Portugal's RJUE in 2026: what it is and what changed under Decree-Law 108/2026

The RJUE was approved by Decree-Law 555/99 of December 16, 1999, and governs municipal control of land development: subdivisions (loteamentos), infrastructure works, earthworks, building work (new construction, rebuilding, extension, alteration, maintenance and demolition) and the use of buildings and units (Article 2). It sets which procedure each operation needs, what you file, how long the council has to decide, which title results and which penalties apply.

The RJUE does not tell you how much you can build on a plot. That comes from the PDM (Plano Diretor Municipal, the municipal master plan), the other plans and the public-interest restrictions, such as the RAN (Reserva Agrícola Nacional, protected farmland) and the REN (Reserva Ecológica Nacional, protected ecological land), which apply even to exempt work (Article 6(8)). Municipalities adopt their own building and fee bylaws, but they cannot create extra procedural steps or ask for documents beyond those in the law and the ministerial order (portaria) (Article 3(3)). To find out what your plot allows, see what the PDM is and how to check it and can I build on my land.

The text in force is the one resulting from Decree-Law 108/2026 of May 29, which revised the RJUE and republished it in full. It was due to take effect on the first business day of the third month after publication, but Decree-Law 155-B/2026 of July 31 set October 1, 2026 instead, to give municipalities time to adapt their online systems. The consolidated version is on the Diário da República (Portugal's official gazette) website, and the republished text is in the annex to the decree-law itself; both links are in the sources.

Article 4 now provides three forms of control: the building permit, the comunicação prévia and the comunicação prévia com prazo, which is now named expressly. There are also exempt operations (Articles 6, 6-A and 7) and the PIP (pedido de informação prévia, a binding prior information request), which does not authorize work on its own, except a full PIP that exempts it. You do not get to choose: if a project falls under comunicação prévia, you cannot opt for a permit (Article 4(6)).

The table shows when each route applies. The limits for exempt and minor works are in the guide on work that needs no permit, and the choice between a PIP and a permit in PIP, permit or comunicação prévia.

Several definitions in Article 2 were rewritten, and they decide which procedure applies. Rebuilding (reconstrução) is work that, after total or partial demolition, restores the building to its last valid precedent, recreating the façades (dimensions, the relationship between openings, projecting and recessed parts) and the roof, with only the corrections strictly needed for safety and health (item c)). An extension (ampliação) is any work that increases the footprint, the total floor area, the façade height, or the height or volume of the building (item e)).

The preamble to the decree-law spells out the consequence: rebuilding that adds floor area or volume is an extension and follows whatever procedure applies to it. Rebuilding in the strict sense is still exempt from a permit and from comunicação prévia (Article 6(1)(e)), but it must comply with the PDM and other constraints. The last valid precedent (último antecedente válido) is the last valid and effective planning operation, or one that needed no title when it was done (item r)), which covers houses built before the RGEU (the 1951 general building regulation) applied in the area, as explained in the guide on legalizing an old house and annexes.

Building work (edificação) now also covers any construction permanently fixed to the land, whatever the building system (item a)), and the separate article on modular construction was repealed. A permanent modular house therefore follows the general building rules.

The revision dropped the Simplex reform's overall deadlines, which depended on gross floor area, and went back to stage-by-stage deadlines, each with tacit approval (deferimento tácito). Permit and PIP applications first go through a completeness check (saneamento): within 20 days, the mayor can ask you to fix the application, reject it, close it if the operation falls under a different procedure, or give notice that the decision deadline is extended; if nothing happens, the application counts as complete and the decision deadline can no longer be extended (Article 11). A comunicação prévia has no completeness check.

Opinions from outside agencies that depend on the location are requested by the council, through the CCDR (Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional, the regional government body), as soon as the application is complete; the others, tied to the activity or the building, must be requested beforehand by the applicant and attached to the application (Articles 13-A and 13-B). After the hearing stage, you can file design changes only once, to fix the nonconformities found (Article 24-A). In practice, these deadlines run in business days, as the PIP deadlines guide explains.

The PIP keeps its two forms. A simple PIP (Article 14(1)) answers on feasibility and constraints and binds the council when it decides the permit or reviews the prior notice that follows. A full PIP (Article 14(2)) also assesses massing and footprint, the architectural design, the use program, utilities, charges and land cessions, which now expressly include land for public, price-controlled or affordable rental housing (item f)).

The exemption is now narrower and clearer. Only a full PIP that assesses every applicable item from a) to f) exempts the operation from a permit and from comunicação prévia, as long as the work is done exactly as assessed, with no new agency consultations (Articles 6(1)(h) and 17(2)). Being inside a detailed plan or subdivision is no longer enough, and the exemption never covers building use or a change of use. Before exempt work starts, you must pay the fees, complete any land cessions and file the engineering designs and the professionals' statements of responsibility with the start-of-work notice (Article 80-A(4)).

The council decides a simple PIP in 15 days and a full PIP in 30 (45 for subdivisions), counted from the end of the completeness check or from the last agency opinion, failing which the request is tacitly approved (Article 16). A favorable answer is valid for 2 years from notification or tacit approval, plus 1 year if the council confirms that the underlying facts and rules still hold (Article 17(5) to (7)). The preamble stresses that a PIP is an information procedure and rules out design changes after the hearing stage; in return, an unfavorable answer must say how the project could be revised (Article 16(5)). The effects are explained in what a PIP is and PIP validity.

