Everything you need to know about the environmental permit

The environmental permit procedure… What do you need to know and how do you get through it as easily as possible? If you were renovating in 2010, you could easily spend weeks applying for various permits. In some cases, this even added up to more than 25 permits for a single renovation! Fortunately, things have become a lot easier since 2010, both for the municipality and for you, the permit applicant. All those separate permits are no longer needed. A single combined permit is now enough: the environmental permit.

This question is quick and easy to answer. Do the permit check on the Omgevingsloket. This handy tool asks you a few questions to find out whether you need an environmental permit. If you're not quite sure how to answer some of the questions, it may be a good idea to contact an expert.

Applying for an environmental permit requires quite a bit of information. For instance, you'll need to have a building drawing and structural calculation made, and you'll need to specify the work to be carried out. The structural calculation can be done by a contractor, a construction company or a specialist firm. All in all, the application can take quite some time. So always start your permit application in good time if you're planning to renovate soon. This stops you losing time waiting for your application to be approved, and so avoids delays to your build or renovation.

It's important to know in advance whether you need a permit. You can find this out by doing the permit check on the Omgevingsloket. After the check, you'll get one of these three outcomes:

• You have a notification obligation
• You need a permit
• You have no notification or permit obligation

If you have a notification obligation, you don't need to apply for a permit, but you do need to notify the municipality. If you get the last outcome, do check whether any specific regulations apply. You can request these regulations from the competent authority or through an expert.

During this step, the competent authority needs to be informed. You do this to find out whether you can actually get an environmental permit or water permit. The competent authority needs the following information for this:

• details of the authorised representative
• details of the applicant
• the specified works
• information about the location
• additional information that may be relevant

This information can be kept as a draft at first and will only be sent once the application is submitted.

You can also go through the environmental permit procedure in stages. You then do this in two phases. The big advantage is that you can still change your building or renovation plans if permission isn't given for certain points. We therefore recommend submitting any points you're unsure about in phase 1. However, phased submission isn't possible for a water permit or water notification.

During this phase, you request permission for part of the works and wait for approval in the form of a decision. In this phase you also submit the points you're unsure about, so they are reviewed first. Once you receive the decision, you can't start straight away, but move on to phase 2.

Once your first phase has been dealt with, you request permission for the remaining part of the works. If this application is also approved, you'll receive another decision, which together with the first decision forms the environmental permit.

Once the application has been submitted, nothing can be changed. You can still add extra attachments, though. You'll see that your application now has the status ‘in progress’ and the competent authority will assess it. If you've applied for both an environmental permit and a water permit, they will be assessed separately. The competent authority will ask for more information if it needs it, so there's no need for you to worry about this.

How long the application takes depends on the application itself. The competent authority needs more time for some applications than for others. We can give you a rough idea, though:

• A simple application won't take longer than eight weeks, possibly with a six-week extension.
• A more complex application, for example one with a high risk, can take up to six months. Within the first eight weeks, this period can even be extended by another six weeks.

Of course, the application can take longer if it's found to be incomplete. The competent authority will then ask for additional information, and the deadline for the decision is suspended at the same time. So an incomplete application can cause delays.

It can of course happen that you don't agree with the decision. If so, you have six weeks to lodge an objection or appeal. This is only possible if the application followed the regular procedure.

Of course you can, because applying for an environmental permit isn't difficult. Especially for standard cases, you can submit the permit application yourself. However, exceptional cases and more complex renovations can make the application a bit trickier, which can turn it into quite a job. In that case, we recommend consulting an expert or outsourcing the application to a company that can submit it for you. You'll then have a better chance of your permit application being accepted.