The fact that a building regulation no longer applies does not mean that an administrative body can no longer enforce compliance with it🚧

Enforcement by administrative bodies often concerns compliance with permits or legislation and regulations. Normally, this only concerns applicable regulations and rules, but can this be enforcement based on the base of outdated permits or regulations?

This issue was raised in a case before the Limburg District Court. The plaintiff experienced noise pollution from the adjacent building. He therefore submitted an enforcement request to the municipality, because he believed that the regulations from a 1992 permit had not been complied with, which would cause the noise pollution.

The municipal executive rejected the enforcement request because the building regulations referred to in the permit no longer exist. According to the municipal executive, enforcement based on outdated regulations is not possible. The court disagreed and ruled that, in principle, it is possible to enforce a permit requirement from an old building permit, even if that permit requirement refers to requirements from a building regulation that is no longer in force. Instead of immediately rejecting the enforcement request, the council should have investigated what the requirements of the building regulation were and whether the current construction meets the old requirements. Because the council failed to do so, it could not conclude that there was no violation and therefore could not simply reject the enforcement request.

So please note: if laws and regulations no longer apply, this does not mean that enforcement of compliance with them is excluded.

You can read the ruling here.