Public Construction Law is divided into the two main legal areas of construction planning law and the building regulation legislations.

Construction Planning Law

The construction planning law encompasses the urban-developing planning, regulations on the permissibility of a construction project, the safeguarding of urban land-use planning and the special urban planning legislation. The most important legal sources in this context are the German building Code (Baugesetzbuch (BauGB)) and the Federal Land Utilisation Ordinance (Baunutzungsverordnung (BauNVO).

Building regulation legislations

The Lower Saxony Building Regulations (NBauO) and the ordinance adopted for this purpose, constitute the Building regulation legislations. These legislations concern the modification or construction of buildings, in order to preserve a public safety and a health and natural basis of living conditions. The tasks of the people involved in the construction work and the building supervisory authorities are defined in the NBauO; the Act establishes the regulation for the procedures applicable to the building of construction sites, and specified which projects are not going to be subjected to authorization.

Furthermore, the building supervisory authorities are asked to determine the requirements, if they are aware of unauthorized conditions of work (example: prohibition of usage, dismantling, demolition etc.).