Guide permits and notifications

To find out if you need a building permit for the measure you are planning, you should contact the local building committee in the municipality where the property is located or an official at the administration that supports the building committee. If they believe you may need a building permit, you can continue and submit an application. The committee shall give you guidance and advice to a reasonable extent.

You submit a permit application to the local building committee in the municipality where the measure is to be carried out. The application must be in writing and contain the information, drawings and other documents the municipality needs to be able to process the application and make a decision. In order for you to be able to get a decision quickly, it is important that the documents are correct and clear. Forms for how to apply for a building permit are available at your municipality.

In the application, you must most often submit proposals of who is to be the inspection manager. The inspection manager must contribute to compliance with the planning and building legislation and, among other things, help you prepare proposals on an inspection plan, ensure that this plan is followed and that necessary inspections are carried out.

As soon as possible after your application has been received by the building committee, they shall conduct an initial review of the matter. They will assess if the measure requires a building permit. In the initial review, it is also checked if the application is complete with all necessary documents. The quality and clarity of the drawings are also assessed.

If the application is incomplete, the building committee may order you as an applicant to complete the application with what is missing within a certain amount of time. An incomplete application may mean that it is completely missing a piece of information or a drawing required for the review. However, it may also be so that the drawings are not detailed enough or of good enough quality.

Once your application is deemed to be complete, the building committee shall send an acknowledgement of receipt to you as soon as possible. The acknowledgement of receipt shall for example contain information on expected time frame for processing, what will happen if this time is exceeded and the possibility of appealing the decision.

The review of a building permit application is different depending on whether the measure is located outside or inside an area covered by a detailed development plan. For example, the construction of a new building outside a detailed development plan requires that a so-called location review is done. This means that an assessment is done of whether the site is suitable to develop in the way the application concerns. If there are area regulations, the measure must also comply with them. A review may also need to be done of whether the location means that the site needs to undergo detailed development planning.

Within the detailed development plan, a corresponding location review has already been made for the area covered by the plan. In a review of a building permit within a detailed development plan, no new location review is therefore made. Instead the review considers whether the requirement of plan compliance is met, meaning if the starting situation and the measure agree with the detailed development plan. Besides this, it is also reviewed that the measure's placement and design on the plot meet certain requirements under the Planning and Building Act.

For building permits both within and outside the detailed development plan, the review also covers an assessment of whether the measure meets requirements including the following:

• suitable design and placement
• significant negative impact
• suitability for its purpose
• a good shape, colour and material impact
• accessibility and usability
• plot's arrangement
• caution
• prohibition against distortion.

The building committee shall announce a building permit decision no later than ten weeks after the application was complete. If the building committee needs more time to investigate the matter, it may take more time, but not more than 20 weeks in total.

The building committee must in some cases notify stakeholders, such as neighbours, affected by the application and give them an opportunity to submit their views.

If the measure meets all requirements, the building committee shall decide on issuing a building permit. If the requirements are not met, the building committee must instead reject your application.

Once you receive your building permit, the neighbours and other stakeholders must be notified . This can either take place through service or through a notification. The decision shall also be announced in Post- och Inrikes Tidningar (Swedish official gazette). If nobody appeals, the building permit decision gains legal force. This means that the decision can no longer be appealed. However, this applies on condition that the building committee has correctly dispatched and announced the decision.

If the building committee rejects your application for a building permit, it can be appealed. The appeal shall be sent to the local building committee, which decides if a reconsideration should be done and if the appeal has been received in due time. Then, the committee forwards the appeal and the documents in the matter to the county administrative board, which reviews the appeal. The county administrative board can then choose to change the building committee's decision or to reject your appeal.

Your building permit decision ceases to apply if you have not begun the construction works within 2 years, or if you have not concluded the construction works within 5 years, from the date that the building permit gained legal force.

You may not begin the construction works until you have received a starting clearance from the building committee. Hence, it is not enough to have an approved building permit to be able to begin the construction works.