THE GEO NO. 31/2025 CHANGES THE RULES IN URBAN PLANNING: PLAIN DEADLINES AND TACIT APPROVAL

The GEO no. 31/2025, published in the Official Gazette on April 30, 2025, brings significant changes to the Law no. 350/2001 for urban planning and constructions and to the Law no. 50/1991 for authorising constructions works by explicitly regulating tacit approval for urban planning clearances and for those underlying building permits if the authorities fail to comply with the legal deadlines, all in a bid to cut out chronic administrative hindrances.

Main amendments to Law no. 350/2001 on spatial planning and urbanism, and to Law no. 50/1991 on construction works authorisation

Plain deadlines for clearance issuing

• Opportunity clearances for zonal urban plans (PUZ) must be issued within maximum 15 days since perusal of the documentation by the technical commission, while the documentation must be introduced in the agenda of the commission in maximum 30 days since its submission.
• Clearances and approvals on territory landscaping and urban planning must be issued in 30 days since the date of application; with some exceptions provided for environmental authorities, for documents issued by the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations or for authorities bound to analyse the documentation in a specialized commission.
• Public authorities and institutions and entities issuing clearances for authorising building works have maximum 15 days since the date of the application for screening the documentations submitted and issuing conditional or unconditional clearances / approvals to the beneficiary; with some exceptions provided for authorities involved in environmental and historic monuments protection, for authorities bound to analyse the documentation in a specialized commission etc.
• The authorities that are bound under the law to screening the documentation in a commission must submit to the commission and have it carry out the screening of the documentation within maximum 30 days since submission thereof with the institution.
• The request for supplementing / modifying / clarifying incomplete documentation by the authorities is possible only one time, within the given timeframe for resolving the file, and the beneficiary must answer within maximum 60 days.

Introducing tacit approval

• Failure of the authorities to issue clearances or approvals within the deadlines and in the absence of requests for clarifications, the documentation is deemed complete and correct and the clearances tacitly granted. In this case, the beneficiaries may proceed with the procedure of approval of the documentation for territory landscaping and urbanism, and, respectively, with the procedure for authorisation for construction works.
• The tacit reconfirmation of clearances and agreements for PUZ (Zonal Urban Plan) or PUD (General Urban Plan), where there are no changes of the technical solution originally, unless they are reconfirmed within 5 working days.
• The opportunity clearance cannot be tacitly granted.
• Tacit clearance granting does not apply to institutions in the defence, public order and national security systems.
• When it comes to tacit clearance granting, the liability for the data regarding the building of the beneficiary, the protection area, the existence of technical and utility networks and others alike, which are not public and were due for disclosure within the legal deadline through the clearance, falls exclusively to the issuing authority in charge of such disclosure.

Cascading applications for clearance removed

• All necessary clearances and approvals must be applied for simultaneously, except for the opportunity clearance and the clearance by the chief architect.
• This way, the process is shortened and clearance granting is no longer conditioned by previous clearance granting.

Extended validity of clearances

Clearances and approvals granted under the urban planning certificate, including those granted during the feasibility study phase or authorization documents for intervention works remain valid until the final acceptance of the works, unless there are changes in the technical solutions or the granting conditions are no longer fulfilled.

One person in charge of the file

During the whole clearance and approval procedure, one clerk is in charge of the file to ensure an uninterrupted and efficient process.

Sanctions for authorities failing deadlines

The failure to introduce the documentation on the agenda of the commissions within 30 days or unjustified dismissal thereof represent contraventions subject to fines ranging between LEI 3,000 and LEI 10,000.

Prioritising PNRR funded investments

The authorities must prioritize and process urgently the documentations pertaining to PNRR funded investments without charging fees for clearance granting for public works.

Declaration on own responsibility for tacit clearance granting

The beneficiaries seeking to invoke tacit clearance granting must submit a declaration on own responsibility, the template of which is to be released by the Ministry of Development.

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The provisions of the Law no. 350/2001 and of the Law no. 50/1991, as modified by the GEO no. 31/2025 also apply to ongoing procedures, with certain conditions.