Planning permission - applying for change of use of a building structure

• Building project subject to approval
• The project does not conflict with any public law regulations.

If you do not use the online service provided by the building authority for the application, you will need the form "Application for building permit" and the other building documents. The form is available in your municipality or can also be downloaded from the Internet.

The building authority will check within ten working days whether the building documents are complete and which other offices and departments need to be involved in the procedure. If the building documents are incomplete, the building authority will inform you which additions are required. As soon as the building application and the building documents are complete, you will be informed in writing or electronically of the expected date of the decision on your application.

At the instigation of the building authority, the municipality will notify the owners of the properties adjacent to the building plot (adjoining owners) within five working days of receiving the complete building documents. This gives them the opportunity to raise objections to the building project within four weeks. Owners of neighboring properties that are not directly adjacent to the building plot (other neighbors) can also be notified.

The building authority examines the building application. It hears the municipality, if it is not itself the building authority, and those bodies whose area of responsibility is affected. This is, for example, the monument protection authority if it is a cultural monument or the project has an impact on a neighboring registered cultural monument.

Once all comments have been received and the planning application has been examined, the decision is made: Planning permission is granted, granted only with certain conditions and requirements or the planning application is rejected.

You may only start work on the project once planning permission has been granted and the building permit, the so-called "red dot", has been issued.

Note: Firing systems may only be put into operation after certification of fire safety and the safe discharge of combustion gases by the district chimney sweep.

• as a rule:
  • Site plan
  • construction drawings
  • Building description (building description form)
  • Representation of the site drainage
  • Possibly structural engineering certificates (for structural engineering inspection)
  • possibly information on commercial installations (form)
  • Technical information on combustion systems (form)
• Survey form for the statistics on construction activity in building construction (building permit - construction backlog - completion of construction or demolition - demolition - change of use) in duplicate

As a rule, you must submit these documents in duplicate if they are not submitted electronically. If the municipality is not itself the building authority, you must submit the building documents in triplicate. If the involvement of other authorities or departments is required for the examination of the building application, the building authority may request the submission of additional copies.

You can help to speed up the procedure if you submit five or six copies of the building documents for complicated applications that have to be examined by several authorities.

The building permit expires if you do not start construction within three years of the permit being granted or if construction has been interrupted for one year after this period.

Please note that the application size in Service-BW is limited.

You can include attachments up to a total volume of 100 MB per application.
If you wish to submit additional documents, please use the "Submit documents for the construction project" function and also indicate this in the actual application in the "Your message" section.

For subsequent submissions for new applications, please enter the following in the "Authority file reference" field: "New application + DATE + street/house number".

If you have any difficulties, please contact the office of your responsible department.

 State Building Code (LBO) (opens in a new tab)

• § Section 43 LBO (draftsman)
• § Section 53 LBO (building documents and building application)
• § Section 55 LBO (neighbor participation)
• § Section 58 LBO (building permit)
• § Section 59 LBO (start of construction)
• § Section 67 LBO (building inspection, commissioning of the firing system)

 Procedural ordinance for the state building regulations (LBOVVO) (opens in a new tab)

• § Section 2 LBOVVO (building documents in the approval procedure)
• § Section 4 LBOVVO (content of the site plan)