Property and process / K3
Shed on your own land
The person wants to build a 20 m² wooden shed on their own rural land.
What we score
Do they need permission?
Default assumptions: Unless a vignette says otherwise, the person is a 30-year-old citizen of sound mind with no criminal record, acting alone, on their own behalf and not for profit, in an ordinary residential area. Where subnational units (states, provinces, cantons, Länder) make their own law, each unit is scored and the result is weighted by population. 'The state' includes police, prosecutors, courts, regulators, tax authorities and anyone acting on their orders, including platforms obeying takedown orders.
Score anchors
Both the law score and the practice score use these anchors. Half points are used when a country sits between two of them.
| Score | What it means for this vignette |
|---|---|
| 10 | No permit needed. |
| 8 | Notification only. |
| 6 | Permit on objective criteria. |
| 4 | Discretionary permit; refusals common. |
| 3 | Building without one brings fines or a demolition order. |
| 2 | Crime. |
Evidence used: Building and planning codes; exemptions for small structures; enforcement practice.
How each country scores
| Country | Law | Practice | Process | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Denmark | 9 | 9 | 0 | 9.0 | Sheds, garages and similar outbuildings totalling up to 50 m² next to a house need no building permit, but must meet the building regulations, e.g. distance to the boundary (BR18 § 5(1)(1)). In rural zones, outbuildings up to 50 m² next to a single-family or holiday house are exempt from the rural-zone permit (planloven § 36(1)(8)). A shed on rural land with no house would need a discretionary rural-zone permit (§ 35). |
| New Zealand | 9 | 9 | 0 | 9.0 | Building Act 2004 Schedule 1 clause 3A exempts from building consent a single-storey detached building of 10-30 m² built from lightweight products to Acceptable Solution B1/AS1, with no sanitary facilities, at least 1 m from boundaries and residential buildings; no licensed builder is required. A 20 m² wooden shed therefore needs no building permit. District-plan rules under resource-management law may still impose setbacks or site-coverage limits, but sheds are normally permitted in rural zones. |
| United States | 6.5 | 7.5 | 0 | 7.1 | Under the model International Residential Code (R105.2), sheds up to 200 sq ft (18.58 m2) need no permit. A 20 m2 (215 sq ft) shed is just over that limit, so in code-adopting jurisdictions it needs a building permit issued on objective criteria plus zoning setbacks. Many rural counties have adopted no building code, and agricultural buildings are often exempt. Building without a required permit brings stop-work orders, fines or orders to remove the structure. |
| United Kingdom | 6 | 7 | 0 | 6.6 | A shed within the curtilage of the owner's house is permitted development (GPDO Class E: single storey, eaves at most 2.5 m, height at most 2.5 m within 2 m of a boundary), so no permit is needed. On a standalone rural plot outside a house's curtilage, however, it needs discretionary planning permission, and an unauthorised shed can get an enforcement notice; non-compliance is a criminal offence. Building regulations exempt a 20 m² non-sleeping outbuilding more than 1 m from the boundary. The English enforcement window was extended from 4 to 10 years in 2024 (TCPA 1990 s171B), but councils rarely pursue small sheds. |
| Netherlands | 5 | 7 | 0 | 6.2 | Under the Omgevingswet, a shed is a consequence-class-1 structure needing no technical building permit (art. 2.27 Bbl). Whether it is allowed spatially depends on the municipal environment plan (omgevingsplan): next to an existing house in the rear-yard area it is normally permit-free, but on undeveloped rural or agricultural land it usually needs a discretionary plan-deviation permit. Unpermitted buildings face enforcement by periodic penalty payments (last onder dwangsom). |
| Mexico | 5 | 7 | 0 | 6.2 | The General Human Settlements Law (art. 60) leaves construction licences to state and municipal law. Municipal building regulations generally require a licence for new construction and allow fines, suspension and closure of unlicensed works; small rural outbuildings are often exempt or ignored. Enforcement on rural and ejido land is weak, so a 20 m² shed is rarely sanctioned. |
| Singapore | 6 | 6 | 0 | 6.0 | Private rural land barely exists in Singapore: farmland is leased from the state, and the lease and the agencies decide what may be built. On a landed residential plot, URA exempts outbuildings up to 20 m² from planning permission, but structures otherwise need BCA plan approval unless prescribed as insignificant building works. Development without planning permission is a crime under Planning Act s12, punished with a fine of up to S$200,000. |
| Ireland | 4 | 6 | 0 | 5.2 | A shed of up to 25 m² behind a house is exempted development (Planning and Development Regulations 2001, Sch. 2 Class 3), and farm stores and sheds have separate agricultural exemptions. A 20 m² shed on a rural plot with no house and no farm use needs discretionary planning permission. Carrying out unauthorised development is itself an offence (Planning and Development Act 2000 s151), with up to 2 years on indictment (s156), though councils normally start with a warning letter and enforcement notice. |
| Czechia | 4.5 | 5 | 0 | 4.8 | Under Building Act 283/2021, a shed up to 40 m² is a permit-free 'drobná stavba' only on the plot of a family or recreation house (Annex 1(1)(a)(1)), or a hunting/forestry hut up to 30 m². On open rural land outside the built-up area, construction is allowed only for agriculture, forestry and similar uses (§ 122). An agricultural building up to 60 m² is a 'simple building' that still needs a permit (Annex 2). Building without permission brings fines of up to 4,000,000 CZK in undeveloped areas, plus a removal order. |
| Germany | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3.6 | Land building codes exempt small sheds from permits, but on rural land outside built-up areas (Außenbereich) the federal rule in § 35 BauGB allows non-farm structures only if they harm no public interest. Landscape protection and 'splinter settlement' objections usually block this. A shed without permission can get a demolition order and a fine. Länder differ only on the size of procedure-free buildings, not on § 35, so no weighting was needed. |
| Switzerland | 3 | 3.5 | 0 | 3.3 | Every building needs a permit, and it must conform to the zone (Spatial Planning Act Art. 22). Outside building zones, a non-agricultural shed can be allowed only if its purpose requires that location (Art. 24), which a private storage shed does not meet. Unpermitted buildings outside building zones face demolition orders that never lapse with time (BGE 147 II 309), plus cantonal fines. A shed on farmland built without a permit can therefore be ordered torn down at any time. |