DL 108/2026: what changes in the deed

One date, not three

There is one date, and it’s 1 October 2026

Decreto-Lei n.º 108/2026 of 29 May enters into force on 1 October 2026. The obligation to declare the urbanistic title in the deed begins the same day.

Two other dates are circulating, and both are wrong. 3 August 2026 was the original date, postponed by Decreto-Lei n.º 155-B/2026 of 31 July. 1 September 2026 was never a date under this law. The previous regime applies until 30 September 2026.

What if my purchase is already under way?

Article 12.º answers this, and the answer isn’t what most people assume.

The new law applies to procedures started after 1 October and to those already begun but still in the saneamento e apreciação liminar phase. In those cases, the parties may take the steps needed to adapt the procedure to the new regime.

A CPCV already signed doesn’t prevent anything. What matters is the date of the deed: if it falls on or after 1 October, the urbanistic-title statement is mandatory.

What "voidable" actually means

Voidable is not void, and the difference matters

This is the part almost no article explains properly.

A void transaction never produced any effect. A voidable (anulável) transaction is valid and produces its effects normally, but can be challenged by an interested party within the legal period. The house is yours, the registration is yours, the mortgage stands — until somebody acts.

What actually triggers it

Omitting the statement from the deed. Not the property lacking a title.

Article 4.º-A no. 14 obliges the notary, conservador, lawyer or solicitor to record one of three statements in the document, on pain of the transaction being voidable:

1
That the urbanistic title exists and was presented.
2
That the seller declares they hold it but does not produce it.
3
That the seller declares they do not hold one.

All three are valid. Selling a property with no urbanistic title remains lawful, provided the deed says so. What the law does not permit is silence.

How long the risk lasts

Article 69.º no. 4 cut the period for declaring nullity from ten years to three years. The same period applies to the issuing body, to the administrative action and to the ação popular — it is one single period, not three different ones.

Two exceptions: where the facts constituting the nullity amount to a crime, the period extends to the applicable criminal prescription period; and national monuments and their protection zones fall outside the reduced period.

The detail almost nobody mentions

For legal situations already constituted, the three-year period runs from 1 October 2026 — not from the date the original act was issued.

Article 12.º nos. 3 and 4 say exactly this. In practice: a licensing act from 2015 does not have a closed window. It gets a fresh three years, to 30 September 2029, unless the previous law’s period would have expired sooner.

For older properties, the exposure window resets rather than closes. That is the opposite of what many summaries suggest.

Buildings from before 1951

Your property may be exempt — but that has to be certified

The Regulamento Geral das Edificações Urbanas came into force on 7 August 1951. Buildings completed before that date predate the use-licence regime, and the câmara issues a certidão de isenção rather than a licence.

The date is not the same everywhere

The RGEU initially applied only within the urban perimeter and the protected rural zones of the concelho seat. It reached the rest of a municipality only where the câmara resolved to extend it. So the relevant cut-off is the date the regime became applicable to that location.

Documented examples:

Coimbra: 7 August 1951 inside the urban perimeter, 12 May 1962 outside it.
Ovar: 7 August 1951 in the former freguesias of Ovar and São João, 1 May 1970 in the rest of the concelho.
Some câmaras use 13 August 1951, because the RGEU was approved on the 7th but entered into force days later.

Always confirm the applicable date with the relevant câmara municipal.

Three things that catch buyers out

1
The exemption is not automatic and is not presumed — it must be certified. The notary and the bank will want the certidão.
2
The exemption covers only the original construction. Later works subject to prior control — extensions, alterations, reconstructions — bring the building back under the regime. This is the most common failure: an owner assumes exemption, but undocumented 1970s works ended it.
3
A certidão may certify less than people assume. Cascais, for example, states expressly that its certificate confirms only that the building predates 1951 — it does not itself declare exemption from the use licence.

What to do before you sign

Before the deed

1
Request the certidão from the câmara municipal for the area. It is what proves the existence — or the exemption — of the urbanistic title.
2
Confirm which of the three statements the seller will make. Ask before the CPCV, not on the day of the deed.
3
If it’s the third statement (no title), treat regularisation as a negotiable variable: cost, timeline and feasibility belong in the price.
4
Check that what was built matches what was authorised. The certidão proves an approved process exists. It does not prove the building matches it.
5
For pre-1951 properties, confirm the applicable date in that município and obtain the certidão de isenção.

Check the risk of untitled works Calculate the real cost of buying

The full guides

Sources: Everything on this page is based on the consolidated text of the RJUE (Decreto-Lei n.º 555/99 as amended by DL 108/2026), Declaração de Retificação n.º 29-A/2026/1 and DL 155-B/2026, published in the Diário da República.

This page is informational and does not constitute legal advice.

The deed changes on 1 October 2026