Article written by Andreea Cristina Secu, attorney-at-law, and Cristina Coarnă, attorney-at-law — attorneys at Secu Legal Law no. 169/2026 establishes a simplified regime under which a range of common works — from interior repartitioning to
This article examines the legal regime governing the legalization of unauthorized buildings under Romania’s new Urbanism Code (Law no. 169/2026), promulgated on 5 August 2026, which will enter into force 15 days after its publication in the Official Gazette and will repeal Law no. 50/1991 in its entirety. The first part presents the new institution of the regularization permit (Article 301), placed in the lineage of former Article 59 of the Methodological Norms approved by Order no. 839/2009 (repealed in 2020), but subject to considerably stricter requirements.
The second part examines the disappearance of the mechanism under Article 37 para. (6) of Law no. 50/1991, which allowed unauthorized buildings to be registered in the Land Book once the 3-year limitation period had expired; under the new system, unauthorized buildings cannot undergo acceptance upon completion, the demolition action becomes time-barred only after 10 years, and the sole remaining exception appears to be Article 37 para. (2) of Law no. 7/1996 — a special rule not (yet) repealed by the Code (i.e., the Land Book registration of buildings erected before 1 August 2001 on the basis of the fiscal attestation certificate and the cadastral documentation).
The final part presents the one-year transitional window running from the Code’s entry into force, during which any unauthorized building that complies with the applicable urban-planning regulations may be regularized, subject to fees and levies ten times higher than usual — after which the authorities may demolish the works or are under a duty to apply to the courts for their demolition.