A comunicação prévia is no longer reviewed at all before work starts. It is a declaration that, if filed correctly with every required document, allows the work to go ahead once you have paid the fees and told the council at least 5 days before work begins, with no approval of any kind (Articles 34(2) and 80-A). Fees can be self-assessed, with a payment deadline of at least 60 days from filing (Article 34(3)). Agency opinions required because of the location are filed with the notice or, if the agency did not answer in time, proof of the request and a statement to that effect (Article 13-A(15)).

In return, the scope is stricter. A project only follows comunicação prévia if it lies in a detailed plan, execution unit or subdivision that sets building lines, footprint, height, number of floors and housing units, floor area and uses (Article 4(4)(d)), or in a consolidated urban area where it complies with the plans, does not exceed the most common façade height on the street and involves no land cessions (item e)).

The council checks afterward. It can ask once for a missing document, to be filed within 10 days; if the work breaks the rules or lacks a mandatory agency opinion, it declares the notice void (inepta), stops the work and orders the situation put right (Article 35(8) and (9)). That review lapses one year after the fees are paid, or when the building starts being used if that is later, but inspections can happen at any time (Article 35(10) and (11)). The higher fines that the previous rules set for violations in operations under comunicação prévia were abolished (repeal of Article 98(8)).

The council no longer issues use permits (licença or autorização de utilização, often called a habitation license in English), and legal references to them now read as references to comunicação prévia or comunicação prévia com prazo (Decree-Law 108/2026, Article 9(2)). After work under a permit, a prior notice or a full PIP that exempted it, use is covered by a comunicação prévia, with a statement of responsibility from the site manager or the supervising engineer, and the building can be used as soon as it is filed (Article 62-A). Without work, or with exempt work only, a comunicação prévia com prazo applies: the building can be used 10 days later, unless the council rejects the notice or orders an inspection (Articles 62-B to 65). Licenses issued earlier remain valid; the step-by-step is in the habitation license guide.

The planning title itself also looks different. The old paper permits (alvarás) disappeared in 2024, and legal references to them now read as references to the operation's title (Article 9(3)). A permit is evidenced by the last application form, which contains a summary of the operation, proof of fee payment and the notice of approval or, if approval was tacit, proof of filing; a comunicação prévia and a comunicação prévia com prazo, by the completed form, proof of filing and proof of fee payment (Article 4-A(2) and (4)). The forms and required documents are set by Portaria 320/2026/1. Once a permit or notice takes effect, the site notice must be updated with the construction period within 10 days of paying the fees (Article 4-A(7)).

When building land, buildings or units are sold, the deed or other document formalizing the sale must state that the planning title was shown, or that the seller declares having it, or that the seller declares not having it; without that statement, the sale can be annulled (Article 4-A(14)). The use title passes automatically with the property (Article 4-A(13)), and advertising for the sale of lots, and of buildings or units built on them, must give the number, date and validity of the subdivision title (Article 52).

Design changes made during construction must be notified before the use notice is filed (Article 83(1)); those that only come to light once the work is finished are handled as a legalization, which each municipality must regulate (preamble and Articles 3(2)(m) and 102-A(7)). Legalization still requires that the work can meet the current rules, with a waiver for technical building rules that have become impossible to meet if the work met the rules of its day (Article 102-A(5)). The procedure is in how building legalization works.

There is once again a specific fine (coima) for carrying out operations that need a permit, comunicação prévia or full PIP without a title (Article 98(1)(r)), which the Simplex reform had dropped for work requiring a permit. Attempts and negligence are punishable, and the council can also halt the work, order corrections or demolition, and order the use to stop (Articles 102, 102-B and 109). On the authorities' side, a permit or PIP can only be declared null within three years of being issued, except for national monuments and their protection zones, and the period is longer if the facts amount to a crime (Article 69(4) and (5)).

Article 12 of Decree-Law 108/2026 handles the transition. The new rules apply to procedures started on or after October 1, 2026, and to earlier ones that were still at the completeness-check stage on that date; in those, the applicant may take whatever steps are needed to adapt the application. By exclusion, applications that had already passed that stage follow the previous rules. The new deadlines for lapse and for declaring nullity also apply to existing permits, PIPs and notices, counted from October 1, 2026, unless the old law gives an earlier end date (Article 12(3) and (4)).

What the Simplex reform changed in 2024, and what this revision kept or reversed, is covered in the guide on the Simplex Urbanístico. If you have an application with the council and are not sure which rules apply, or want to confirm the procedure before commissioning a design, our PIP service starts with that review. In practice, the most common cases work out like this:

• Permit or PIP application filed on or after October 1, 2026: new rules and new deadlines.
• Application filed earlier and still in the completeness check on October 1: new rules, with the option to adapt the application.
• Application filed earlier and already past the completeness check: the previous rules apply; confirm the decision deadline with the council.
• Favorable PIP issued earlier: as a rule, valid for 2 years from the decision, as explained in the PIP validity guide.
• Sale on or after October 1, 2026: the deed must state the planning title position, even if the property or the work is old.

The official sources are in Portuguese. Check the version in force before preparing a notice, project or application.

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