What Can You Build in Your Yard Without a Permit in Romania? Garages, Summer Kitchens and Sheds
Citeste articolul in romana → Ce poti construi in curte fara autorizatie in 2026: garaj, bucatarie de vara, magazie
In a village, a light, removable shed, summer kitchen or pergola needs no paperwork, if it's no more than 20 m² in total, 2.5 m high and has no foundations. A permanent garage or summer kitchen with foundations can be built with a notification, up to 50 m² in total, if the village isn't part of a metropolitan area. In a town, a removable terrace or pergola needs nothing, but a garage or summer kitchen needs a building permit.
In short
No paperwork, villages only: removable outbuildings on a wood or metal frame, without foundations, up to 20 m² in total and 2.5 m high (Law 169/2026, art. 299 alin. (2) lit. c)).
Notification, villages only: permanent outbuildings such as a garage or summer kitchen, up to 50 m² in total. Not in villages inside metropolitan areas (art. 294 alin. (2) lit. a) pct. (i)).
No paperwork, anywhere outside protected zones: removable terraces and pergolas, retaining walls and ground-floor access steps inside your property (art. 299 alin. (2) lit. b)).
Everything else needs a permit, including a garage or summer kitchen in a town.
The neighbour rules always apply: at least 60 cm from the boundary, and 2 m for a window that looks onto the neighbour's land (Civil Code, art. 612 and 615).
What can you build in a village without any paperwork?
A light, removable outbuilding, as long as all your outbuildings of this kind add up to 20 m² or less.
The structure needs no notification and no permit if all of these are true (art. 299 alin. (2) lit. c)):
It's an outbuilding of a single-family house in a rural area: a covered terrace, pergola, summer kitchen, kiosk, shed, outdoor toilet or similar.
It's no more than 20 m² in total, counting every outbuilding built under this rule.
It's no more than 2.5 m high.
It has no foundations.
It's temporary and removable, on a wood or metal frame.
It follows the local planning rules and the Civil Code (see the neighbour rules below).
The 20 m² is a total, not a limit for each one. An 11 m² shed and a 9 m² summer kitchen together reach the limit. Two 15 m² structures (30 m² in total) are over it, even though each is under 20 m².
What can you build in a village with a notification?
Permanent outbuildings, foundations included, up to 50 m² in total.
The code lets you build these with a notification to the city hall instead of a permit (art. 294 alin. (2) lit. a) pct. (i)):
What: new buildings next to a single-family house: garages, covered terraces, pergolas, summer kitchens, kiosks, outdoor toilets and similar.
How big: up to 50 m² in total, including small ones under 20 m² that have foundations and are permanent.
Where: inside the built-up area (intravilan) of a rural locality, outside protected zones and historic-monument protection zones, following the local planning rules (art. 294 alin. (2) lit. a)).
The exception: this route isn't open in rural localities inside metropolitan areas.
What counts as a metropolitan area? The code doesn't list them. In practice, these are the communes around large cities that have joined the city in a metropolitan association. If your village is near a big city, ask the city hall, or get an urbanism certificate for information (art. 254), before you plan anything. The exclusion only applies to the notification route. The 20 m² no-paperwork route has no metropolitan exclusion.
What about in a town?
A removable terrace or pergola needs nothing. A garage or summer kitchen needs a building permit.
No paperwork, anywhere outside protected built zones: removable terraces and pergolas, retaining walls and ground-floor access steps, as long as they're inside your property (art. 299 alin. (2) lit. b)).
A garage, summer kitchen or any permanent outbuilding in a town: neither the notification route nor the no-paperwork route covers it. It needs a building permit.
The same goes for anything over 50 m², land outside the built-up area, and protected zones.
How does the notification work for a garage or summer kitchen?
It's the same procedure as for a house, on a smaller scale: a simplified project, a form and about five weeks.
Check the plot: that it's inside the built-up area of a rural locality, not in a protected zone and not in a metropolitan area. An urbanism certificate for information settles all three (art. 254).
Get the simplified technical project, prepared by an architect and engineers as the structure requires (art. 295 alin. (4)).
File the notification with the city hall, in writing or digitally: the form, the project and the fees set by law (art. 295 alin. (4) and (5)).
Wait. The city hall has 15 working days. If it doesn't answer, the notification counts as approved, and you can start 15 calendar days later (art. 296 alin. (1) and (6)). The notification is valid for three years (art. 296 alin. (5)).
Build, then sign the completion report with the builder and a city hall representative, and register it in the National Register of Constructions (art. 298 alin. (6)).
The notification is your declaration on your own responsibility that the conditions are met (art. 297 alin. (2)).
Planning a garage or summer kitchen and not sure which route it needs? Book a free 45-minute Office Hours session, tell us where the plot is and what you want to build, and we'll tell you whether it needs nothing, a notification or a permit, and where it can sit on the plot.
How close to the neighbour can you build?
At least 60 cm from the boundary, and 2 m for a window that looks onto the neighbour's land. These rules apply to every building, even one that needs no paperwork.
60 cm from the boundary, for any building, works or plantings, unless a law or the local planning rules say otherwise. You and the neighbour can agree on less, but only in an authentic document signed at a notary (Civil Code, art. 612).
2 m for a window, balcony or similar that looks straight onto the neighbour's land, fenced or not. Openings at an angle to the boundary need at least 1 m (art. 615).
Roof water has to drain onto your own land, not the neighbour's (art. 611).
The local planning rules can ask for more, and then they prevail. Check them before you set out the building.
What do people get wrong?
Five things turn a "no paperwork" shed into a problem.
Reading 20 m² as a limit for each building. It's the total of all the removable outbuildings built under that rule.
Pouring a concrete foundation. Once the structure has foundations, it's no longer a no-paperwork structure. In a village it moves to the notification route; in a town it needs a permit.
Going over 2.5 m with a pitched roof. The height limit counts.
Turning a summer kitchen into living space later. An outbuilding isn't a house, and changing what it's used for is a separate approval.
Forgetting the paperwork after building. Even work that needs no formality ends with a completion report, recorded in the building's technical book and the National Register of Constructions (art. 299 alin. (5)). New buildings also have to be declared to the local tax office.
What if you've already built it without papers?
If it needed a notification or a permit, regularise it. Outbuildings of a house have a permanent route.
Building without a required notification: a fine of 5,000–50,000 lei (art. 357 alin. (4) lit. a)).
Building without a required permit: a fine of 50,000–1,000,000 lei (art. 357 alin. (4) lit. b)).
Outbuildings of a house, up to 150 m² in total floor area, can get a regularisation permit at any time, not just within the one-year window (art. 301 alin. (2)). Until it's regularised, the building tax doubles from the moment the city hall finds it (art. 301 alin. (11)).
Check what your plot allows
In a free, 45-minute Office Hours call, an architect looks at your plot with you: which route your garage, summer kitchen or shed needs, where it can sit given the boundaries and the local rules, and what the project and the notification involve if you need them.
Bring: the location of the plot (address or cadastral number), a sketch of the plot with the house and the distances to the boundaries, and the size of what you want to build.
No pitch, no obligation. Pick a time below; it shows in your local time.
