Romanian public authorities request unnecessary approvals for urbanism permits

This work draws the attention of a wide and illegal practice developed by some Romanian public authorities. This practice if the public authorities to requests additional approvals that are not provided in the legislation generates unjustified delays and significant costs for the beneficiaries of the construction works. Thus, in the phase of drafting the urbanism documentation, some city halls and local councils request the neighbours approval in notarized form as a prerequisite for approval of the zonal urbanism plans (“PUZ”) and / or of the detail urbanism plans (“PUD”). As this approval does not reflect a mandatory condition according to the legal framework that regulates the procedure for drafting and approval of the urbanism documentation, the practical effect is that, as a consequence of a wrongful interpretation of the law by some public authorities, the beneficiaries of the construction works lead in useless situations in which they depend on the discretionary will and sometimes also abusively of their neighbours.