ᐅ What can be built? Alternative to a building permit pre-approval?

Hello everyone,

how can I find out in advance what type of house I am allowed to build on a plot that is not covered by an approved zoning plan (building permit / planning permission)?

Plot size: 400m² (4,306 sq ft)

The immediate surroundings have the following development:
one- to two-story, detached buildings
Number of floors I-II
Site coverage ratio 0.2
Floor area ratio 0.3

Calling the responsible building authority was not very helpful because the woman was quite unfriendly and said I should submit a preliminary building application that I need to prepare together with an architect. She did not even want to provide the exact dimensions of the plot.

I do not want to spend a lot of money on an application when it is not yet clear if we will even get the plot.

Maybe you have some tips on how to handle this more easily?

Thank you very much.

musswah schrieb:
She didn’t even want to tell me the dimensions of the plot.

I can understand the lady. Does the seller have no other information about the size? Don’t you have a land register extract?

musswah schrieb:
which is located outside a legally binding development plan?

Is it within a continuously built-up area of a town or village? If so, according to §34 of the German Building Code (Baugesetzbuch), the building must be compatible with the surrounding area. What exactly this means cannot be clarified over the phone. However, many local authorities offer free, although non-binding, planning advice. There you could get a rough idea of what is feasible.

musswah schrieb:
She didn’t even want to give me the dimensions of the plot.

Is it too much to ask to measure it yourself using TIM-online? For a purchase decision, it doesn’t have to be accurate to the square meter.

Building authorities have consultation hours. I would suggest going there.
Who is selling the plot of land? The listing should already include some information.
How far away is the nearest house?

Note that for the building insertion requirement under Section 34, what matters is not the broader or more distant surroundings, but truly the immediate neighboring buildings on the same side of the street. For example, to your left there is a three-story building. Next to it is a gas station, then a detached house with an attached flat-roof extension housing a takeout place. On the other side is a two-story building with a gable roof, painted red, followed by an inn with three stories and a parking lot, and then a semi-detached house with white plaster and an anthracite roof. You can see that commercial use is permitted, three stories are allowed, and red and anthracite roof colors are accepted. That’s roughly how it works. There is currently a dispute over Section 34: In the center of a farming village, an investor is building a three-story house with 12 residential units. There are petitions and protests arguing it is not in harmony with the surroundings, but the building permit cannot be denied because immediately adjacent barns have a similar ridge height and mass, and because there are also three-story municipal buildings a few meters away. Therefore, this multi-family house must be tolerated. Karsten

This is the location.