On 25 August 2026, Law no. 169/2026 — the Territorial Planning, Urbanism and Construction Code — enters into force, published in Official Gazette no. 661 of 10 August 2026. Article 576(3) fully repeals Law 50/1991, the act on which every building permit for an illuminated sign has rested for the last thirty-five years.
A new 584-article law easily creates the impression that the entire procedure changes. We laid the texts side by side. Most of the mechanisms presented as novelties already existed. A few changes, however, matter for whoever permits and installs signage — and one of them already has its clock running.
The three real changes: legalization now has a deadline (Art. 301(7) gives a one-year window to request a regularization permit for signage installed without papers; after it, the Code offers no route), the general fine for unpermitted works rises sharply (from 1,000–100,000 lei under the old law to 50,000–1,000,000 lei under Art. 357(4) — though Law 185/2013 remains a special regime with its own 1,000–10,000 lei penalty for certain advertising structures, so the applicable norm depends on the element and the work), and the express three-year limitation period disappears. Signs remain works that require a building permit; the anchoring inspection under Law 185/2013 (every 2 years) still applies.
The full analysis — what changed, what only seems to have changed, the totem consequence classes, liability, and the two easily-missed obligations under Law 185/2013 — is available in Romanian. Switch to RO above to read it in full, or contact us for the details in English.
Our recommendation is a technical-documentary inventory of your signage, location by location: what exists, what documents it has, and when they expire. We can do this for a single location or the whole network.