When a project does not start on bare ground, the first drawing is not drawn but measured. The survey of the existing building is the record of what stands there now, and the code asks for it whenever you intervene on something already built. The word that causes returns from the counter is “detailed”.
Where the obligation sits
The definition comes from the design side of the code, in the design brief. Article 490 paragraph (7) puts it generally: for interventions on existing constructions, an architectural survey of the building is produced and, where applicable, a survey of the structure, of the installations and of the equipment. The same place gives the minimum form: the survey is produced at a suitable scale and comprises plans, sections and elevations.
Note that there are three possible surveys, not one. The architectural one is always required; the other two come into play depending on what you touch. A structural intervention without a survey of the load-bearing structure is a file that comes back.
What goes in at permit stage
Article 282 deals with permitting interventions on existing buildings and says the project carries the content required for new buildings, to which are added, as the case may be, the detailed survey of the existing building and the technical expert report or reports, or a technical note issued by an accredited expert for particular requirements.
The phrase “to which are added” matters. The survey does not replace anything in the usual framework content; it sits on top of it.
“Detailed” is defined, not left to you
Annex 2, the framework content of the project for a building permit, says of the drawings for interventions on existing buildings: the detailed survey of the existing situation, plans for all levels, dimensioned, sections and elevations.
All levels, and dimensioned. Not only the floor you are working on. That is usually where time is lost, because measuring is done once, with access to the whole property, and a return visit for a basement or a loft means a second appointment with the occupants.
Annex 2 also provides relief for interventions confined to the interior. Check the text of the annex that applies to your file before you commission a full measured survey, because this is precisely where the annexes differ.
Same name, three different documents
Annex 3, the simplified framework content, asks for the detailed survey of the existing situation in the same words as annex 2. Annex 5, the framework content for a demolition permit, asks for something else: the survey of the constructions to be demolished. It is not the same document and does not serve the same purpose, though it carries the same name.
And article 265 letter g) raises the bar for one specific case: sites within protected built zones and interventions on historic monuments. There the detailed survey is required including damage and deterioration, alongside the specific historical study and a report describing how the building is to be conserved and brought back into use.
If you download a template, it comes from one of these versions and almost certainly not from yours. We wrote about that trap at length in the technical report template and the wrong annex.
The order in which you commission them
The survey precedes the technical expert report, because the expert works on it. On when that report is mandatory and who is barred from producing it, see technical expert reports on existing buildings; the full list of pieces the file requires is on the PAC page.
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.