Removal of neighbour’s buildings

Freedom to build / Urban (legal) limits of the right to build / Limits imposed by neighbours’ rights / Violations of building limits / How we can help you

Freedom to build

The owner of a building (land and/or building) has the right to carry out building works on his building (e.g. dismantling part of the building, extending the footprint, raising the height, consolidation, etc.) in accordance with the law.

An owner’s right to build is not an absolute and unlimited right, in the sense that the owner cannot carry out any kind of building works under any conditions, but only in compliance with the legal provisions.

For more information on the rights of a landowner, please visit the section on Property rights.

The ( legal ) urban planning limits of the right to build

In order to ensure coherent urban development in accordance with the general interest in Romania, a series of legal and/or technical regulations have been enacted on how building works can be carried out.

Every piece of land in Romania is regulated from an urban planning point of view.

The rules of the legislation in the field of town planning establish for each land in Romania a number of aspects, such as:

• the category of land (e.g. intra-urban, extra-urban, agricultural land, forest land, courtyard land – buildings, etc.);
• the minimum area of land for it to be considered buildable;
• the access routes from the public road required for a plot to be considered buildable;
• the type of buildings that can be built on a given site (e.g. only housing, only government buildings, only business buildings, etc.);
• the type of buildings that cannot be built on the land (e.g. buildings where a polluting or noisy or dangerous activity is carried out);
• maximum building footprint (POT – Percentage of Land Occupancy);
• maximum limit of built space ( CUT – land use coefficient );
• the maximum height of buildings;
• building setbacks from property lines (street axis, rear boundary, side boundaries).

All the limits imposed on a plot of land by planning regulations are considered legal limits of ownership (more specifically, the right to build on a given property).

For more information on cancelling a building permit please see the section Cancellation of building permit.

Limits imposed by neighbours’ rights

Ownership of land belonging to a person extends, in certain ways, beyond the property boundary directly affecting neighbouring land.

For example, as a general rule, the owner of a plot of land has the right not to build a building on the neighbouring land at a distance of less than 60 cm from the boundary line, unless the town planning regulations stipulate another distance (e.g. 2 ml from the boundary line).

In conjunction with this right, the owner of the neighbouring property is obliged to respect this distance when deciding to build a construction.

Building violations

In certain situations it is possible that the owner of a plot of land may build a building on his own land and thereby infringe the rights of the owners of neighbouring buildings (e.g. failure to respect the minimum distance from the boundary line, building a building where a dangerous activity is carried out which could cause multiple damage to neighbours, affecting the level of light enjoyed by neighbouring buildings, etc.).

In other situations, it is possible for a neighbouring owner to build a building across the property boundary on neighbouring land.

For more information on regaining land illegally occupied by a neighbour, please visit the Claim Action section.

In all these cases, depending on the circumstances, the owner of the adjoining building can have the building that is causing the damage described above demolished.

How we can help you

Our lawyers can advise you and provide you with legal advice and representation, both before the planning authorities/institutions and before the courts in any proceedings and/or litigation concerning the demolition of buildings unlawfully erected by your neighbour, ensuring the restoration of your damaged rights, our services include:

• checking the urban planning parameters of your property;
• checking the urban parameters of the neighbour’s property;
• verification of all the documents on the basis of which the neighbouring construction was authorised;
• determine whether your rights have been affected, and if so to what extent;
• initiating, supporting and completing the necessary legal steps to restore legality.

Additional information on the demolition of the neighbour’s buildings