing them from agricultural use, even though Article 11(6^6) of Law no. 255/2010 places that operation in the very Government decision on the expropriation procedure, with the technical approval of the National Agency for Land Reclamation, as the case may be.
  • For the public properties, the act approves the lists but does not say who takes the areas into administration, nor how position 60094 in the inventory of goods in the public domain of the State, out of which 63 square metres are taken, is to be updated.
  • In the body of the decision the total is rounded to 43.5 thousand lei, while the annex gives 43,447.55 lei. The difference of 52.45 lei changes no sum owed, but the two figures do not read alike, and the rounding does not even follow the usual rule, which would have given 43.4 thousand lei.
  • The names of the nine co-owners appear in full in the Official Gazette of Romania, next to the sum each position receives, and the annex remains public indefinitely.

Practical advice

  1. Check the land book number, not the name. Annex no. 2 identifies the private plots by land books 69078, 56842, 68636 and 68215, in field blocks 18, 38 and 34. If your number is there, you are on the list, even if the name is misspelled or the land has been sold in the meantime.
  2. Do not let the 20 calendar days from receipt of the notification go by. Within that deadline, laid down by Article 8(2) of Law no. 255/2010, you must appear at the expropriator’s premises with your ownership documents. The deadline for vacating the land is set by the same notification and cannot be shorter than 30 working days.
  3. File the payment request within 10 days of the list being posted at the Buftea town hall, the deadline in Article 19(2). If you do not file it, the money is not lost: Article 19(5) requires the expropriator to deposit it in an account in your name, but it is released only after you prove your right, so the wait grows longer.
  4. Ask for payment even if you do not agree with the sum. Article 19(11) provides that the compensation is released to holders who contest its size as well, in proportion to the share they own, and if a court later sets a larger sum, the expropriator pays the difference. Refusing to collect strengthens nobody’s position.
  5. Keep an eye on the public display, because the deadlines run from it. The site plan and the annex with the compensation offers remain posted at the premises of the local council until the procedure is completed, under Article 11(3), the tables are posted 10 days before the commission starts work, under Article 11(4), and the starting date is announced in a local newspaper, under Article 11(5).
  6. If you go to court, ask for the criteria in Law no. 33/1994 to be applied. The High Court of Cassation and Justice held, by Decision no. 78/2021, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 1185 of 15 December 2021, that at the judicial stage account is taken not only of the valuations of the chambers of notaries public, but also of the legal criteria in Article 26(2) of Law no. 33/1994. Those include the loss suffered, not only the value of the land taken.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find out whether my land is affected?
Look for the land book number or the cadastral number in Annex no. 2 to the decision, the one with the private properties. The positions in the annex have land books 69078, 56842, 68636 and 68215, all in the town of Buftea, Ilfov County. In parallel, the list is posted at the premises of the Buftea local council and on the website of the National Company for Road Infrastructure Administration, and the notification of the intention to expropriate is sent by post to each owner, under Article 8(1) of Law no. 255/2010. If your land is not on the list but borders the corridor, this act does not affect you.
How long before I get the money?
There are two different moments. The estimated sums are deposited at the owners’ disposal before the expropriation decision is issued, and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure transfers them within no more than 30 days of the approval of the request to open credits, under Article 3(2) of the decision. Actual payment comes after the amount is set: Article 21 of Law no. 255/2010 gives the expropriator no more than 90 days from the date of the decision setting the amount of the compensation to pay or deposit the sum.
When does the land stop being mine?
On the date of the expropriation decision, not on the date of payment. Article 9(4) of Law no. 255/2010 states that the transfer takes effect by operation of law on the date on which the administrative expropriation act is issued, after the sums corresponding to the compensation have been deposited. The decision is issued within 5 working days of the expiry of the deadlines in Article 8, so, if the notification goes out quickly, the land can change owner about a month and a half after the decision is published. A challenge does not suspend that transfer.
Where do I contest the sum and what deadline do I have?
First before the commission for verifying the ownership right, appointed by the expropriator within 5 days of the expropriation decision, under Article 18. The commission records whether or not you accept the amount. If you are not satisfied with the decision setting the amount, you can apply to the competent court within the general limitation period, which runs from the communication of the decision, under Article 22(1). Applications of this kind are exempt from court stamp duty, under Article 23(1).
What happens if I disagree and refuse everything?
The procedure moves on. Article 22(8) provides that neither the expropriation procedure nor the works can be suspended at the request of someone invoking disputes over possession or ownership, and Article 22(1) states that the exercise of appeals suspends neither the effects of the decision setting the amount nor the transfer of ownership. What can be won in court is a larger sum, within the limits of Article 22(7): the court cannot award less than the expropriator offered, nor more than you asked for.
Why do all four positions have the same price per square metre?
Because all four plots are in the same town, inside the built-up area, and have the same land use category, „arable”. The individual sums are estimated, under Article 5(1) of Law no. 255/2010, on the basis of a valuation report drawn up having regard to the valuations of the chambers of notaries public, and those valuations give figures per area and per category, not per parcel. Dividing each sum by its area gives 68.2065 lei per square metre in all four cases. Differences appear between categories, for instance between yards and buildings, arable land and forests, and there is no such difference on this list.
Do the Buftea town hall and the National Agency for Land Reclamation receive compensation?
No. The 2,356 square metres of the town of Buftea and the 63 square metres administered by the agency are already in public ownership, and annexes no. 3 and no. 4 enter them in the „Area subject to transfer” column, with no sum at all. All of the 43,447.55 lei goes to the four privately owned positions. That is why, in terms of area, the act is more a redistribution between public holders than an expropriation: 79.16% of the 3,056 square metres were already in public ownership.

