Guide · Construction
The four chapters (A-D) of the Romanian as-built file, who is responsible for each, what is usually missing at handover and how to build it as you go.
Updated September 2026 · 7 min
The as-built file - cartea tehnică a construcției (the complete technical record of a building) - is the full dossier of a building: how it was designed, how it was executed, how it was accepted at handover and how it must be maintained. It is handed over at completion and stays with the owner for as long as the building exists. This guide covers what it contains, who is responsible for each chapter, what is usually missing at handover and how it gets assembled along the way rather than in the last month.
The as-built file is the set of documents describing the design, the execution, the acceptance and the operation of a building. It is not an archive box filled in for form's sake: it is the document that shows, ten years later, what went into a wall and who signed that it conformed.
The obligation comes from Law 10/1995 on quality in construction, which requires an as-built file for every building and places its safekeeping with the owner, for the whole life of the building. The structure - the chapters and what goes into each - is set by Government Decision 273/1994, the regulation on the acceptance of construction works and associated installations, later amended, among others by Government Decision 343/2017.
In practice, the as-built file is not written. It is accumulated. Every document produced anyway during the works - a proces-verbal (a formal signed record), a declaration of performance, a material approval packet - is a piece of it. The difference between a quiet handover and one full of calls to suppliers is whether the pieces were filed as they appeared.
| Chapter | What it contains | Who is responsible |
|---|---|---|
| A. Design | Detailed design documentation, building permit, approvals, technical reports, drawings, changes approved along the way | The designer, under the client's care |
| B. Execution | Procese-verbale de lucrări ascunse (hidden-works reports) and hold-point records, certificates and declarations of performance, technical agreements, material approval packets, the site diary, the as-built drawings | The contractor |
| C. Acceptance | The completion acceptance record with its annexes, the final acceptance record | The acceptance committee, under the client's care |
| D. Operation | Operating and maintenance instructions, the events log, the in-service monitoring records, later interventions | The owner or the building manager |
Chapters A and B close with the works. Chapter C is completed at handover. Chapter D is the only one that stays open: it keeps growing for years, with every intervention on the building.
For an MEP subcontractor, almost everything produced lands in chapter B. That is where the hidden-works reports for buried runs sit, along with the declarations of performance for the materials installed and the material approval packets signed by the supervisor, the designer and the client.
Responsibility for preparing the file lies with the investor or the client. They do not produce the documents themselves: the designer produces chapter A and the contractor produces chapter B, each for their own part. The diriginte de șantier (the client's site supervisor) checks along the way that the documents are produced on time and signed by all parties.
Handover happens at the completion acceptance. The committee does not only inspect the works; it also checks whether the documents describing them exist. If they do not, the acceptance does not close cleanly: it is postponed until the file is completed, or the gaps are recorded with a deadline for remedy. In either case the project stays open administratively long after everyone has left the site.
Hence a simple rule of organisation: whoever signs a document is also the one who files it, in the same place, at the moment of signing.
None of this means the work is poor. It means the record fell behind the execution. The cost is paid at the end, in days spent searching through email and in conversations with the client about what can be certified for payment, and when.
There is a single rule: a document enters the as-built file the moment it is approved, not at handover. Everything else follows from it.
You keep a product library in which every product carries its data sheet, its declaration of performance and its technical agreement where applicable. The documents are reused across all projects instead of being hunted down from scratch each time. Once approved, the material approval packet is linked to the bill-of-quantities item and to the installed product, with the version and the signature date beside it. The formal records are generated from the execution stages, not written separately in a document that lives on another server. And at handover, chapter B is an export: you pick the project and get the dossier, instead of reconstructing it.
The step before this one is material approval: the packets approved there are exactly the pieces that end up here. Do it in an orderly way and the as-built file writes itself - see the guide to material approval in construction (MAF). Upstream, the same item codes come from quoting from the bill of quantities; link the three stages and an item has a continuous trail: quoted, approved, installed, documented.
See the Construction page for how the flow looks in the system, or how the platform is built if you are interested in the technical side. If you have a specific question about your own setup, write to us.
The owner. Law 10/1995 places its safekeeping and completion with the owner for the whole life of the building, and on every change of ownership the file is passed to the new owner. The contractor and the designer keep their own documents as well, under their own archiving obligations.
Yes. What is required is the content, not the medium: the signed documents must exist, be complete and be producible on request. In practice the version that works is an electronic record kept along the way, with the signed originals held wherever paper is required. Always check the contract too: some specifications explicitly require a printed copy handed over at completion.
Acceptance cannot be completed on documents that do not exist. Depending on what is missing, the committee postpones the acceptance until the file is completed, or accepts it while recording the gaps and a deadline for remedy. In both cases the project stays open, and final payment and the release of the performance guarantee are pushed back.
The first conversation is about your process: who does what, on which documents, where time is lost.
One email a month, only when we publish. Nothing else.
Material approval (MAF / submittals): what the packet contains, the technical office → supervisor → designer → client circuit and where time is lost.
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