Does your sign need a permit?
A sign carrying your business name by your own entrance is not advertising under Ukrainian law — article 9 § 6 of the Law “On Advertising” says so outright. Kyiv issues no permit for one, and the notification that stood in place of a permit can no longer be filed anywhere: a court annulled §§ 3.2–3.6 of the city rules with effect from 24.09.2025 and filing has not reopened. The requirements for the sign itself — format zone, type of construction, maximum area — remain in force; they are simply checked on the facade now instead. A billboard or banner promoting goods away from your entrance falls under article 16: its own permit, its own procedure and a fee for the spot.
“Do I need a permit” almost always means a different question: which regime your structure falls under. Everything else follows — the documents, and what happens if you file none.
The checklist below asks four questions a business owner can answer without a lawyer: what you are hanging, where, how large, and in which city. Size is not a formality here: three square metres is where a sign stops being a sign. Nothing is sent anywhere — it all runs in your browser.
Check your case
Four steps. The answer updates instantly and matches the tables below exactly: the widget picks out your row of them.
Runs in your browser — no data is sent anywhere.
The full tables: structure × place, and size
The same logic in full, for Kyiv. The first table is what goes where, the second is what size changes. An empty cell means the pairing does not occur in practice.
| Structure | Your own or leased facade | Shop window, inside the glass | Roof of the building | Listed heritage building | Shopping centre or leased space |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name sign above the entrance | A sign, not advertisingFiling suspended | A sign, not advertisingUsually not required | — | A sign, not advertisingFiling suspended | A sign, not advertisingFiling suspended |
| Illuminated sign or dimensional letters | A sign, not advertisingFiling suspended | A sign, not advertisingUsually not required | — | A sign, not advertisingFiling suspended | A sign, not advertisingFiling suspended |
| Bracket sign (projecting) | A sign, not advertisingFiling suspended | — | — | A sign, not advertisingFiling suspended | A sign, not advertisingFiling suspended |
| Rooftop installation | — | — | Depends on the content and the heightFiling suspended | — | — |
| Banner | Depends on the content and the heightFiling suspended | Depends on the content and the heightUsually not required | — | Depends on the content and the heightFiling suspended | Depends on the content and the heightFiling suspended |
| Outdoor advertising: billboard, board, wall mural | Outdoor advertisingRequired | — | Outdoor advertisingRequired | Outdoor advertisingRequired | Outdoor advertisingRequired |
Kyiv format zones: what may be hung, and how large
| Format zone | Facade sign, up to | Bracket sign, up to | Permitted constructions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zone 0 | 2 m² | 0.5 m² | dimensional letters, no backing, bracket sign, awning, plaque |
| Zone 1 | 3 m² | 0.5 m² | dimensional letters, no backing, bracket sign, awning, plaque |
| Zone 2 | 3 m² | 1 m² | dimensional letters, no backing, letters on a solid base, bracket sign, awning, plaque |
| Zone 3 | 3 m² | 1 m² | dimensional letters, no backing, letters on a solid base, solid panel or lightbox, bracket sign, awning, plaque |
Limits that do not depend on the zone
- A facade sign may project no more than 0.2 m from the wall
- A bracket sign may project no more than 1 m
- The bottom of a bracket sign must sit at least 2.5 m above the pavement
- A bracket sign may be no thicker than 0.15 m
- A bracket sign must sit at least 1.5 m from the building corner
- Spacing between bracket signs along a facade: 7 m in zone 0, 5 m in zone 1, 4 m in zones 2 and 3.
- Sign text must be in the state language. A trademark may appear in the language its legal protection was granted in.
| Area | Kyiv | Other cities |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 0.3 m² — a plate | Usually not requiredA sign, not advertising | Most likely requiredA sign, not advertising |
| Up to 2 m² | Filing suspendedA sign, not advertising | Most likely requiredA sign, not advertising |
| Between 2 and 3 m² | Filing suspendedA sign, not advertising | Most likely requiredA sign, not advertising |
| Over 3 m² | Filing suspendedA sign, not advertising | Most likely requiredDepends on the content and the height |
How we handle the permit
Establish the regime
Walk the four steps: structure, place, area, city. The output is whether this is a sign or outdoor advertising, and what exactly to file.
Check the area and the zone
Up to 3 m² (2 m² in Kyiv's zone 0), and a construction type allowed in your format zone. Cheaper to check now than to rebuild later.
Collect your half of the documents
Ownership or a lease for the premises, your business details, and the trademark document if the mark goes on the sign.
Put compliance on record before installation
The drawing with dimensions, fixings, illumination and materials is ours to prepare — and it is the evidence that the structure meets the requirements. In Kyiv there is currently nowhere to file it, so we check zone, type and area before anything is built rather than after.
Manufacture and installation
We build the structure to exactly the parameters that went into the documents, and install it with our own crew.
Where the line between a sign and advertising runs
The law states the exemption precisely. A sign or plaque is not advertising when it, all at once:
- carries the registered name, trademark, type of activity and opening hours
- sits on premises you own or lease
- is no higher than the first floor — or on the floor those premises are on
- stands by the entrance to those very premises
Drop any one of those conditions and the structure leaves the exemption. That is why a rooftop installation or a banner promoting a sale is treated differently from a name above the door: one is above the first floor, the other is about a product rather than about you.
