Want to extend your home with a veranda, canopy or extra living space? In Flanders, this is subject to a strict legal framework to prevent spatial clutter and neighbourhood nuisance. You cannot simply add on to an existing house. Whether you need an environmental permit, a notification is sufficient or you benefit from an exemption depends on the specific nature, size and location of the works.
In this article, we discuss the exact conditions and risks when adding to an existing house.
Do I need to apply for planning permission for an extension?
The short answer: Yes, in principle, any extension of building volume requires planning permission, unless your project explicitly meets the strict conditions for exemption or notification requirement.
Flemish regulations distinguish between three scenarios:
- Exemption: No permit is required for small works (often up to 40m² of outbuildings, depending on the situation).
- Reporting requirement: For certain extensions, a notification to the municipality is sufficient, provided you meet specific conditions (such as maximum building height and distances from the plot boundary).
- Environment permit: Do you not meet the conditions for exemption or notification? Then a full permit application (possibly with architect) is required.
Expert insight: “Many owners mistake the term ‘exemption’. Exemption does not mean that there are no rules. If your property is in spatially sensitive area or violates subdivision regulations, in certain cases, the exemption immediately expires and you risk a building offence.”
Find more information on how to apply for an environmental permit here.
Crucial restrictions when adding to an existing house: When does the exemption NOT apply?
Even if your extension (such as a veranda) is small, the exemption or notification requirement may be dropped. This depends on four legal “checkpoints”:
- Spatially sensitive area: Is your plot located in forest or nature conservation areas? Then stricter rules apply and exemptions often do not apply.
- Subdivision regulations: Is your property part of a subdivision? The regulations of the subdivision permit priming always on the general regional rules. These may explicitly prohibit a veranda or canopy or impose specific material choices.
- Municipal Building Code: Municipalities have the autonomy to impose stricter rules than the Flemish Region.
- Example: The Antwerp Building Code contains specific provisions on the design of front, side and back gardens that may limit the general exemption.
- Zoned housing: For properties that are not in residential areas, specific possibilities and restrictions for conversions apply.
Can you expand your property just like that?
Legal Update: The Environment Collection Decree
The Collection Decree Environment makes significant changes to unify rules.
- No more local strictures for procedures: In future, municipalities can no longer determine that a Flemish exemption still requires a notification, or that a notification still requires a permit.
- Exception: Municipalities can only apply for a limitative list of acts impose an additional authorisation requirement.
Note: The Flemish Government has yet to finalise the implementing decrees of this amendment and set the date of entry into force. Until then, the current (local) system will remain in force.
How do you verify your rights correctly?
Do not blindly trust verbal advice at the municipal counter. In practice, this advice regularly turns out to be incomplete or legally incorrect, which does not absolve you from prosecution.
Therefore, let your specific situation review by a specialised environmental law lawyer:
- A lawyer can find gaps in the regulations that may still allow you to build, even after a negative advice from the municipality.
- An environmental law lawyer can check whether you are exempt from licensing.
Penalties and Risks: Building without a permit
Adding on to an existing house without the required licence or notification is a construction offence. Enforcement in Flanders is becoming stricter and is done through police, municipal officials or regional inspectors. A complaint from neighbours is often the trigger, but drone inspections and aerial photography are also used.
What can you do with a zoned property?
Financial and Criminal Consequences
- Fines: Administrative fines, depending on the nature of the offence, can be up to a maximum of € 400.000 or in extreme cases € 2.000.000. For private extensions (such as an unlicensed veranda), fines are often in the range of several thousand euros in real terms.
- Criminal prosecution: In serious cases, the public prosecutor may proceed with summonses to the correctional court.
Recovery measures and Impairment
In addition to a fine, you risk a restoration claim. This could mean:
- Breakdown: Obligation to completely remove the extension at own expense.
- Adjustment works: Rebuild the structure so that it does comply.
- Added value vs depreciation: An unlicensed extension does not create added value, but an depreciation. Prospective buyers will deduct regularisation or demolition costs from the bid price.
Expert Insight: In real estate transactions, a known construction offence in many cases results in the sale being called off or the price drastically renegotiated.
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
What is the difference between a notification requirement and an environmental permit for an extension? With notification requirements, you do not have to wait for an extensive approval procedure; you report the works to the municipality 20 days before starting. If the municipality does not respond, you may start. An environmental permit requires a complete file, a public enquiry (if necessary) and a decision period that can be 105 days or longer.
When can I start building after obtaining a permit? You may not start immediately after approval. The permit is only enforceable 35 days after the first day of posting (the yellow poster) on the plot. This deadline serves to give third parties (neighbours) the opportunity to appeal.
Does a construction offence for a veranda or canopy expire? The criminal prosecution usually lapse after 10 years. The statute of limitations for the restoration claim (the obligation to rectify or remedy the situation) does not necessarily run concurrently with this. In some cases, it can go up to 20 years. For example, in the case of a demolition claim brought by your neighbours. Construction offences in spatially sensitive areas (e.g. forest or nature areas) do not have a statute of limitations. Maintaining an illegal situation in these areas remains a problem in case of sale.
The construction violation is time-barred, does that solve the problem? No. There remains an unlicensed situation.The government can still enforce indirectly. When applying for a later permit, it can still demand that you rectify the situation before granting the permit. If you carry out work without a permit again, the limitation periods will start to run again and you will be sanctionable again.
About the author: Niels Vansimpsen is an environmental law lawyer at Confianz. He supervises permit applications throughout Flanders. He also assists clients throughout Flanders with objections or appeals against submitted permit applications. He also provides assistance with construction and environmental offences and advises clients on the feasibility of their real estate project.
