How long does a building permit take in Romania? Legal deadlines vs. reality

The legal deadline for issuing a building permit (autorizație de construire) is usually 30 days. So why does everyone say it "took almost a year"? The answer lies in the difference between the legal deadline and the real duration — and understanding it from the outset gives you control over the schedule. Below you'll find the exact legal deadlines, stage by stage, and how long the process actually takes in practice.

Why the legal deadline and the real duration are not the same thing

Legal deadlines apply to each step individually (certificat de urbanism — urban planning certificate, avize — approvals/permits, the building permit) and only start running once the previous step is complete and you have submitted a complete file. "30 days for the permit" refers only to the final step — after the urban planning certificate, the site studies, the project and the approvals have already been obtained.

The real duration of the entire journey = the sum of the issuing deadlines plus the time you and the design team need to prepare each stage, plus any back-and-forth (requests for additional documents). This is where the gap between "one month" and "one year" comes from.

The legal deadlines, stage by stage

These are the maximum periods within which the authority must respond, under Law 50/1991 (construction) and Law 350/2001 (urban planning). They are indicative for the typical case — always check the specific situation with your local city hall.

Keep the key word in mind: complete. The deadline does not start running if the file has gaps — which is why a well-prepared dossier "buys" the most days.

Tacit approval — when silence means "yes"

A useful and little-known mechanism: for certain approvals (avize) and authorizations, if the authority does not respond within the legal deadline, the document is deemed tacitly granted. In practice, an institution's delay cannot block you indefinitely. It does not apply everywhere and comes with procedural conditions, but it is a real instrument — and an office that tracks deadlines knows when and how to invoke it.

How long it actually takes — the reality on the ground

In practice, the complete journey, from site to permit, usually looks like this:

Why is it longer than the sum of the legal deadlines? Because the approvals (avize) are obtained from several institutions, each at its own pace; requests for additional documents stop the clock and restart it; and the preparation stages (studies, project) have no legal deadline — they depend on how quickly they are commissioned and coordinated.

What makes the difference between 6 months and a year

The same steps can take very different amounts of time, depending on:

• the complexity of the project (a single-family home vs. a multi-unit building);
• the location — a site in a protected area or next to a historic monument requires additional approvals and reviews by committees;
• how many approvals (avize) the urban planning certificate lists;
• the quality of the file — completeness decides whether the deadline runs or resets;
• how quickly the institutions respond — and whether tacit approval is used where applicable;
• the smart overlapping of stages — some studies and approvals can advance in parallel rather than strictly in sequence.

How we manage deadlines

At Beletage we track every legal deadline in a digital registry system: every application and every approval (aviz), with its start date, legal deadline and response date. This lets us do three practical things for the client:

1. a realistic schedule from the start, not vague estimates;
2. overlapping the stages that can run in parallel, so no time is wasted;
3. no missed deadline — including recognising the moment when tacit approval works in the project's favour.

For you, as the beneficiary, this means a single point of contact who keeps the journey under control, instead of several processes to coordinate on your own.

Conclusion

The legal deadline tells you how long the authority has for each step. The real duration depends on how well the stages are prepared and coordinated beforehand. A well-managed journey does not change the law — but it eliminates dead time, and the difference between "almost a year" and "six months" is, more often than not, decided before the first submission.

If you want to see how the steps fall into place one after another, we have detailed the journey in the building permit: the 5 steps, and the first document in the urban planning certificate.

The exact legal deadlines, with article references

The table above gives the order of magnitude. Below are the same deadlines, but with the legal basis — and an important correction: the urban planning certificate (certificat de urbanism) now has a deadline of 15 working days (reduced from 30 days by Law 193/2019), not a generic "~15 days".

The 7-working-day urgency regime is not a guaranteed standard deadline: it is granted at the beneficiary's justified request and on payment of an urgency fee.

Accuracy note: the deadlines for urban planning documentation (PUZ — zonal urban plan / PUD — detailed urban plan) are governed by Law 350/2001, not Law 50/1991, and differ — a PUZ or a PUD adds whole months on top of a standard journey.

Tacit approval, more precisely — what it covers and what it does not

The section above on tacit approval needs a clarification, because the distinction matters in practice:

1. Tacit approval does NOT apply to the building permit, the urban planning certificate or the urban planning documentation (PUZ/PUD). This was settled definitively by the High Court of Cassation and Justice through Appeal in the Interest of the Law (RIL) no. 13/2013: the procedure under Emergency Ordinance 27/2003 does not cover these acts. In other words, the city hall's silence does NOT give you a valid building permit.
2. There is, however, a new and separate mechanism, for approvals (avize) only. Through Emergency Ordinance 31/2025, which amended Law 50/1991, if the competent entity does not issue an approval/agreement within the legal deadline (usually 15 days from submission of the request), the approval is deemed tacitly granted and the documentation is considered complete. There are exceptions: the environmental approval and the historic-monuments approval have their own deadlines (for example 30 days from the committee's review).

