If you would like to clarify specific legal questions regarding the admissibility of your construction project before submitting the building application, you can file a preliminary building inquiry. In the preliminary building inquiry, you should formulate your question clearly and with sufficient specificity to allow for an unambiguous answer. Attach the documents required to assess the issues in question to the preliminary building inquiry. In a preliminary building decision, the competent lower-level building authority will provide you with binding information regarding these issues.

A preliminary building inquiry is useful, for example, if it is unclear whether a property is even buildable under current urban planning laws or whether deviations from specific building code requirements can be permitted. In addition, the building owner gains planning certainty at an early stage regarding a property’s suitability for development or the permissibility of deviations.

In principle, developers may submit a preliminary building inquiry. However, if the local building authority deems it necessary for a designer to prepare the building documents for the preliminary building inquiry, then such a person is required.

The preliminary building inquiry must include the construction documents required for its assessment. A preliminary building inquiry can help save money, as not all documents required for a building permit are necessary. The required documents and the specifications for the files are set forth in the Lower Saxony Building Documentation Ordinance (NBauVorlVO).

All documents necessary for evaluating the question posed must be submitted. These typically include:

• A site plan or excerpt from the cadastral map,
• a description of the project, as well as
• the construction drawings necessary to evaluate the question raised