House construction on a plot

Does this also apply if the old house was demolished without a permit?

See Doc.Schnaggels - first it must be checked whether a permit is required at all. Even if a permit were needed and was not obtained, there are two cases:

1. The permit would have been granted; the defect is then remedied and the authority collects an additional fee via a fine. Then the old house is legally gone and then it certainly continues with new planning law.

2. The permit would _not_ have been granted, because, for example, it is a listed building.
Then the trouble continues. If one is ordered by official notice to restore the old building, it will certainly stand again where it stood before – regardless of what the new planning law says. What this means financially can usually be counted on one hand; 99% of all private individuals are bankrupt at this point, so the state can take care of the reconstruction and then planning law and approval are in its hands anyway. If the conclusion is reached that although the demolition was illegal, it is only penalized with a fine, then that is settled and then it continues with new planning law. Of course, this can also lead to a condition (keyword "project-related development plan") that one may only build as before, so that a property owner does not gain an advantage from an illegal demolition.

As a rule, one should inquire at the authority before demolition about how it will proceed afterward. This is usually done in 5 minutes. The statement will be 99.5% that in the case of permit-required/-free demolition, naturally new/current planning law applies.

However, if you want to secure the location of the old building and use it fully again later, you should better have it secured twice that you are allowed to rebuild on the foundations, if this should contradict current building law.

Regards Dirk Grafe