Tips for Waiting for Building Permit

State Building Code Saarland § 70
Processing of the building application:
(2) As soon as the building application and the building documents are complete, the building supervisory authority confirms immediately to the builder the completeness of the building application and the building documents and the decision date determined according to paragraph 4. If the building application or the building documents are incomplete or otherwise have significant defects, the building supervisory authority immediately requests the builder to remedy the defects within a reasonable period. If the defects are not remedied within the period, the application is deemed to have been withdrawn.

(3) A decision required on the basis of state law provisions according to paragraph 2 sentence 1 is deemed to have been granted if it is not refused within two months after receipt of the request with reasons stated. ²Statements according to paragraph 2 sentence 2 can be disregarded if they are not received by the building supervisory authority within one month after the request. ³If additional documents or information are required for the assessment of the project by a participating authority or office, the period according to sentence 1 or 2 is suspended until the requested documents or information are received by the participating authority or office. The building supervisory authority communicates the decision of the other authority together with its own decision to the builder.

I understand this to mean that the decision is deemed granted if you do not receive contrary information within 2 months after the complete receipt of the documents.

Approval procedures
§ 64
Simplified building permit procedure
(1) For projects according to § 63 para. 1 sentence 1, for which the requirements according to § 63 para. 2 are not met, a simplified building permit procedure shall be carried out. Sentence 1 does not apply to projects according to § 63 para. 1 sentence 2 no. 2 and 3.
(2) In the simplified building permit procedure, the following will be examined:
1. the admissibility of the project according to the provisions of the Building Code and the other public-law regulations outside the building regulations, excluding the requirements according to the Workplace Ordinance of August 12, 2004 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 2179), last amended by Article 4 of the Ordinance of July 19, 2010 (Federal Law Gazette I p. 96), in the version applicable at the time, and the requirements according to the Energy Saving Ordinance,
2. the compliance of the project with the provisions on clearance areas (§§ 7, 8) and barrier-free construction (§ 50) as well as the local building regulations (§ 85),
3. for advertising installations, deviating from number 2, the compliance of the project with the provisions of §§ 4, 7, 8, 12, 14 and 17 para. 2 as well as with the local building regulations (§ 85),
4. requested deviations. § 67 remains unaffected.
(3) A decision on the building application must be made within three months after receipt of the complete application; the building supervisory authority may extend this period by up to one month for important reasons. An important reason exists in particular if an exception, exemption or deviation is applied for or the granting of the building permit depends on the decision of another authority or office or a public participation according to § 71 para. 3 is required. If additional documents or information are required by a participating authority or office to assess a project, the period is interrupted until the requested documents or information are received. The period is also interrupted by a subsequently submitted application for granting an exception, exemption or deviation. The permit is deemed to have been granted if no decision has been made on the building application within the period. At the request of the builder, the building supervisory authority shall confirm the permit in writing according to sentence 5. Sentences 1 to 6 do not apply if the deadline for the decision of another authority or office according to federal law provisions is more than two months or may be extended beyond two months.

We are in § 64 simplified building permit procedure.

Well, I am rather of the opinion that the fiction must be confirmed in order to be on the safe side.

I don’t think it "must," but I agree with you regarding the "safe side." You can ask the authority whether that is the case (of course formulated as a statement), for example: "We kindly ask you to confirm the occurrence of the approval fiction." Then the authority can only confirm it or dispute it with reasons; they don’t have the option "yes, you would be in the right, but mimimimi, we would have liked more time" ;-)

We are in the § 64 simplified building permit procedure.

That was exactly the case in the situation I described.

We are in the § 64 simplified building permit procedure.

In my opinion, this is supposed to serve to simplify and speed up the process, especially because there are precise specifications that are exactly met with the application. So honestly, if you actually comply with the development plan and the deadline has passed, I would start.

However, there is no paper certifying the approval fiction :-(

We, in the state of Saxony, received a "certificate" from the district office instead of the building permit. Cost approx. 681 euros. I no longer know whether we paid 681 euros for the entire process or just for the "certificate." We needed a written document because without the certificate/building permit we would not have been able to get a sample appointment with our house manufacturer, who has his company in another federal state. How other builders and construction companies handle this is unknown to me.