Construction notification This is a simplified administrative procedure that enables you to start certain construction work carried out without obtaining planning permission. Among others, it is used by people planning to build a detached house:
- whose area of influence lies entirely within the plot or plots covered by the development;
- no more than two storeys high, with a building footprint of up to 70 m2, the area of influence of which lies entirely within the plot or plots on which they were designed, and where construction is being carried out to meet the developer’s own housing needs.
An application shall be submitted in paper form or online via the e-Budownictwo portal. In most cases, the authority responsible for accepting the notification is district administrator or mayor of a town with county status. In some cases, the competent authority is the provincial governor.
For a standard claim the authority has 21 days to lodge an objection. If no objections are raised within this period and the remaining formalities have been completed, construction can begin. However, this timeframe may be extended, for example if the documentation needs to be supplemented. It is therefore not advisable to book a building team or order materials on the assumption that everything will be ready in exactly three weeks.
The situation is slightly different with houses with a floor area of up to 70 m², built for their own residential purposes. For buildings that meet the statutory requirements, a special notification procedure has been established, under which you don’t have to wait 21 days to commence work.
Before submitting an application, you must check whether the chosen house can actually be built on the plot in question. The relevant provisions are the local spatial development plan or a planning permission decision, as well as the required distances from property boundaries. It may therefore turn out that a design which looks great in a catalogue needs to be amended.
It is worth bearing in mind that once a notification has been submitted, it may „lapse”. If construction work has not commenced within three years of the notification being submitted, a new construction notification must be submitted.
Sources:
The Construction Law Act (Journal of Laws 1994 No. 89, item 414, as amended, Journal of Laws 2026, item 524).
