Getting re-authorization for no properly constructed building in Romania

There are a lot of buildings that are constructed without the adequate authorization for many reasons, such as:

•  The beneficiary wants to expand the terrace
• The beneficiary decided to build an extra floor, exceeding the limit that was approved by the Town Planning Certificate (Certificat de Urbanism)
•  The constructor placed the building on another position, due to a pal misinterpretation
• The beneficiary took the decision to give up the basement in order to build a higher last floor, despite the fact that the Building Permit (Autorizatia de Construire) was approved for the basement and not for the taller last floor

The two documents mentioned above: The Building Permit (Autorizaita de Construire) and the Town Planning Certificate (Certificat de Urbanism) are needed before starting to build anything. In addition to these, the beneficiary needs drawings to show exactly the architectural and cadastral characteristics of the building. All of these documents show how the building needs to be constructed and assembled.  

In order to be able to do any material physical modification, you need to change all these documents first and get approval and authorization before doing them. Of course, in practice, a lot of these modifications are made without changing the paperwork and obtaining authorization for them.

If you do find yourself in that position, you must follow Law No. 50/1991 on authorization of construction works, and obtain a re-authorization of the building resulted from the modifications made. The procedure is known as “getting back within the law limits” as the construction activities have been mad outside the law temporarily, as they were not mentioned in the initial plans of the building. Before the Law mentioned earlier came into force, this procedure was not possible. If you have brought modifications to a building you must remove them before getting a new authorization.

Today, due to the fast increase of construction business, the public authorities needed to accept that some errors may arise in the process and eliminate penalizations and get them to re-authorize the new plans. The first step is to submit another file at the local Town Hall where the building is located.  The file must contain all documents required for the initial authorization, plus the new drawings and changes. A new Building Permit and Town Planning Certificate will be issued and the new drawings will go to the construction site. 

Finally, after the re-authorization is approved and the technical requirements from Town Hall experts are met, the new technical documentation will be released. The constructor will use the new documentation to finalize the building accordingly.