Permit or simple notification

Three categories

Work that needs neither permit nor notification

The smaller works listed in the legislation. Technical and building-law requirements can still apply — not having to ask for a permit does not mean anything may be built.

Simple notification

Within a defined range, typically the construction of a new dwelling of no more than 300 m² total useful floor area containing only residential and ancillary rooms, and in specified cases the extension of an existing dwelling, can be carried out under a simple notification.

There is no permit procedure here, but there is a notification, a mandatory design content and mandatory participants. Simple notification.

Building permit

In every other case. Here an authority procedure runs, ending in a decision. The permit procedure.

Why this has to be settled at the very start

Because everything else follows from it:

• The extent of the design. The permit procedure needs different documentation from the notification.
• The timing. A permit procedure can be planned for but takes time; the notification route allows a faster start.
• The participants. A design checker is mandatory in certain cases and not in others.
• The financing. Lending decisions and grants are often tied to the legal classification.

If the classification only emerges during the design, it can affect the documentation retrospectively.

What affects the classification

• the use (residential or other),
• the size and the useful floor area,
• for an existing building, the nature of the intervention — extension, alteration, change of use,
• the situation of the plot: protection, heritage, other restrictions,
• the local building code.

Where most of the mistakes happen

Judging the use

A “holiday home” that is in fact a dwelling, or a dwelling that will also contain a business function — these can produce a different classification.

The extent of an extension

For an extension to an existing building the limits count differently from a new building.

Protected status

Heritage or nature protection can change the whole procedure.

This is not legal advice

The list of activities requiring a permit and the conditions for simple notification change. The official building portal gives up-to-date information; on a specific matter the position of the acting authority governs.