On 8 December 2025, Law no. 207/2025 for the amendment of Art. 22 of Law no. 10/1995 on quality in construction, as well as for the completion of Art. 26 of the Law on cadastre and real estate publicity no. 7/1996 (“Law no. 207/2025”) was published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I.
The new regulation strengthens the protection of buyers of future immovable properties of individual units within a condominium or individual dwelling type, with a significant emphasis on the transparency of procedures, through:
- holding developers accountable,
- strictly regulating pre-sale agreements,
- introducing the mechanism of cadastral pre-apartmentization,
- controlling the use of advance payments.
The amendments enter into force according to the following deadlines:
- in accordance with the general rule, 3 days after the date of publication in the Official Gazette of Romania (e., from 11 December 2025), for the provisions concerning the amendment of Art. 22 of Law no. 10/1995 on quality in construction (“Law no. 10/1995”);
- after 3 months from its publication (e., from 8 March 2026), for the provisions concerning the completion of Art. 26 of the Law on cadastre and real estate publicity no. 7/1996 (“Law no. 7/1996”).
GENERAL PRESENTATION
The law’s purpose is to create a secure chain of legal and administrative steps for real estate development activity, by establishing mandatory stages, new cadastral procedures and financial guarantees, as follows:
(i) A new legal regime for the transfer of ownership of future immovable properties and consolidated obligations for developers:
- The notion of “developer” is expressly introduced and a list of its main obligations concerning construction quality is established, including the handing over of the construction only after the reception upon completion of the construction works and after the commissioning of all utility connections;
- The developer may enter into preliminary contracts for a future immovable property of the individual unit within a condominium or individual dwelling type only after the building permit is noted in the Land Book, the cadastral operation of pre-apartmentization for the future condominium is carried out and individual Land Books are established for each future unit.
(ii) Mandatory authentic form and real estate publicity for preliminary contracts:
- The pre-sale/purchase agreements having as their object the individual units within the future condominium or future individual dwellings (the “Preliminary Contracts”) must be executed in authentic form before a notary public, after the fulfillment of the conditions mentioned at point (i);
- The notary is obliged to request the registration of a Preliminary Contract in the Land Book no later than the next business day following the day on which the Preliminary Contract was drawn up, ensuring publicity and legal security.
(iii) The regime of advance payments and financial protection of the buyer:
- Reservation agreements for purchase are limited to a maximum of 60 days and the sums paid by the buyer regarding the reservation may not exceed 5% of the price. Non-compliance with these limits entails the absolute nullity of the reservation agreement;
- The advance payments under the Preliminary Contract shall be deposited into a separate bank account of the developer, dedicated to the project. Their use is strictly limited: solely for that project, with the approval of the responsible person/site manager, within percentage limits (max. 25% of the price for the structural part, max. 20% of the price for the installations part);
- The abusive use of the sums is prohibited and is sanctioned with a fine amounting to 1% of the developer’s turnover, recorded in the previous year, if the act does not represent a criminal offense.
(iv) The new cadastral procedure of “pre-apartmentization”:
- The operation of “pre-apartmentization” is officially introduced, whereby the future condominium is divided into future individual units, based on the authentic deed of pre-apartmentization;
- Through this operation, the Land Book for the future condominium-type construction is established, as well as individual Land Books for all future individual unit properties provided for in the building permit and its related documentation;
- After the completion of the condominium-type construction, the operation of “apartmentization” is carried out, updating the already existing Land Books.
(v) Relevant transitional provisions:
- Until the entry into force of the provisions concerning the completion of Art. 26 of Law no. 7/1996, an interim regime shall apply;
- Under the application of this interim regime, the registration in the Land Book of a pre-sale/purchase agreement having as its object a future immovable property – an individual unit – does not prevent the developer from undertaking any administrative steps, legal or cadastral operations regarding the completion of the project, except for the situation where the total surface area or the placement of the unit which is the object of this agreement is modified, in which case the prior consent of the promisee-purchaser is required.
