What if the municipality does not answer my building permit application?

Also asked as: “What can I do if the municipality does not answer my building permit application in Lebanon?” · “Implicit building permit Lebanon” · “How long does the municipality have to decide on a building permit?” · “Building permit deadline Law 646”

The deadlines the administration has to meet#

A building permit is issued only after technical approval and after all fees are paid^[1]. The technical administration has two months to decide if your plot is on an executed road. It has six months otherwise, for example when the plot is affected by a planning project or needs the opinion of the Higher Council of Urban Planning. Any other department asked for an opinion has 15 days, and its approval counts as given if it stays silent.

The permit is issued by the head of the municipality, or the governor or caimacam outside municipal areas^[1]. Your application and plans must be signed by a responsible engineer and registered with the Order of Engineers in Beirut or Tripoli. Who carries the file to the municipality and follows it up after that varies in practice, so ask your engineer whether they will do it. More on that role in what the Order of Engineers does in a building permit, and on the whole sequence in the steps to get a building permit.

The sources we read do not say from which exact date the two or six months are counted. They also do not say who confirms that a road counts as "executed". Ask your engineer and the technical office, in writing, which deadline applies to your plot and from which date. Keep a dated receipt showing when your file was registered.

Declaring yourself implicitly licensed#

Once the deadline passes without a decision, you have six months to act. You may apply to the competent authority, directly or through a notary (kateb adel). You declare that you consider yourself implicitly licensed, attach the fees due, and undertake to follow the permit file and the law^[1].

The fees depend on the land value estimate. The authority must give you a certified copy of the approved estimate of your plot's value within one month of registering your application. If it refuses, you may pay the fees you believe are due, at your own responsibility, and the account is settled before the occupancy permit^[1]. We found no published fee schedule. See how much a building permit costs for what is known.

The law text leaves several questions open, and no source we found answers them:

• what the authority does after receiving the declaration;
• how notaries handle it in practice;
• what happens if you miss the six-month window;
• whether a buyer, a bank or the Land Registry will later accept a building put up on an implicit licence.

Even an ordinary permit can be corrected if errors are found later. In that case only the part already built counts as an acquired right, and the rest must follow the law^[2]. We found no source on how this applies to an implicit licence.

The rules for work without a permit show what is at risk. Work started without a permit, or against it, is stopped and a violation report is drawn up. If the work conforms, the permit is granted with a fine of twice all the fees due^[1] on the part already built. If it does not conform, the owner must demolish it, or the administration does so at the owner's cost. A violation can also be recorded on the property's real folio at the request of the municipality or the technical administration. A property lawyer can tell you whether your declaration is solid before you pour any concrete.

After you build: the occupancy permit has its own silence rule#

When the building is finished, you apply for the occupancy permit. It must be granted or refused within one month^[1] of the application. If no decision comes, you may consider yourself licensed to occupy, at your own responsibility, and must inform the administration in writing. This holds only if the building conforms and you pay the fees for any extra area within 2 months.

This matters if you plan to sell flats. Without an occupancy permit and certificates of connection to electricity and water, the building cannot be divided into units with their own folios. Units subdivided under Law 539/1996 Art. 26 are an exception^[1]. Law 646/2004 Art. 7 also accepts, in place of the permit, a statement that the occupancy request was not decided in time together with an engineer's conformity certificate. Ask a lawyer how the Land Registry applies this. More in how the occupancy permit is obtained.

If you live abroad#

You do not have to be in Lebanon, but someone has to act for you, usually your engineer and a person you trust. They may need a power of attorney. You sign it in person at a Lebanese embassy or consulate, or before a local notary, then have it authenticated by the local authorities and legalised by the Lebanese embassy or consulate^[3,4,5,6]. Ask the notary in Lebanon whether your POA covers permit filings. See how to give a power of attorney from abroad.

Ask the person acting for you to send scans of every receipt, letter and declaration with its date. Then you can check the file yourself.