Romanian construction industry update
At the beginning of November, Romania enacted a series of reforms to its law on construction. Designed to spur on real property growth, the reforms are designed to streamline the application and authorization of building permits.
The most important reforms enacted include:
- All of the endorsements and authorizations issued for the initial building permit on any given project will still be valid for any subsequent follow-on building permit (designed to eliminate the reapplication process, which was considered quite cumbersome);
- Submission of supporting documentation can now be done electronically (designed to streamline and create a paperless process);
- Prior endorsements / authorizations from utility suppliers for the initial building permit can be used for the final connection authorizations; and
- Most notably, a local Prefect (mayor) can render a building permit void without any formalities being required (this change is somewhat problematic as it could result in significant abuse).
Other changes include henceforth the need to only have one building permit that covers both the demolition of an existing construction and the creation of its replacement. As well, issuance deadlines have been cut in half; again, a measure designed to streamline and spur growth.
Industry reaction has generally been quite positive, although there remains additional reforms to be enacted.