Deferimento tácito: when the câmara municipal's silence counts as approval, how to prove it and what it does not fix

The Código do Procedimento Administrativo (CPA), Portugal's administrative procedure code, says tacit approval exists when a law or regulation provides that failure to give notice of the final decision within the legal deadline counts as approval (article 130(1)). Approval arises if the notice is not sent by the first working day after the deadline ends (article 130(2)), and unpaid fees do not prevent it (article 130(6)). It is not a general rule: without a provision granting it, silence is merely a breach of the duty to decide (CPA article 129).

In planning, that provision exists. Since March 4, 2024, and as revised by Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026, article 111 of the RJUE (Legal Regime for Urbanization and Building) provides that, once the deadline for any act specifically regulated in the law has passed without the act being issued, the request is deemed tacitly approved, applying CPA article 130 and the certification regime in article 28-B of Decreto-Lei n.º 135/99. Tacit approval arises by operation of law: it does not depend on a request, a certificate or confirmation from the câmara.

The 2026 revision dropped the overall deadlines of the Simplex Urbanístico, which depended on floor area, and returned to stage-by-stage deadlines, including for tacit approval, so that simple projects are decided faster and only complex ones can have their deadline extended (preamble to Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026). The table lists the deadlines where silence has a positive effect.

The comunicação prévia (prior notice) is not in the table because there is no decision to wait for: when properly filed, it lets you carry out the work after paying the fees and giving notice that work is starting, with no permit issued (article 34(2)). The other changes are summarized in our RJUE 2026 guide.

The RJUE does not say whether its deadlines run in working days, but it applies the CPA on a supplementary basis (article 122). CPA article 87 excludes the day of the triggering event, pauses the count on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, and moves a deadline that falls on a day the office is closed to the next working day. Before concluding that tacit approval has arisen, check these points, which our PIP timeline guide applies to a sample calendar:

• Starting point. The decision on a PIP or a subdivision permit runs from the end of the preliminary review or the last outside opinion; the final decision on a building permit runs from filing of the engineering designs, or from approval of the architecture if the engineering designs came with the request (articles 16 and 23(2) and (3)).
• Request for corrections. An invitation to correct the request pauses the preliminary review until you file the documents or the 10 days granted run out (article 11(3)).
• Extension. It only counts in the cases provided, once, for the same period, and if notified before the preliminary review ends (articles 16(7), 20(9) and 23(8)).
• Delay caused by the applicant. The deadline pauses while the procedure is stalled for reasons attributable to you and is only interrupted by notice of an express decision (CPA article 130(3)).
• Public consultation. Where it takes place, it suspends the decision deadlines for the PIP and the permit (article 22(4) and (5)).

Tacit approval of a permit is, by law, the act that authorizes the work, and it includes a permit to occupy the public road if the applicant asked for one (article 26). The title is the last request filed, with the summary of the operation, proof of fee payment and proof of filing (article 4-A(2)(b)); for a PIP, the request with the summary, proof of payment of any fees, and proof of filing (article 16(8)(b)). Because the title is what you filled in, getting the request right is your responsibility (article 4-A(6)).

With tacit approval, the conditions for carrying out the work are those proposed by the applicant, as long as they are compatible with the municipal regulation, and the construction period is the one you set, within that regulation's maximums (articles 57(3) and 58(2)). Fees can be self-assessed under the municipal regulation (article 117(5)), and work only starts after paying them and filing the construction documents (article 80(1)). Watch the calendar: the permit lapses if the fees are not paid within one year of tacit approval (article 71(2)), and a tacitly approved PIP is valid for two years from that date (article 17(5)), as our PIP validity guide explains.

Tacit approval can be relied on before any authority, with or without a certificate (article 28-B(11) of Decreto-Lei n.º 135/99). Even so, banks, notaries and buyers ask for proof, and there are two ways to provide it. The first is the certidão de deferimento tácito (tacit approval certificate), requested online on the gov.pt portal: it is free, the issuing agency asks the câmara whether it gave notice of an express decision, the câmara has three working days to reply, and the certificate is issued within eight working days if the deadline has passed and no refusal was notified in time (article 28-B(3), (5), (6) and (10)). According to gov.pt, the certificate is valid for one year.

The second is the title itself, which you should keep complete. Gather:

• The request as filed, with the summary of the operation, and the dated proof of filing.
• Proof of fee payment or of the self-assessment.
• Any notices received during the preliminary review, such as requests for corrections or extensions, or proof that there were none.
• The outside opinions, or proof that the deadline to issue them ran out; on request, the câmara issues a certificate on the consultations within eight days (RJUE article 13(12)).
• Your day-by-day count of the deadline, with holidays taken into account, and a record of checking the file on the câmara's portal.

Tacit approval gives you a title, but it does not make lawful what the law does not allow. Permits and PIP decisions are void if they breach the PDM (Plano Diretor Municipal, the municipal master plan) or another municipal or intermunicipal plan, preventive measures, interim rules or a subdivision in force, or if they were not preceded by legally required consultations or do not follow opinions issued in time (article 68). Certification does not prevent the tacit act from being declared void, annulled or revoked under the law either (article 28-B(12) of Decreto-Lei n.º 135/99).

There is a time limit: the câmara can only declare nullity, and a lawsuit seeking it can only be filed, within three years of the act being issued, except for national monuments and their protection zones; if the facts amount to a crime, the limitation period for that crime applies (article 69(4) and (5)). Tacit approval also does not exempt the work from legal and regulatory standards, and it does not document the building's use, which requires a use notice once the work is done (article 62-A). Before buying or building on the strength of a tacit approval, get technical confirmation that the project complies with the PDM.

The câmara's silence should not stall your schedule, but act in this order:

• Rebuild the deadline from the dates on the proof of filing and on any notices; many apparent delays are deadlines still running.
• Check the file and your electronic notices: a decision only counts if its notice was sent by the first working day after the deadline.
• Request the tacit approval certificate on gov.pt and inform the câmara in writing that tacit approval has arisen.
• Pay the fees, by self-assessment if the municipal regulation allows it, within one year of tacit approval.
• Before starting, file the construction documents and give the câmara at least five days' notice that work is starting (article 80-A(1)).
• If the câmara later issues an unfavorable decision or refuses to recognize the tacit approval, get legal advice before responding: the remedies are those of the CPA and the administrative courts.

Until March 3, 2024, the câmara's silence on a permit approved nothing. Article 111(a) sent the applicant to the intimação judicial para a prática de ato legalmente devido (article 112), a court order compelling a decision: an urgent case before the administrative court, in which the judge set a deadline of at least 30 days for the câmara to decide and a daily penalty for non-compliance. Only if the câmara still failed to decide could the applicant start work under the former article 113. Tacit approval applied only to other acts (article 111(c)).

The Simplex Urbanístico (Decreto-Lei n.º 10/2024) repealed articles 112 and 113 effective March 4, 2024 and extended tacit approval across the board, and Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 kept it, tied to each stage's deadline. One specific court order remains: if the câmara fails to run the consultations with outside agencies, the applicant can ask for a certificate of that failure and then run them directly or ask the administrative court to order the câmara to do so (article 13(12)). If your file has stalled and you want to know whether tacit approval has arisen, our PIP service starts with that review, and our guide to the pedido de informação prévia explains what a PIP is for.

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

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