On 29 July 2019, the Parliament passed a piece of legislation (Law no. 159/2019) which modified several articles of Law no. 350/2001 of territorial landscaping and urbanism.

A consistent part of the amendments brought by Law no. 159/2019 have no implication within the process of acquiring or developing real estate project. However, a single amendment of major importance was brought to Article 64 of Law no. 350/2001.

According to the amendment, all litigations concerning the issuance, revision, suspension or annulment of urbanism documentation are subject to a prescription term of 5 years from the approval date of such documentation.

In other words, if a term of 5 years lapses from the approval of an urbanistic documentation (PUG, PUZ and PUD), such documentation can no longer be challenged within a court of law. The aspect is of major importance and can constitute a mean of remedy when addressing due diligence findings.

Even if the law does not specify to which documentation it applies, a reasonable interpretation according to the legislative technique provisions is that it will only apply to documentations approved following its enactment (i.e. following 29 July 2019).