How do buildings worthy of preservation affect you as a buyer?

Let’s establish one thing first: if a house is listed, then this applies to the entire building, both inside and out. In that case, any changes must be approved by the Agency for Culture and Palaces. If, on the other hand, the house is designated as “worthy of preservation”, this will generally only affect the appearance of the house, i.e. the exterior of the building e.g. windows, doors, façade, roof etc.

According to the Danish Planning Act, it is the municipalities that are responsible for designating cultural environments, including individual buildings, as valuable and worthy of preservation in both urban and rural areas. The municipality may decide to designate a house as worthy of preservation if it has some special architectural or structural qualities that can be considered worth protecting. The purpose of declaring a house as worth preserving is therefore to retain the house and/or the neighbourhood’s original expression.

If a property is included in a municipal plan as being of conservation value, or is covered by a ban on demolition as part of local conservation plan or zoning statutes, the house will always be worthy of preservation, cf. Section 17 (1) of the Act on Listed Buildings and the Preservation of Buildings (Building Preservation Act, Bygningsfredningsloven) and cf. Section 15, (2),(18) of the Planning Act. In individual cases, a conservation declaration in the land registry may also be the basis for the designation. Similarly, the Agency for Culture and Palaces can designate buildings as worthy of preservation in accordance with Section 19 of the Building Preservation Act. It is always the municipality that is responsible for buildings worthy of preservation, regardless of whether they are designated by the municipality itself or by the Agency for Culture and Palaces.

If the house is listed in a local conservation plan or zoning statute, this will generally mean that stricter restrictions are placed on the building. For example, the municipality may demand that certain materials are used (for example, red tiles on the roof), or that the façade must have a particular colour. You should, therefore, ask your real estate agent to find out whether there is anything registered, for example in a local conservation plan or zoning statute, for the property you’re considering buying.

Example of wording in a local development plan:

Buildings that are cartographed are marked as being worthy of preservation and must not be demolished, rebuilt, or changed in any way without the municipal council’s approval in every single case. This also applies to the replacement of doors, windows and balconies, changes to the choice of materials, use of colour, window format and general design.

There are approximately 360,000 buildings registered as worthy of preservation in Denmark.

Click here to see whether the house you are considering buying is worthy of preservation.

Rating a building’s conservation value:

In most municipalities, a building’s conservation value will be registered based, to a greater or lesser extent, on what’s called the SAVE method. SAVE is the acronym for Survey of Architectural Values in the Environment. The SAVE method is based upon an assessment of five different conditions for a building: 1. age, 2. originality, 3. (degree of) maintenance, 4. environment, and 5. architecture.

When a building’s conservation value is assessed according to the SAVE method, it is given a rating from 1-9, where 1 is the highest level of conservation value. The fact that a house is designated as worthy of preservation in the municipal plan does not however necessarily mean that there are restrictions imposed on changes to the building’s exterior. The application obligation in practice applies when the municipality is preparing or revising an existing local conservation plan or zoning statute. In this case, any renovation, rebuilding, or other changes to the building’s shell must be done with respect to the building’s conservation value and with the approval of the municipal council. As described above, the local conservation plan may define a number of requirements for the area and the appearance of the house – for example, guidelines for windows, doors, colour of the facade etc.

The preservation value for an individual building doesn’t tell you anything about what restrictions apply to the exterior of the building. As a buyer, you must therefore read the relevant material (local conservation plan and zoning statutes) for the building to determine what applies to that particular building.

As a buyer, it can be a good idea to contact the municipality to get confirmation that your own research is correct and wether an application for permission is required or not.

Focus points when purchasing a property worthy of preservation

• It should be stated in the purchase agreement and the sales listing if the building is worthy of preservation.
• Check whether there are any illegalities in regard to the building. Have any exterior repairs been made without obtaining the necessary permits from the municipality?
• If any illegal changes have been made to a building with a preservation notice, the municipality may, at any time, order the current owner to return the property to fit it’s original state prior to the illegal changes. The costs of returning the house to its original state are not covered by the change of ownership insurance.
• If the changes were not made by the current owner, the owner can direct his claim towards the previous owner who carried out the illegal changes (if it is at all possible to discover when the changes were made and who made them).
• The municipality can offer financial support for maintenance work on buildings worthy of preservation, although this rarely happens in practice.
• It is not permitted to demolish a building worthy of preservation before the demolition notification has been publicly announced, cf. Section 18 of the Building Preservation Act. The demolition notification must be announced four to six weeks prior to the planned demolition, in order to give the general public, the opportunity to raise objections. The municipal council can also prohibit the demolition of the property pursuant to Section 14 of the Planning Act. The demolition ban applies for one year, which the municipality can use to prepare a new local plan that ensures the preservation of the building.
• Should a property subsequently be renovated, this may alter the rating of the building, and it may be necessary to amend the preservation notice. With a good restoration or renovation, a building can achieve a higher rating than it had with the original assessment.
• If you, as a buyer, consider undertaking exterior repairs on your house, then it’s a good idea to consult the municipality as to whether it can approve the exterior repairs you are considering making. Note that municipalities may interpret the preservation categories differently.