In short: the silence of an institution that must issue an approval (aviz) can work in your favour, through the mechanism introduced by Emergency Ordinance 31/2025 — but this does not replace the building permit itself, which is never obtained tacitly.

How much permitting costs — indicative ranges (RON, excluding VAT)

Beyond duration, the first question of any beneficiary is the cost. The official fees are small and regulated; the real cost comes from design, studies and approvals. All figures are indicative and vary by locality, area and complexity.

The ISC quotas apply to the value of the works excluding VAT and are reconciled to the real value at handover: 0.1% under Law 50/1991 (art. 30) and 0.5% under Law 10/1995 on construction quality (art. 43), i.e. 0.6% in total.

A practical point often overlooked: the reconciliation of the fee. After the works are completed, you are obliged to declare the real value of the investment within 15 days (but no later than 15 days from the expiry of the permit), and the city hall recalculates the 0.5% / 1% fee on the final value — Fiscal Code, art. 474 para. (7) lit. c). The difference is paid (or refunded) then, not at submission.

What "buys" the most days — a complete file from the first submission

The legal 30-day deadline for the permit does not start running if the file has gaps — an incomplete file is returned within 5 days (art. 7 para. (3)) and the clock restarts from zero on resubmission. Check, before the first submission:

• Application for the building permit, standard form, correctly filled in;
• Urban planning certificate within its validity period (12 months, extendable once);
• Proof of title over the land/construction (an up-to-date land registry extract);
• The permitting design (DTAC), signed and verified, with all written and drawn parts;
• All the approvals and agreements (avize) expressly required in the urban planning certificate (utilities, environment, fire safety/ISU, public health, monuments, etc., as applicable);
• The site studies required (geotechnical, topographic), where applicable;
• The project verification reports, on the applicable essential requirements;
• Proof of payment of the fees (urban planning certificate, permit, the ISC quotas, the architecture stamp);
• The documentation in the format required by the local city hall (increasingly, digital submission).

The most frequent cause of real delay is not the city hall, but the approvals (avize) from third parties (each institution at its own pace) and the requests for additional documents that stop the clock. That is why smart overlapping of stages and a clean file from the start make the difference between ~6 months and ~1 year.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a building permit legally take? The legal deadline is at most 30 days from the registration of a complete file (Law 50/1991, art. 7 para. (1)). Under the urgency regime, at the beneficiary's justified request and with an urgency fee, the deadline drops to 7 working days (Law 193/2019). Note: the 30 days refer only to the final step — issuing the permit — not to the entire journey.

How long does it really take, from scratch? In practice, from site to permit, the complete journey usually takes between ~6 months and ~1 year, because it adds up the time to obtain the urban planning certificate, the site studies, the approvals (from several institutions) and the preparation of the DTAC project — stages that, for the most part, have no legal completion deadline on your side.

What happens if the city hall does not respond within 30 days? Is it approved tacitly? No. Tacit approval does NOT apply to the building permit, the urban planning certificate or the urban planning documentation — established by the High Court (ÎCCJ) through RIL no. 13/2013. There is, however, since 2025, a separate mechanism for approvals (avize) only: if an institution does not issue the approval within 15 days, it is deemed tacitly granted (Emergency Ordinance 31/2025), with exceptions for environment and monuments.

How much is the building permit fee? For a dwelling, the fee is 0.5% of the authorised value of the works; for non-residential constructions, 1% (Fiscal Code, art. 474). At the end, the fee is reconciled to the real value of the investment (art. 474 para. (7) lit. c). To this are added the ISC quotas (0.1% under Law 50/1991 + 0.5% under Law 10/1995, 0.6% in total) and the architecture stamp (0.5‰).

How long is the building permit valid? 12 months from issuance. The works must begin within this period, and validity extends over the duration of execution. The extension can be requested once, for at most 12 months, at least 15 days before expiry (Law 50/1991, art. 7 para. (5)-(7)).

What most often delays the process? The approvals (avize) from third parties (each institution at its own pace), the requests for additional documents (which stop and restart the legal deadline), protected areas / historic monuments (additional approvals, committee reviews) and, frequently, an incomplete file at the first submission — which is returned within 5 days and resets the deadline.