Citeste articolul in romana → Ce inseamna noul Cod al urbanismului pentru renovarea apartamentului?
Since 25 August 2026, every apartment job falls into one of three routes: no paperwork, a simple notification to the city hall, or a full building permit. Finishes and like-for-like replacements need nothing. Kitchens, bathrooms, non-structural walls and balcony closures need a notification. Anything touching the structure still needs a permit.
In short
The new code is Law 169/2026, the Code of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and Construction (Codul amenajarii teritoriului, urbanismului si constructiilor). It took effect on 25 August 2026 (art. 575) and repealed Law 50/1991 (art. 576 alin. (3)).
No formality (art. 299): painting, floors, tiles, interior doors, windows in the same opening, repairs to wiring and pipes, a boiler or AC unit.
Notification (art. 294): renovating or extending a kitchen or bathroom, changing non-structural walls, closing a balcony the same way as the rest of the building.
Building permit (anything not covered by art. 294 or 299): any opening in a load-bearing wall, enlarging windows, merging rooms across structural walls or merging apartments.
A notification is filed on your own responsibility (art. 297 alin. (2)). If the wall you removed turns out to be structural, the liability is yours, not the city hall's.
What changed on 25 August 2026?
The old rule was "permit, unless the work is on a short exempt list". The new code adds a middle route, the notification, for the jobs most apartment renovations actually involve.
Under Law 50/1991, almost anything beyond finishes technically needed a building permit (autorizatie de construire). In practice, many owners skipped it. The new code recognises three routes:
No formality (art. 299). You just do the work, within the technical rules.
Notification (notificare), art. 294–298. You file a form with a simplified technical project before starting. The city hall has 15 working days to respond; if it doesn't, the notification counts as approved (art. 296 alin. (1)). You can start 15 calendar days after that deadline.
Building permit. The full procedure, starting with an urbanism certificate (certificat de urbanism), which has a legal deadline of 15 working days (art. 257 alin. (4)). The permit itself has a legal deadline of 30 calendar days from a complete file (art. 273 alin. (1)).
Urbanism certificates issued before 25 August stay valid, and permits can still be issued on their basis (art. 582 alin. (4)).
Which route does your renovation need?
Find your job below. If a job isn't listed in art. 294 or art. 299, assume it needs a permit until your city hall says otherwise.
Find your job below. If a job isn't listed in art. 294 or art. 299, assume it needs a permit until your city hall says otherwise.
No formality: no notification or permit (art. 299)
Painting, plaster repairs, new floors, new tiles (same layout)
New bathroom or kitchen fixtures, finishes and pipes, in the same place or shifted within the room, up to the connection with the riser. Work on the riser itself is shared and needs the association (see below).
Replacing interior doors
Replacing windows in the same opening, keeping the opening and window size and form; the material can change. Keep the look consistent with the building.
Rewiring and new pipes inside the apartment. Use a licensed electrician or plumber and keep the certificates.
Installing a boiler, AC unit or meters. Use an authorised installer; gas work follows its own rules. Check the association's rules before mounting an AC unit on the façade.
When the works are finished, the code still requires a completion report, recorded in the building's technical book and the national register of constructions (art. 299 alin. (5)).
Notification: file a form and a simplified technical project before you start (art. 294)
Extending the kitchen or bathroom, or turning another room into a bathroom (up to 25 m², art. 294 alin. (2) lit. b) pct. (x)). Tell the neighbours affected (see below).
Building or removing a non-structural wall. Get a structural assessment first; that's our advice.
Closing the balcony the same way as the rest of the building. Façade changes must be uniform across the building (Law 196/2018, art. 32(2)).
The no-formality and notification routes apply outside protected areas and historic-monument protection zones. Inside them, extra approvals apply (art. 294 alin. (3)); check with your city hall.
Building permit: full procedure, starting with an urbanism certificate (not covered by art. 294 or 299)
Merging the balcony into the room. The wall under the window is often structural, so this is a structural change (Law 196/2018, art. 39).
Any opening in a load-bearing wall. Needs a technical assessment by a certified expert, a full project, and the agreement of two thirds of the association and of all directly affected owners (Law 196/2018, art. 39).
Enlarging a window or door opening. Technical assessment and full project.
Merging two apartments. Full project, a technical assessment, the association's approval if the wall between them is structural (Law 196/2018, art. 37(2) and 39), and a cadastral update afterwards.
Separate procedure
Leaving district heating for your own boiler. Handled with the heating provider; see our installations guide.
How do you file a notification?
It takes one form, a simplified technical project and a fee, filed before you start.
Get the technical project. An architect prepares a simplified technical execution project, with any specialist input the job needs (structural, installations).
File it with the city hall (in Bucharest, your sector's city hall): the notification form, the simplified technical project and the fees set by law (art. 295 alin. (4)), plus any extra documents the law requires for your case (art. 295 alin. (7)). Ask your city hall for the fee amount.
Wait up to 15 working days. The city hall can stay silent (tacit approval), ask for clarifications, tell you the job needs a permit, or refuse with reasons (art. 296 alin. (1)).
Start no earlier than 15 calendar days after the response deadline, or after you've met any conditions it set (art. 296 alin. (6) and art. 298 alin. (1)).
Do the works within three years; that's how long the notification stays valid (art. 296 alin. (5)). At the end, you, the contractor and a city hall representative sign a completion report (receptie), which you register in the national register of constructions (art. 298 alin. (6)), and the building's technical book (cartea tehnica) is updated (art. 296 alin. (7)).
The procedure is brand new. Expect city halls to apply it unevenly in the first months, and build a few weeks of margin into your plans.
Planning works and not sure which route they need? Book a free 45-minute Office Hours session, tell us what you want to change, and we'll tell you whether each job needs nothing, a notification or a permit, and what to file.
