The figure 0.5% turns up twice in the budget for a house, and people count it once. These are two different payments, to two different recipients, calculated on different bases and falling due at different moments.
The first is the permit fee, a percentage set by the fiscal code and collected by the council. It is explained on the permit fee page. The second is the subject here.
What article 352 requires
Investors or owners must transfer to the State Inspectorate for Construction a sum equal to 0.5% of the value of the works, excluding VAT, for new construction and for interventions on existing buildings for which building or demolition permits are issued.
The base is therefore the value of the works excluding VAT, not the taxable value and not the authorised value used for the fiscal code fee. Two identical percentages on two different bases give two different sums.
The exception in paragraph (1) is narrow: interventions to strengthen residential buildings in seismic risk class I, plus other cases expressly provided by special laws.
It is paid in two instalments, not on filing
Paragraph (2) splits the payment:
- 50% on the date you send the inspectorate the notice of the works’ start date;
- the remainder by the date the completion acceptance report is signed, calculated as the difference between 0.5% applied to the final value of the works executed, excluding VAT, and what you have already paid.
The practical consequence is that the second instalment cannot be estimated at the outset. If the works cost more than was authorised, the difference shows up here. It is the only cost line in the whole file that closes only at acceptance.
Late payment has a daily price
Paragraph (3) penalises late payment of either instalment at 0.15% per day. On a few thousand lei, forgetting for a month is not dramatic; on a large investment, a quarter’s delay is visible.
It is worth reading alongside when the payment falls due: the law itself points there, because paragraph (2) letter a) ties the first instalment to the notice required by article 278, covered in the two înștiințări. And failing to announce the start of works is itself an administrative offence. One administrative slip can trigger two consequences.
And there is a further 0.1%
Article 143 paragraph (4) adds a second levy, for the cost of state control in spatial planning, urbanism and permitting: 0.1% of the value of the authorised works, again borne by investors. Works on historic monuments, places of worship, and first-urgency works to make existing buildings safe are exempt.
So, taken together, on top of the fiscal code permit fee come 0.5% plus 0.1%. It is not a sum that changes a decision to build, but it is a sum missing from almost every estimate made before filing. The cost layers as a whole are in what a permit is made of, and we wrote about another line that never appears in a quotation in compulsory insurance.
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.