Roof color ensures legal dispute: owner loses in court!

Roof color ensures legal dispute: owner loses in court!

A homeowner from the Göttingen district is forced to change the color of his roof. The man had sued the coloring of his roof tiles in front of the Lüneburg Higher Administrative Court (OVG) after building a house with anthracite/black bricks in 2015. However, this choice of colors contradicts the provisions of the local development plan, which only allows red and brown colors.

The district of Göttingen had asked the homeowner to adapt the roof covering to the applicable regulations. The plaintiff did not accept this and turned to the Göttingen Administrative Court, which the lawsuit referred. The OVG finally decided that the district's building inspectorate was lawful (file number 1 LC 87/22). According to the court, the color design of the roofs is based on urban planning and aims to maintain a harmonious townscape.

background of the legal dispute

originally the development plan from 2003 only allowed red roof tiles or bricks to adapt the new development to existing local structures. With a later change, brown tones and glazed bricks were also approved, which included a total of eight colors. The district became aware of the violation in 2015 when the roof of the house in anthracite/black was covered. A change in the building regulation initiated by the municipality was rejected in order to protect the uniformity of the roof colors.

Despite the laws referred to him, the plaintiff continued to use black bricks and argued that there were many dark roofs in the area. However, the OVG rejected its argument and did not allow an appeal against the judgment, so that the requirement for roof color continues to exist. As the ndr.de This meaning for the authorities' authority for positive construction care and compliance with urban planning requirements.

Further information is also available at hna.de to be found.