A building project in Brandenburg needs a building permit in most cases. The lower building authority is responsible, usually at the district or independent city. The application normally goes through the municipality, which forwards it to the building authority with its statement.
How complete this application is co-determines how quickly it gets processed. Märkische Projekt Bau handles the building application in full on request, from architectural to detailed planning. For the hall built for BERTH Werbung in Gallun, architecture, planning and the permit all came from a single source.
Construction may not begin without approval. Anyone who starts anyway risks a stop-work order and, in the worst case, demolition. That is why the application stands at the start of every project that is not expressly free of procedure.
Which documents the building authority needs
A building application consists of the application form and the building submission documents. Which documents are required in detail depends on the procedure and the project. Binding information comes from the responsible lower building authority and the municipality where the plot is located.
The official site plan usually comes first. It comes from the surveyor's office and forms the basis on which the architect and structural engineer draw further. Only once boundaries and levels are fixed can the setback areas and the exact position of the building be set reliably.
| Document | What it contains | Who prepares it |
|---|---|---|
| Official site plan | Plot, boundaries, planned buildings, distances | Publicly appointed surveyor |
| Construction drawings | Floor plans, sections and elevations to scale | Architect or design author |
| Building description | Use, construction type, materials, technical data | Design author |
| Structural stability proof | Structure, foundation, load assumptions (statics) | Structural engineer |
| Further certificates | Thermal protection under GEG, fire protection, drainage | Specialist planner |
Submission authorisation
For projects that require a permit, the submission documents must be signed by an authorised person, usually an architect or structural engineer. Whether and to what extent this applies to your project is best clarified with the building authority before planning.
The process from preliminary design to approval
Planning comes before the application. It grows from the rough preliminary design into reviewable documents and runs in clear steps.
- Preliminary design: massing, use and position on the plot, checked against the development plan.
- Design planning: scaled floor plans, sections, elevations and the building description.
- Compiling the submission documents including statics and the required certificates.
- Submission through the municipality to the lower building authority.
- Review by the authority, with additional requests and involvement of further bodies where needed.
- Building permit, usually with ancillary provisions and conditions.
The order is no formality. Statics and certificates build on the design planning, and the building description picks up details from the drawings. If the design changes late, those changes run through every document and cost time.
Exemption or simplified procedure
Alongside the full building permit procedure, the Brandenburg building code also knows leaner routes. Which one applies depends on the project and the location.
Under the permit exemption, the building authority does not carry out a formal review. For that, the project must lie within a qualified development plan and comply with its provisions. The municipality can still require a procedure to be carried out.
The exemption does not remove responsibility for content. The project must meet the requirements just the same, only the formal review by the authority is dropped. Anyone who misjudges it builds at their own risk.
In the simplified procedure, the authority reviews a limited scope. Whether your project is exempt, runs under the simplified or the full procedure is something you clarify with the lower building authority before planning. This classification also decides which documents you will ultimately need.
Assessing the processing time realistically
How long the building authority needs cannot be seriously quantified in weeks beforehand. The duration depends on the authority's workload, the completeness of the documents and the number of bodies to be involved.
Experience shows that one thing above all speeds up the process: a complete, reviewable application without additional requests. Every additional request halts the review at that point. Ask the responsible lower building authority what processing times you can currently expect there.
- Incomplete or contradictory submission documents.
- Missing involvement of neighbours or specialist authorities.
- Deviations from the development plan that require an exemption.
- Queries about statics, fire protection or drainage.
What clients should arrange in parallel
While the application is running, there are tasks that can start independently of the approval. Anyone who addresses them too late slows down the construction start later. Network operators and surveyor offices work with their own lead times that no one shortens at short notice.
- Site access: is the plot connected to road, sewer and supply networks, or does it still need to be developed.
- Utility connections: electricity, water, wastewater, gas or heat and telecommunications, each applied for with the network operator.
- Surveying: the official site plan for the application and later the measurement of the finished building by a publicly appointed surveyor.
- Shaft permits and special-use approvals when public areas are dug up for connections.
Surveying meets you twice: once for the site plan in the application, then for the official measurement of the finished building. Both appointments belong early in the planning, because they depend on external offices and are not available at short notice.
This coordination is part of the service offered by Märkische Projekt Bau. We align authorities and utility operators and support shaft permits, special-use approvals and utility connections, so the connections are ready when the shell construction needs them.
The first step
Whether you only need the building application or want to award the whole project turnkey, we clarify that in a free, no-obligation first meeting. How a turnkey project runs phase by phase after that is described in the article on the turnkey construction process.
Call +49 3375 95 09 70 or use the contact form. Bring the plot, your idea of use and any existing documents, and the path to approval can be mapped out concretely.
