For a long time, accommodation for workers deployed away from home was regarded in the construction sector as an essentially operational matter. In practical terms, the objective was to secure proximity to the site, ensure that teams could remain in place and create minimum conditions for the performance of the works. The legal framework existed, but it rarely occupied a central place in the overall assessment of the project.
Decree-Law No. 123/2025, of 21 November, has significantly altered that landscape. More than merely updating minimum habitability requirements, the legislation repositions temporary accommodation within the wider context of the works contract and treats it as a distinct compliance matter, with its own conditions of application, specific documentary requirements and a supervisory framework that does not end at the initial stage when the accommodation is first made available.
The practical consequence is clear: temporary accommodation can no longer be viewed as a simple ancillary infrastructure supporting the works. It now carries legal relevance, with labour, documentary, operational and, in certain contexts, contractual implications.
I. A regime of broader application than may appear at first reading
One of the first assumptions that must be dispelled is that this regime is confined to containers, modular units or other temporary structures installed on site. That is not what follows from the legislative solution adopted. The Decree-Law constructs the concept of temporary accommodation based on a functional criterion: its connection with a particular project and its allocation to workers deployed in connection with that project.
In that context, buildings, or parts of buildings, as well as other installations or areas within the relevant property, are caught by the regime, and the statutory typology itself confirms that breadth by expressly including temporary structures, adapted buildings and existing residential buildings.
The decisive point therefore lies less in the physical nature of the solution adopted and more in the function that solution performs. What matters is not whether the property has a temporary or permanent appearance, but whether it is used to meet the accommodation needs of workers deployed for the purposes of carrying out a particular works contract. The very definition of a worker deployed away from home, as reflected in the text, is based on objective criteria linked to the average daily travel time, the distance between the worker’s habitual residence and the project site, or the remoteness of the location in the absence of public transport. It is that interrelationship between project, accommodation and deployed worker that, in strict terms, triggers the application of the regime.
This leads to a particularly relevant implication for economic operators, developers and contractors: the fact that the property is already licensed for residential use, is occupied under a tenancy agreement or does not require structural works is not, in itself, sufficient to disapply the legislation.
Those elements may be relevant in classifying the specific type of accommodation concerned and in determining certain applicable requirements, but they do not, without more, amount to grounds for exclusion. The logic of the regime is functional rather than merely planning-related or construction-based.
II. From physical availability to the legal compliance of accommodation
Another of the most relevant aspects of the new regime is that the use of temporary accommodation no longer depends solely on its material availability. The legislation makes such use conditional upon a genuine prior procedure, with its own documentary and formal expression.
Among the central components of that process are the Temporary Accommodation Plan, the applicable approval or validation, the initial inspection, the declaration of compliance, the internal regulations, and the workers’ written acceptance of those regulations before they begin to use the accommodation.
This means that accommodation can no longer be conceived merely as a space available for occupation. It must be a solution that has been legally prepared, validated and documented. In that context, the Temporary Accommodation Plan assumes a central role and ceases to be merely ancillary in nature. The same applies to the initial inspection and the corresponding declaration of compliance, which now operate as decisive instruments for the formal legitimisation of the accommodation’s use.
The significance of this change should not be underestimated. The legislation itself states that the contractual period of the works contract does not begin to run before the conditions necessary for the use of the temporary accommodation have been satisfied. In certain contexts, this means that accommodation compliance may cease to be a peripheral issue and may instead interfere directly with the effective mobilisation of the project, the management of time and, through that route, the overall economics of the contract itself.
III. A new core of obligations for the employer
At a substantive level, the density of the regime is equally evident. The legislation places on the employer an exacting body of duties connected with temporary accommodation, including responsibility for all costs and expenses directly associated with it, such as maintenance, services, use and works, without any possibility of passing those costs on through salary deductions or any other form of remuneration payable to the workers deployed away from home. The text also refers to the requirement to ensure adequate conditions of rest, health, and hygiene, as well as minimum standards of ventilation, lighting, safety, and comfort.
To those obligations is added the requirement to provide various essential services, including water, sanitation, energy, communications, waste management, postal services, and passenger transport. Even where the legislation permits simpler arrangements — such as replacing payment of accommodation costs with the actual provision of accommodation — it makes that subject to the worker’s written consent. The underlying logic is consistent throughout: evidence, traceability, documentary discipline and the ability to demonstrate compliance.
It is also important to note that the regime does not treat temporary accommodation as a matter whose compliance is exhausted at the initial stage. The underlying document and the informational notes referred to point towards scheduled maintenance, the appointment of a person responsible for supervising cleaning and maintenance, the keeping of accessible records, the remediation of non-conformities, regular inspections and half-yearly internal audits.
In practical terms, accommodation now has a genuine legal and documentary life cycle, which continues throughout its use and requires ongoing control.
IV. Speed in certain respects, stringency in all others
It is true that the legislation introduces a degree of simplification from a planning perspective, particularly in relation to temporary structures and adapted buildings, in circumstances where the works required for the installation of the accommodation may not be subject to prior planning control under the RJUE.
However, that simplification should not be mistaken for regulatory relaxation: requirements concerning architectural and specialist designs remain relevant, as does compliance with the regimes applicable in sensitive areas, including the National Ecological Reserve (REN), the National Agricultural Reserve (RAN), the public domain and administrative easements.
Nor is it tenable to regard this matter as a mere internal issue of business organisation. The legislation provides for inspection by the ACT in relation to working conditions, hygiene, safety, and health associated with temporary accommodation, linking that supervision to an administrative offence’s framework, without prejudice to planning enforcement where applicable.
Put simply, temporary accommodation has now entered the regulatory radar of the construction sector in an unequivocal way.
The principal merit — and, for many operators, the principal challenge — of this regime lies in shifting temporary accommodation to the center of project compliance. What could previously be treated as a subsidiary issue of workforce organisation now requires its own legal assessment, an appropriate documentary structure, prior validation, and permanent monitoring mechanisms.
For that reason, Decree-Law No. 123/2025 should not be read merely as legislation concerning accommodation conditions, but rather as an instrument for the regulatory reorganisation of the works contract, with concrete implications for the way in which a project is planned, mobilised, documented and executed.
Belzuz Abogados, S.L.P. closely monitors legislative and regulatory developments affecting the construction, real estate, and compliance sectors, providing legal support in the analysis of the applicable framework, the review of internal procedures and the documentary structuring of projects.