Can you rely on the city hall to tell you if a wall is structural?
No. Get a structural assessment before removing any masonry wall, even one the code would let you handle by notification.
A notification is a declaration on your own responsibility (art. 297 alin. (2)). The city hall checks your paperwork; it doesn't come to look at your wall. If the wall turns out to carry load, the consequences fall on you: cracks in your flat or your neighbours', a stop-work order, fines, and a problem when you sell.
In a bloc, most people can't tell a load-bearing wall from a partition, and neither can many crews. In panel blocs, load-bearing walls run roughly every 3–4 metres, in both directions, and some are thinner than they look. The safe route costs a technical assessment (expertiza tehnica) up front. It's far cheaper than repairing a structural mistake.
The cost of an assessment depends on the building type, age, height and the intervention, so get a quote for your specific case.
When do you need your neighbours or the association?
Whenever the work touches something you share: the structure, the façade, the risers, or walls between apartments. The law sets how many owners must agree.
The structure, the walls between apartments and the shared installations are common property (Civil Code, art. 649(1)(b) and (c); Law 196/2018, art. 37(1)).
Structural changes, such as an opening in a load-bearing wall, need the agreement of two thirds of the association's members and of all directly affected owners, plus a building permit (Law 196/2018, art. 39).
Moving a non-structural wall between your apartment and a neighbour's needs that neighbour's agreement, a technical assessment and a building permit, and the association must be informed (Law 196/2018, art. 37(2)).
Moving a wall between your apartment and a common area, such as the hallway, needs the agreement of all owners in the building, a technical assessment and a building permit (Law 196/2018, art. 37(3)).
Changing shared installations, such as the risers, needs a technical report from the utility provider, a two-thirds vote of the general assembly and a building permit (Law 196/2018, art. 37(6)).
Changing gas pipes or heating elements inside your apartment needs a technical report from the utility provider and a decision of the association's executive committee, with the agreement of all directly affected neighbours (Law 196/2018, art. 37(7)).
Façade changes, including balcony closures, must be uniform across the whole building (Law 196/2018, art. 32(2)).
Changing what a room or apartment is used for needs written approval from the association's executive committee and prior written consent from the directly affected neighbours, beside, above and below (Law 196/2018, art. 40(1)).
In practice, consent is usually collected as written signatures from the owners concerned. Get it in writing before you file anything.
Moving a bathroom or kitchen: tell the neighbour below before you start. We advise against placing a bathroom or kitchen over a neighbour's living room or bedroom. Even with good waterproofing, one leak becomes a dispute that follows the apartment for years.
Association consent and the city hall's approval are separate. Having one doesn't replace the other.
What if works were already done without approval?
The code gives a route to regularise some past works, and a time-limited window for others. Paying a fine doesn't make the work legal.
This matters most if you're buying an apartment where walls have already been moved or the balcony merged into a room.
Find out exactly what was changed. Compare the apartment with the cadastral plan and any original plans; note removed walls, moved bathrooms and closed balconies.
Get a structural assessment for any change to walls. This tells you whether the work can be kept at all.
Apply to the city hall for a regularisation permit (autorizatie de regularizare). The obligation to ask for it is yours (art. 301 alin. (1)). Expect to need technical expert reports (art. 301 alin. (9)), and the city hall can require corrective works before issuing it (art. 301 alin. (10)).
Check whether your works qualify, and by when. Balcony closures that don't extend over public land can be regularised at any time (art. 301 alin. (2)). Most other works in an apartment, such as removed walls or a moved bathroom, can be regularised only if the request is filed within one year of 25 August 2026 (art. 301 alin. (7)), and the urbanism certificate and permit fees are ten times the normal rate (art. 301 alin. (8)). The works must also meet the current urban planning rules and the quality requirements.
If it can't be regularised, plan to restore the original state. After the one-year window, city halls can demolish unauthorised works or ask a court to order it, at the owner's cost (art. 301 alin. (12)–(15)). Until the works are regularised or removed, the building tax is doubled from the moment the authority finds them (art. 301 alin. (11)).
If you're buying: ask the seller to regularise before the sale, or price the cost and risk into your offer.
What are the fines?
Fines for skipping the paperwork are high enough to wipe out what you saved.
Works done without a required notification: from 5,000 to 50,000 lei (art. 357 alin. (1) lit. a) and alin. (4) lit. a)).
Works done without a required permit: from 50,000 lei up to 1,000,000 lei, depending on how serious the breach is and its impact on neighbours (art. 357 alin. (1) lit. b) and alin. (4) lit. b)).
On top of the fine: a stop-work order, restoring the original state at your cost, and a property that's hard to sell or mortgage.
A typical case
A composite example, not a specific client.
A couple buys a two-room apartment with a partly connected layout (semidecomandat) in a 1970s panel bloc. They want to open the kitchen to the living room and move the bathroom closer to the bedroom. The crew says no paperwork is needed for "just a partition".
Under the new code:
The bathroom move needs a notification and a technical project. The new position sits above the neighbours' bedroom, so we'd recommend another layout.
The kitchen wall turns out to be a load-bearing panel. That isn't a notification job; it needs a technical assessment, a permit, and probably a smaller opening instead of an open plan.
Filing correctly adds a few weeks at the start. Skipping it risks a fine, a stop-work order and a crack in the neighbours' ceiling.
Find out what your renovation needs before you start
In a free, 45-minute Office Hours call, an architect goes through your planned works with you and tells you which route each job needs, which walls should be checked first, and whose consent you'll need.
Bring: a floor plan or a quick sketch, photos of any walls you want to change, and a list of the works you have in mind.
No pitch, no obligation. Pick a time below; it shows in your local time.
Renovating in Romania: all articles
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Before you buy
Rules and approvals
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