Editorial analysis

The decision is soundly built and, unlike many expropriation acts, passes the arithmetic test without a remainder: the areas add up to 637 square metres, the sums to 43,447.55 lei, and each position, divided, gives the same unit price, 68.2065 lei per square metre. The uniformity is no accident, it follows from the way the law requires the estimate to be made, through the valuations of the chambers of notaries public, which give figures per area and per land use category. The practical effect is curious, though: the owner at position 1, who loses 12.23% of a plot of 1,202 square metres, and the one at position 2, who loses 0.94% of 9,400, are treated identically per square metre, even though one is left with a visibly smaller parcel while the other barely feels the cut. The depreciation of the remainder can be discussed later, before the commission or in court, where the High Court opened the way, by Decision no. 78/2021, to applying the criteria in Article 26(2) of Law no. 33/1994. In the act that opens the procedure, it has no place.

The second observation comes to light only when the deadlines are placed side by side. The owner has 20 calendar days from notification to prove their right, a deadline that runs from a document received by post, so from a date they can calculate. The administration gives itself no more than 30 days to transfer the money, but counts them from the approval of the request to open credits, an internal moment that is not published. Further on, Article 21 of Law no. 255/2010 adds up to 90 days between the decision setting the amount and payment. Combining Article 8(2) with Article 9(1), the expropriation decision can be issued about a month after notification, and ownership transfers at that point. The result is an asymmetric gap: the land is lost on a date that can be calculated, the money arrives on one that cannot be worked out from the act.

The third point is a lapse of systematisation, not of arithmetic. The private plots on the list are all registered in the „arable” category, and the property of the State is a parcel administered by the National Agency for Land Reclamation, that is precisely the institution whose technical approval comes into play when agricultural land inside the corridor is removed from agricultural use. Article 11(6^6) of Law no. 255/2010 states that permanent or temporary removal from agricultural use is carried out by the Government decision on the expropriation procedure, with the technical approval of the agency, as the case may be. Decision no. 809/2026 is exactly such a decision, yet it contains no provision on the subject. The omission contradicts nothing and does not prevent payment, but it moves an operation that could have been closed here into a later stage, with one more act.

Finally, the act suffers from a traceability defect that recurs in decisions on additional sites. The phrase „the additional site” returns in every paragraph of Article 2, then in Article 3 and in Article 5, but nowhere does it say additional to what. The preamble refers to Government Decision no. 1.280/2024, which re-approved the technical and economic indicators of the investment, that is the cost estimate and the technical parameters, not the expropriation corridor. An owner who wants to understand whether further stages are coming, or a notary checking a neighbouring parcel, has nothing to start from.

What should be changed

  1. Naming in the preamble the decision by which the initial corridor was approved, not only the one that re-approved the technical and economic indicators. A single line makes the chain of acts verifiable and spares the owner a search that, as a rule, they do not see through to the end.
  2. Two extra columns in Annex no. 2: the area remaining after expropriation and the percentage taken out of the parcel. They are figures the expropriator has anyway, since it gives the total area, and they are exactly the figures that tell the owner whether the rest of the land can still be used.
  3. Tying the transfer deadline to a public moment. The wording „no more than 30 days from the date on which the request to open credits is approved” should be replaced by a deadline counted from the publication of the decision, so that the owner can check for themselves whether the administration has kept to it.
  4. Writing the total in Article 3(1) with the exact figure from the annex, 43,447.55 lei, instead of the rounding to 43.5 thousand lei. The rounding affects no payment, but it forces the reader to decide which of the two figures is the real one, and with a total of four positions there is no reason to summarise.
  5. Settling in the same act the removal from agricultural use of the four plots in the „arable” land use category, together with the technical approval required by Article 11(6^6) of Law no. 255/2010. Otherwise the works have the corridor approved but the land is not legally cleared.
  6. A provision on the fate of position 60094 in the inventory of goods in the public domain of the State, out of which 63 square metres are taken, and on the administration of the 2,419 square metres of public property. Without it, the two annexes record a situation but do not bring about the operation they describe.

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. 855 of 12 October 2026, pages 2-5 16 pages PDF, 455 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.