The date everyone knows is 25 August 2026. The code was published in Monitorul Oficial no. 661 of 10 August and took effect 15 days later, under article 575 paragraph (1); the general framework is on the Legea 169/2026 page.
It is only the first, though. Seven more deadlines run behind it, and the last one reaches 2031.
What the code says about its own application
Article 575 paragraph (2) is worth quoting, because it is unusually direct: entry into force “este automată și aplicarea sa nu este condiționată de adoptarea legislației secundare sau terțiare”, is automatic and its application is not conditional on secondary or tertiary legislation being adopted.
In other words, the code explicitly refuses the excuse that it applies once the implementing rules arrive. Every deadline below runs alongside its application, not before it.
The deadlines, in the order they arrive
45 working days from publication, article 576 paragraphs (1) and (2): the ministry sets up the national integrated approval commission, and local authorities set up the local integrated approval commission and the comisia de acord unic. Counting working days only from 10 August, that falls around 12 October 2026. Public holidays can push it later.
60 days from entry into force, article 577 paragraph (9): the Ministry of Finance begins amending the Codul fiscal for article 63 paragraph (3) and article 301 paragraph (8). Around 24 October 2026.
90 days from entry into force, article 138 paragraph (9): holders of data about properties, installations and networks send it to the ministry in GIS format. Around 23 November 2026.
120 days from publication, article 583 paragraph (4): every authority and body issuing avize, agreements and permits updates its procedures. Around 8 December 2026.
1 year from entry into force, article 301 paragraph (7): the extended regularisation window closes. Around 25 August 2027, and we wrote about it at length in our analysis of the window.
1 July 2027, article 584 paragraph (3): the instruments needed for the Bucharest transfer of competences are adopted. This is a date written into the law, not a calculation.
1 November 2028, article 584 paragraph (1): the competences under articles 132 and 134 pass from the sector mayors to the general mayor. Also a written date.
5 years from publication, article 139 paragraphs (8) and (9): the single national window is brought into operation in stages, and once the period expires its use becomes mandatory. Around 10 August 2031.
What is arithmetic and what is quotation
Before any interpretation, a clarification that is not interpretation.
Of the eight markers above, only two are dates written into the law: 1 July 2027 and 1 November 2028. The rest are periods, and the calendar dates above are our calculations. We give them as such, because a wrongly calculated deadline looks exactly like a correctly quoted one.
The difference matters most for the two periods expressed in working days, where the count depends on public holidays, and for those running from publication rather than from entry into force, a 15-day distinction the text makes deliberately and which is easy to get wrong.
What the shape of this calendar says
That the hard part is not the text. It is the infrastructure.
The short deadlines, 45 and 120 days, are about organisation: commissions and procedures. The long one, 5 years, is about information systems. And the one-year deadline, the regularisation one, is the only one with direct consequences for an ordinary owner.
The period in which the code applies without the infrastructure meant to support it is not a transitional exception of a few weeks. It is, through article 139 paragraph (8), the regime for the next five years. We wrote about that in the piece on the single window and about what stays local.
The first publicly verifiable deadline
The first publicly verifiable deadline is the 45 working days one. If by October 2026 the commissions are not set up in most counties, the rest of the calendar becomes optimistic. We have also written about what was actually repealed and about dossiers started before 25 August, which are judged on different rules from today’s.
This article is analysis, not legal advice. The provisions cited are from Legea 169/2026, published in Monitorul Oficial no. 661 of 10 August 2026. Check your own situation with the issuing authority.