Are small tiny houses up to 75 cubic metres really exempt from planning permission?
Are small tiny houses up to 75 cubic metres really exempt from planning permission? What applies in which federal state? And where is planning permission required?
Anyone who regularly talks to people interested in tiny houses often hears statements like this: ‘I own an orchard, so I can put up a tiny house of up to 75 cubic metres without a building permit.’ Or: ‘Here in Bavaria, you can put a garden shed of up to 75 cubic metres in your garden at any time and even live in it.’
How big is 75 cubic metres?
First of all, a tiny house with a maximum volume of 75 cubic metres is not such a small building. A small building with internal dimensions of 3 metres × 10 metres and a ceiling height of 2.50 metres, for example, has an internal volume of 75 cubic metres. With a slim wall construction of 20 centimetres, this would result in external dimensions of 3.40 metres × 10.40 metres × 2.90 metres (width × height × length).
Or vice versa: if we take a typical tiny house with a total width of 2.55 metres, a height of 4.00 metres and a length of 6.50 metres, with a wall thickness of 20 cm, it has internal dimensions of 2.15 metres × 3.60 metres × 6.10 metres and thus a volume of a good 47 cubic metres.
This makes it clear that many small buildings remain within the 75 cubic metre limit, and any exemption from planning permission is of great interest to the builders of these mini houses.
What does the 75 cubic metre rule mean – and where does it apply?
In several federal states – such as Bavaria, Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Saarland – there is a regulation according to which buildings with a gross volume of up to 75 cubic metres may be erected without a building permit, provided they meet certain requirements.
An example can be found in the Bavarian Building Code (BayBO), where Article 57(1)(a) states the following about building projects that do not require planning permission: ‘The following are exempt from planning permission [...] buildings with a gross volume of up to 75 cubic metres, except in outdoor areas.’ However, this regulation does not apply to habitable buildings, but exclusively to so-called subordinate ancillary facilities such as tool sheds, garden sheds or small storage buildings.
Although this is not stated in the text of the law itself, which is why it is misinterpreted by many, it is clear from decades of interpretation of the law by the administration and the courts. In Bavaria, at least, it is permitted to stay in such ‘ancillary buildings’. Kitchens and bathrooms are also generally not a problem – but living in them is also prohibited in the Free State.
In federal states other than those mentioned above, lower cubic volume limits usually apply. In Rhineland-Palatinate, up to 50 cubic metres are permitted, in Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony the limit is 40 cubic metres, and in other states it is as low as 30 cubic metres – which makes for very tiny spaces.
Some federal states use floor space instead of cubic volume and allow 10 cubic metres. With a room height of 2.5 metres, this results in a maximum interior volume of 25 cubic metres.
Would you like to read the whole article? You can do so in Kleiner Wohnen magazine. There you can find out what the key restrictions are, what the difference is between ‘procedure-free’ and ‘law-free’ and which regulations apply in which federal state.
The text was written by Johannes Laible. Laible is the editor of several magazines. In addition to ‘Kleiner Wohnen’, ‘Laible Verlagsprojekte’ also publishes ‘Klimafreundlniche Bauen & Passivhaus’ (Climate-friendly Building & Passive Houses), ‘Denkmalsanierung und Energetische Sanierung’ (Monument Renovation and Energy-efficient Renovation) and ‘Barrierefreies Bauen’ (Barrier-free Building) and other magazines. Click HERE for an overview.
