Tiny house without a permit? Is a declaration sufficient for the construction of a mobile home?

Are you planning to buy or build a tiny house and want to know what formalities are involved? Find out if a mobile home requires a declaration and when it will be subject to the construction law.

Mobile home and construction law

A tiny house is an undersized mobile home (usually 20 to 35-40 sq. m.) constructed on the basis of a car trailer, having two axles with wheels. And depending on what function it performs at the moment, it is subject to road or construction laws.

When a tiny house is being transported, moving on public roads, traffic laws apply. This means that the driver of a car pulling a trailer should have the appropriate category of driver’s license, as well as follow the general rules of the road.

On the other hand, a mobile home that does not perform a transportation function (and thus, at any given time, serves as a residence on the selected land) constitutes a building structure and is thus subject to the construction law.

However, we have good news – in the vast majority of cases you will not need to apply for a building permit. If the tiny house does not exceed 35 sq. m. of floor space, all you need to do is report it to the relevant authority, and you do not have to worry about additional time-consuming formalities.

And where and what kind of application to submit? It depends on what the purpose of the mobile home is to be, and here you have two options:

• • individual recreation building;
  • temporary building structure

Permit for mobile home – individual recreation building

Often the recommended solution is to apply to the office for a tiny house of no more than 35 sq. m. as an individual recreation building. After submitting the documents, you just have to wait 21 days – if you do not receive objections within this time, you can erect a mobile home.

Permit for tiny house – temporary building structure

Are you planning to travel? Then the mobile home can be treated as a temporary building. The rules for filing an application are similar to those when you apply to become an individual recreational building. However, there is one “but” that makes this method not suitable for everyone. In order to meet the temporary condition, the tiny house must be moved before 180 days have passed. At the same time:

• The 180 days are calculated from the day of declaration, after which you must wait the prescribed 21 days for objections anyway;
• Before the 180 days expire and the tiny house is transferred, it must be re-declared to the office.

And while the regulations do not specify what area the mobile home is to be moved to, as the courts have ruled so far, it cannot be within the same plot of land.

Where can a mobile home be placed?

A year-round mobile home can be placed on a construction or recreational plot. However, it cannot be located on a forest plot, as well as on protected areas, which include national parks and nature reserves.

In addition, you need to ensure that the plot has access to a public road, and that it is adequately paved to avoid the risk of the house sinking into the ground.