Three square metres — the line nobody warns you about
The national law says nothing about area. City rules do, and they agree on the number: 3 m². Go past it and the structure changes regime.
Zaporizhzhia states it literally: a sign or plaque with a total area over 3 m² “is also considered an advertising structure” (rules on outdoor advertising, executive committee decision No. 45 of 22.02.2013, § 14.4). Kyiv does not re-classify it, but has its own limit (3 m² generally, 2 m² in format zone 0), and an oversized sign there is a breach of the rules, which ends in a dismantling order.
Practically that means one thing: work out the area of a full-facade name before anything is built.
Kyiv: neither a permit nor a notification
The Kyiv sign-placement rules were approved by city council decision No. 224/2446 of 20.04.2017 and have been in a new wording since 14.12.2023 (decision No. 7572/7613). No permit is issued there — that is the commonest misconception. But the notification that stood in place of a permit can no longer be filed anywhere either.
A judgment of the Kyiv District Administrative Court of 27.03.2025 in case No. 320/16943/24, effective 24.09.2025, annulled §§ 3.2–3.6 of section III of those rules. Those paragraphs were the whole procedure: filing the notification, the list of attachments to it, and the working body's order within 10 working days. The online service on the Kyiv city portal is switched off, and the city administration says it is working on restoring filing.
What that means in practice:
- the requirements for the sign have not gone anywhere — the court struck the procedure, not the rules: format zone, type of construction and maximum area apply exactly as before
- there is currently nowhere to obtain written confirmation of compliance in advance
- inspection, photo records and dismantling orders still sit with the municipal enterprise Kyivreklama
- so the cost of a mistake has moved to the drawing stage: nothing will now stop a non-compliant structure before it goes up
We check the filing route in force for your address before anything is built: the procedure may come back, and then the document package will be needed.
Format zones: in Kyiv the address decides the construction
The 2023 wording split the city into format zones 0–3, and the zone governs not only size but what may be hung at all:
- dimensional letters without a solid backing — every zone
- bracket signs — every zone
- letters on a solid base — zones 2 and 3 only, base up to 20 mm thick, unlit
- a lightbox (a box with an illuminated face) — zone 3 only
Separately banned outright: illuminated display boards, monitors, running-text lines and dynamic illumination. Lighting must not dazzle drivers or shine into windows, and cables are boxed in and painted the colour of the facade.
The zone boundaries live in an annex to the rules, and we do not guess them on this page. We check the zone for your address before anything is built — it decides whether a lightbox design is worth drawing at all.
Outside Kyiv
We work across Ukraine, and each city approves its own sign-placement procedure. The Law “On Advertising” applies identically everywhere, which is why the general part of this checklist is universal. The procedure itself, the name of the document and the offices involved differ from city to city. In one it is an approval, in another the registration of a technical passport, in a third a letter from the architecture department.
So for other cities the checklist says “approval is likely” and invents nothing further. We confirm the specifics for your address before filing, and that check costs nothing on its own.
Which documents we prepare and which only you can
Our half is everything that needs the manufacturer: a drawing with dimensions, fixings, illumination and materials, photographs of the facade and a photomontage on a picture of your building. In Kyiv that drawing was the very document the rules asked for, and it remains the main evidence of compliance while there is no procedure. The city never asks for the photographs or the montage; those are our own working material.
Your half is proof of your right to the premises (ownership or a lease), plus your business details. If someone else's trademark appears on the sign, the document permitting its use is needed too. In a shopping centre the landlord's approval and its brand book are added on top.
What this checklist is not
We are a manufacturer, not a law firm. The checklist shows the usual regime for a typical case; it does not replace a decision by the city commission and does not know the local restrictions of one particular street or building.
If your case is one of the harder ones — a facade in the centre, a listed building, a structure overhanging the pavement, or a sign already hanging without paperwork — we come out, look at it on site and tell you plainly what will have to be done.
Sources
The numbers and rules on this page come from here. If a source has changed and this page has not, tell us.
- Law of Ukraine “On Advertising” No. 270/96-VR, art. 9 § 6 (a sign or plaque is not advertising) and art. 16 (outdoor advertising)
- Rules for placing signs in Kyiv, approved by city council decision No. 224/2446 of 20.04.2017, as restated by decision No. 7572/7613 of 14.12.2023 — the source of the format zones and the parameter table: permitted constructions by zone (§ 2.1), the area cap (§ 2.3.1), bracket signs (§§ 2.2.9, 2.3.2–2.3.3), projection from the facade (§ 2.3.4) and the language of the text (§ 2.6.3)
- Judgment of the Kyiv District Administrative Court of 27.03.2025 in case No. 320/16943/24, effective 24.09.2025: §§ 3.2–3.6 of section III of the rules were annulled — that being the filing procedure, the list of attachments and the 10-working-day order. The judgment is quoted on the city portal's own service page
- The official publication of decision No. 224/2446 on the Kyiv city portal (a scan)
- Rules on outdoor advertising in Zaporizhzhia, executive committee decision No. 45 of 22.02.2013 (as amended by No. 724 of 22.10.2024), § 14.4 — a sign over 3 m² counts as an advertising structure
Checked against the sources on 25/08/2026
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