The first figure you hear for a house is not a price, it is an estimate with a tolerance. The Urban Planning Code has a table saying how wide that tolerance normally is at each stage of the project, and who is responsible for the figure at that point. It sits in Annex 7, at the end of the law, far from the articles about permits.
The table, for buildings and for interventions
Annex 7 of Legea 169/2026 sets the budget margins (marje de buget) for private-sector investments, by type of works and by stage. Two of its columns concern most readers of this blog:
| Project stage | Buildings | Interventions on existing constructions | Responsible, per the annex |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Design brief and business plan | ±25% | ±35% | beneficiary, consultant |
| 2. Concept | ±20% | ±30% | designer |
| 3. Project for building authorisation | ±10% | ±25% | designer |
| 4. Technical execution project and execution details | ±6% | ±15% | designer |
| 5. Execution | ±3% | ±10% | designer, contractor |
At stage 0, initiation, the annex gives no percentage. There the beneficiary sets the target budget. The table also has columns for landscaping, infrastructure, hydrotechnical works and interventions on historic monuments, where the margin at the design brief rises as high as ±45%.
The difference between the two columns above matters before any conversation about money. An intervention on an existing construction has a wider tolerance than the buildings column at every stage, and at the project for authorisation it is two and a half times as wide. What counts as an intervention under the code is explained in a change of use counts as an intervention.
What article 476 says about the margin
Article 476 paragraph (1) defines the budget margin, for private-sector works, as the percentage of correction up or down of the values resulting from estimates. Paragraph (2) says the beneficiary proposes it, at the initiation stage of the project, as a percentage of the total estimated value accepted to cover the differences between the estimates made at the various stages.
Paragraph (4) requires the margin to be updated at each stage, as the project becomes more detailed, up to and including the handover of the construction. Paragraph (6) adds the rule that explains the shape of the table: margins are not cumulative from one stage to the next, they adapt to the level of detail. The annex heading says the same thing more directly: margins reduce progressively.
One word in paragraph (5) changes how the table should be read. For private works, the margin set out in the annex is indicative (orientativă). For projects financed wholly or partly from public funds, article 523 paragraph (3) requires the margin to fall within the one in annex no. 7, although article 476 paragraphs (7)-(10) give public works a margin of their own, upwards only, in annex no. 8. For a house paid for with your own money, the table is therefore a benchmark, not a limit imposed by law.
What does not go into the margin
Paragraph (3) of article 476 takes three things out of the margin: updates for the inflation index, market fluctuations and legislative changes in the tax field. These lead to updates of the execution costs under the terms of the contract, not through the margin.
Article 477 also separates out miscellaneous and unforeseen expenses (cheltuieli diverse și neprevăzute). These are the costs arising from changes to technical solutions that require additional quantities of works, equipment or fittings during execution, plus conservation costs during an interruption for reasons outside the beneficiary’s control. The text says expressly that they are distinct from the budget margin.
Article 475 paragraph (4) puts all three side by side. To the total estimated value of the project are added the acceptable budget margin and the amount set aside for miscellaneous and unforeseen expenses. In the budget, these are three separate lines.
At execution, the margin goes into the contract
Article 523 defines the execution cost as the cost in the contract the beneficiary concludes with the contractor, based on the accepted offer and the detailed bill of quantities. At this stage, paragraph (2) says the margin is proposed by the contractor and written into the contract with them.
Cost monitoring on the beneficiary’s behalf is carried out, under article 524 paragraph (7), by the site supervisor (diriginte de șantier), the project manager, or both. Who may not act as site supervisor on your own site is covered in independence defined by what you may not be.
How I would use it, as a beneficiary
What follows is our reading, not an obligation in the text. The table is useful precisely because it is not binding on private works: it gives you a concrete question to ask at each stage. When the designer gives you an estimate at concept stage, ask what margin they think it sits within, and compare it with ±20%, which is what the annex gives for buildings. If the answer is much tighter, ask them to explain where the confidence comes from.
The costs that have nothing to do with the works themselves, meaning the taxes, the avize and the I.S.C. levy, are a separate discussion, which we broke down in what a permit actually costs, in layers. The permit taxes have their own page, on calculating the permit taxes.
This article is analysis, not legal advice. Provisions are cited from Legea 169/2026, published in Monitorul Oficial no. 661 of 10 August 2026. Check your own situation with the issuing authority. Romanian legal terms are kept in the original, because the Romanian text is the one that governs.