Fines for building without a permit

What it costs, by offence

The fines are set by art. 357 para. (4) and apply to individuals and to legal entities alike, whether governed by public or private law.

• 5,000-50,000 lei: carrying out works without the prior notification, where the simplified notification was mandatory, or in breach of the notified project.
• 50,000-1,000,000 lei: carrying out works without a building, demolition, regularisation or modification permit, or in breach of one. The amount is set according to the seriousness of the act and its impact on neighbouring properties.
• 30,000-50,000 lei: approving the supply of urban utilities to buildings put up in breach of the law.
• 50,000-100,000 lei: failing to notify the authorities of the start of works that are exempt from permitting.
• 1,000-100,000 lei: keeping temporary structures beyond the term for which they were authorised, where they affect public property, or using them for purposes other than those authorised.
• 50,000-100,000 lei: failing to restore the land to its initial state once works are finished.
• 2,000 lei: failing to display the investment identification panel, and failing to announce the start date of authorised works to the town hall and to I.S.C. (art. 357 para. 4 letter g).

A separate fine for every unauthorised storey

Art. 357 para. (5) adds a sanction on top of the base fine, not instead of it: where the works breach the height regime set in the building or modification permit, an additional fine of 50,000 to 500,000 lei applies for each unauthorised storey.

This is why one extra floor added along the way, without a modification permit, frequently ends up costing more than the works themselves. Changes of brief arising during works already authorised must be applied for through a modification permit, before starting them.

The fine does not close the file

Under art. 358 para. (1), the control body that sanctioned the act must, alongside stopping the works, order one of the following:

• bringing the works within the terms of the building permit or of the notified project;
• obtaining a regularisation permit, under art. 301, if the works fit the approved urbanism rules and meet the fundamental quality requirements set out in art. 386;
• demolishing the works, where they do not fit the approved urbanism rules or do not meet the fundamental quality requirements.

The local authority competent to issue the permit must analyse how far the building matches the urbanism documentation approved for the area and order, depending on the outcome, that it be kept or demolished. In other words, what follows the fine depends on the building's compliance with urbanism rules, not on the owner's preference.

If you do not comply

If the sanctioned person does not take the measures ordered in the finding report, within the deadline it sets, the body that applied the sanction refers the matter to the courts, which may order that the works be brought within the terms of the permit or that the unlawful structures be demolished (art. 358 para. 3).

The court sets deadlines for carrying out those measures. If those are missed as well, the measures are carried out under the care of the mayor or the president of the county council, and the costs are borne by those at fault.

Who issues the fine, and for how long

Offences are established and sanctioned, under art. 357 para. (9), by the specialist control staff of the State Inspectorate for Construction, for any of the offences, and by the control departments of city halls, county councils and Bucharest districts, for acts committed on their territory, in line with their competence to issue permits, but only for the offences in art. 357 para. (1) letters a)-j) and p) and in para. (2). The rest stay within the exclusive competence of the State Inspectorate for Construction.

Separately from the fine, where a sanctioned owner does not carry out the measures ordered in the finding report, the authority may go to court for the demolition or regularisation of the works (art. 357 para. 10, which refers to art. 358 para. 3). The right to bring that action becomes time-barred 10 years after the works were in fact completed (art. 357 para. 11).

That term covers only that action. Once the one-year window in art. 301 para. (7) closes, local authorities may proceed to demolish unauthorised works and recover the costs (art. 301 para. 12), with no such limit. And for buildings not yet regularised when the code entered into force, for as long as the building is neither regularised nor demolished, the building tax is increased by 100% from the date the situation was established (art. 301 para. 11).

What to do if you already have unauthorised works

The right order is usually the opposite of the instinctive one: rather than waiting for an inspection, first check whether the works fit the approved urbanism rules.

• The regularisation permit is not open to every building. Art. 301 para. (2) limits it to single-family homes on ground floor or ground floor plus one, with a total built area of at most 150 sqm, that are not historical monuments and lie outside the protection zones of historical monuments and outside protected built areas; to dwelling, household or farm annexes of at most 150 sqm; and to balcony enclosures that do not extend onto public property.
• Even for those categories, the permit is issued only where the environmental conditions, the fundamental quality requirements in art. 386 and the applicable urbanism rules are met cumulatively (art. 301 paras. 3 and 4). Where they are not, the local authority applies the provisions on demolishing the works (art. 301 para. 5).
• For one year from the Code entering into force, art. 301 para. (7) opens regularisation to categories of building beyond those above, provided the works fit the urbanism rules, meet the fundamental quality requirements, and the owner has settled their tax obligations and the contravention measures have been applied. In that case both the state-control levies and the urbanism-certificate and building-permit taxes are ten times higher (art. 301 para. 8).
• If the works do not fit the approved urbanism rules, the only lawful outcome is demolition, and paying the fine does not change that.

Before anything else, check which regime applied to your works: many interventions never needed a building permit but a simplified notification, and the sanction starts ten times higher, with a ceiling twenty times higher.