Legislative Amendments Aiming to Simplify Romanian Fire Safety Procedures

The Government Emergency Ordinance no. 80 amending and supplementing regulations in the field of emergency management and fire protection (GEO 80/2021) was published in the Official Gazette no. 647 on 30 June 2021.

It is widely known that the importance of ensuring fire safety is enshrined at European level, being a fundamental requirement of constructions. In this context, the issuance of fire safety permits and authorizations, certifying compliance with the fundamental requirement – fire safety – is an important act of exercising state authority in the field of emergency prevention. Thus, the immediate need to simplify the procedures related to this act of authority, as well as the need to change some aspects of the organization of fire protection have been demanded by the civil society.

While the amendments provided by GEO 80/2021 cover several fire related regulations, a significant impact is brought to Law 307/2006 on fire safety (Law 307/2006), evidenced by the points below.

Please note that, for the purpose of clarity, we have referred below to ”autorizație de securitate la incendiu” with fire permit and to ”aviz de securitate la incendiu” with fire endorsement.

• Fire permit definition

In correlation with construction regulations, the fire permit (definition has been amended to clarify that it does not grant beneficiaries the right to build, but only the right to use and operate buildings, certifying the fulfilment of the fire safety fundamental requirement.

• Issuance and beneficiary

GEO 80/2021 brings clarifications regarding the issuance of the fire endorsement (and the fire permit. Thus, the fire endorsement shall be obtained for the commencement of the execution works for new constructions and facilities or for construction changes and / or change of the destination, while for their use and operation, the fire permit is required.

The obligation to request and obtain the fire endorsement belongs to the natural or legal person who finances and makes new investments or construction changes works and / or change the destination of the constructions, and the obligation to apply for the fire permit rests with the beneficiary of the investment.

• Validity of fire permit

With the entry into force of GEO 80/2021, the validity of the fire permit is maintained in case of change of destination of a construction or of the premises within a construction with mixed function, for which, according to the law, no building permit is issued, if the new destination complies with all the provisions of the regulations on fire safety.

Until the publication of GEO 80/2021, Law 307/2006 provided that fire safety endorsements and permits are issued for existing constructions, when construction changes and / or change of destination works are performed. However, as also stated in the explanatory memorandum of GEO 80/2021, some construction changes works performed do not influence the fire safety requirement of buildings (e.g., consolidation works, interventions on the roof of the building consisting of replacement works for the roof and its support, as well as those for extensions or changes of use of rooms belonging to existing buildings etc.) and, therefore, a simplification amendment was brought into force.

Upon reception at the completion of construction works related to certain categories of construction (such as, civil buildings with crowded rooms, high and very high, production and / or storage buildings with developed areas of more than 5,000 sqm and with high or very high risk of fire, shopping centres with an area of over 2,500 square meters, car parks with more than 100 parking spaces for cars, tourist buildings with a capacity of more than 10 rooms or 50 beds, hospitals, children's homes with an area of more than or equal with 175 sqm and nursing homes or other buildings intended for people who cannot evacuate themselves alone with more than 50 seats), investors are required to request in writing and include in the reception committee, as a member, a person designated by prevention inspections within the inspectorates.

Another important aspect of the new legislative amendments concerns the deadline for obtaining a fire permit for some investment objectives where measures or works are needed to obtain this administrative deed. So that, according to the new regulations, for constructions and the facilities for which it is proven the allocation of the necessary funds or the conclusion of agreements for the design and execution of works in order to comply with the fire safety requirement, the deadline for the obligation to obtain a fire permit is December 31, 2022. Until the fire permit is obtained, the sole responsibility for the operation of the buildings and facilities from the point of view of ensuring the fire safety requirement lies with the beneficiaries of the investments. However, the deadline provided herein does not apply to the situations where there is a serious violation of the fire safety requirement that requires the cessation of operation or use of buildings or facilities, cases that constitute contraventions under Law 307/2006.

• Preliminary fire safety scenario

GEO 80/2021 brings a new concept to Law 307/2006, namely the preliminary fire safety scenario, which presents the essential technical elements necessary for the issuance of the fire endorsement and establishes the main design coordinates and which, for the issuance of the fire permit, is developed in the fire safety scenario.

• The need of fire endorsement

The commencement of the execution works for new constructions and facilities or for the modification and / or change of the destination of the existing ones is made only after obtaining the fire endorsement. The obligation to request and obtain the fire endorsement belongs to the natural person or legal entity that finances and realizes new investments or works of modification and / or change of the destination of the constructions.

The issuance of the fire endorsement is required for: (i) the investment objectives that fall under the provisions of Government Decision no. 907/2016 on the stages of elaboration and the framework content of the technical and economic documentation related to the objectives / investment projects financed from public funds, in order to approve the technical-economic indicators, in the feasibility study stage or documentation for approving the intervention works; or (ii) other investment objectives, in order to obtain the building permit.

For standard projects of constructions with a high degree of repeatability, the General Inspectorate certifies the fulfilment of the fire safety requirement by issuing an approval.

The fire endorsement is also issued for: (i) changes in non-structural, removable partitioning, made of lightweight materials; (ii) change of destination, only in the situation where for its realization no construction / demolition works are necessary for which the law provides for the issuance of the building / demolition permit within the provisions of the approved urban planning documents; (iii) intervention works in order to implement the necessary measures according to the legislation in force on fire prevention and extinguishing, respectively the execution of specific installations for fire prevention and extinguishing, in order to obtain the fire permit; and (iv) temporary non-structural partitioning works, as well as when changing the destination of the constructions, when these works can be executed, according to the law, without a building permit.

• Private emergency services

As a brief reminder, in 2019, the legislation on performance criteria regarding the set-up, employment and equipment of voluntary and private emergency services was amended with the declared objective of increasing the efficiency of emergency services. The following main changes were introduced: (i) the renewal of the permit of existing private services within 6 months as of 28 June 2019; (ii) classification of private emergency services according to their set-up and their composition; (iii) new criteria provided for determining whether economic operators are required to set-up private services; and (iv) dissolution of the private services.

GEO 80/2021 introduces an exception to the obligation of economic operators and institutions to set up private emergency services. Therefore, the obligation can also be fulfilled by concluding a contract with a private emergency service, able to intervene operatively and effectively to extinguish fires.

• Sanctions

Through GEO 80/2021, failure to request or obtain the endorsements and/or permits provided by the law by individuals or legal entities that finance and make new investments or interventions on existing constructions or, as the case may be, by the beneficiary of the investment, is no longer included as an administrative offence (and, therefore, is no longer sanctionable with a fine) due to redundancy and partial overlap with a different administrative offence, namely starting to use and continuing to use new buildings and fit-out without a fire permit in place (if such is required by the law).

Thus, while GEO 80/2021 brings new clarifications to the fire safety legislation and represents a first step towards the debureaucratization of the administrative procedures related to fire safety, which have been formalised and hampered by the existing regulations, it remains to be seen whether the market identifies significant (time, costs or otherwise) improvements.