Standards & municipalities
Less daylight because of your neighbours? What the court weighs
Losing daylight to a neighbour's extension or roof addition? Article 5:37 of the Dutch Civil Code protects light, not just direct sun. Courts have had the daylight factor calculated per room and ordered construction halted in 2024 and 2025. Daylight is the second leg alongside sunlight access; together they carry the most weight.
9 min read
Standards & municipalities
Sunlight, daylight and neighbour law: which rules apply?
Three separate frameworks govern sunlight at a home. Sunlight access (the TNO standard) is a guideline, not a law. Daylight (Articles 4.146 and 4.147 of the Building Works Environment Decree) is the only one written into national law. Neighbour law (Article 5:37 of the Civil Code) governs unlawful nuisance. Window size counts for daylight, not for sunlight access.
12 min read
How Schaduwplan works
Verifying a sunlight report: how to check it is genuine
Every Schaduwplan PDF carries a unique SHA-256 hash that we publish at the moment of issue on schaduwplan.nl/verify. A judge, lawyer or neighbour can confirm in under thirty seconds that the file has not been altered since issue, without having to trust us. As far as we know, no other sunlight-study provider in the Netherlands does this.
8 min read
Data sources
Drone, LiDAR or photogrammetry: capturing your own height data
When 3DBAG and AHN have not surveyed your home yet, you can commission height data yourself. Three routes are open: hire a surveying firm (€500–€5,000, 1–2 weeks), fly a drone yourself and process it in WebODM or RealityCapture (from €750 in hardware, one weekend), or use a phone photogrammetry app for visualisation. Thresholds, rules (Open A1/A2/A3, Remote ID 2026) and the GeoTIFF format Schaduwplan accepts.
12 min read
Data sources
What is AHN and when will your home be surveyed?
The Actueel Hoogtebestand Nederland (AHN) has laser-scanned new parts of the country from an aircraft every year since 1996. Since October 2025 the north-east sits in AHN6, accurate to five centimetres. Here is how to check when your address is due and which version currently covers it.
9 min read
How Schaduwplan works
Why Schaduwplan has no subscription: € 29, one time
Schaduwplan charges € 29 per report, one time. No subscription, no trial. Most people need one report per permit procedure: once every 5 to 10 years for homeowners. A consumer subscription of € 2.49 per 90 days costs € 50.62 over 5 years, while Schaduwplan stays a single, clear transaction.
10 min read
How Schaduwplan works
Sunlight study for a permit: from SketchUp to an auditable PDF
A manual sunlight study in SketchUp or Revit takes 4 to 16 hours of architect time per project. With Schaduwplan you generate an auditable PDF report in 5 minutes from 3DBAG, BAG and AHN4, tested against the light TNO, strict TNO or municipal standards. The time saved per permit application is worth € 300 to € 2,400 in architect fees.
12 min read
Technology & data
How much sun does my garden get? Work it out by season
How much sun a garden gets varies sharply by season. A north-facing garden in Amsterdam gets no direct sun on 22 December, yet often six hours or more in June. Using 3DBAG, BAG and AHN4, Schaduwplan calculates the year-round sun duration for each quadrant of your garden, so your vegetable bed, terrace and full-sun plants end up in the right spot.
10 min read
How Schaduwplan works
Is a sunlight study admissible in an objection or in court?
A Schaduwplan sunlight report is indicative and admissible in court. For formal views (zienswijzen), objection procedures and civil neighbour-law cases it is sufficient in almost all situations, because it uses the same 3DBAG, BAG and AHN4 sources that professional firms and the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State rely on. For formal administrative appeal proceedings we recommend verification by a sworn expert.
11 min read
Objections & legal
Example zienswijze on an environmental permit, with sunlight data
A zienswijze is your written response to a draft environmental permit during its six-week public-review window. This template combines the correct legal form under Article 3:16 of the General Administrative Law Act (Awb) with hard sunlight figures from 3DBAG and AHN4: three example paragraphs with placeholders for sun hours, measurement points and test dates from your report, plus guidance on when a zienswijze rather than a formal objection is the right route.
11 min read
Standards & municipalities
What does a sunlight study cost in 2026? A price comparison
A sunlight study in the Netherlands ranges from € 29 for an automated self-service report to € 5,000 for a large engineering firm with a sworn expert. This guide sets four price tiers side by side — self-service tools, an independent building-advice consultant, a small firm and a large engineering firm — with honest trade-offs in turnaround, legal weight and iteration.
10 min read
Renovating
Extension permit: does it need a sunlight study?
A rear extension is often permit-free up to 2.5 m deep and below the eaves line of the main house. Above that you need an environmental permit, and municipalities such as The Hague and Rotterdam almost always require a sunlight study with it. Substantiating this up front prevents neighbour objections and redesign costs.
10 min read
Technology & data
Which data does Schaduwplan use? 3DBAG, BAG, AHN4 and PDOK
Schaduwplan runs on four open government sources: 3DBAG for 3D building models, BAG for address and parcel data, AHN4 for ground and object heights, and PDOK for geocoding. The same data that professional firms and the Council of State accept, with quarterly updates and vertical accuracy down to 5 cm.
11 min read
Standards & municipalities
The TNO sunlight standard explained: light and strict variants
The TNO sunlight standard defines how many sun hours a home must receive on set test dates. The light standard requires 2 sun hours from 19 February to 21 October; the strict standard 3 sun hours from 21 January to 22 November. The Hague, Rotterdam, Eindhoven and Krimpen use their own variants. This is the de facto standard in Dutch permit decisions.
11 min read
Objections & legal
Neighbour's roof addition: when is the shadow unlawful?
Shadow from a roof addition is legally unlawful when the loss of sunlight materially harms normal enjoyment of the home. On 17 January 2024 the District Court of The Hague ordered demolition at 75 to 80% sunlight loss — even with a valid permit, under Article 5:37 and Article 6:162 of the Civil Code.
11 min read
How Schaduwplan works
From address to sunlight report in 3 minutes: how Schaduwplan works
A full walkthrough: what you enter, which open government data (3DBAG, BAG, AHN4) sits underneath, what the PDF report contains and when the report is legally sufficient. From address to sunlight report in about five minutes — for € 29 instead of the € 295 to € 535 a firm charges.
9 min read
Objections & legal
Objecting to your neighbour's building permit: a step-by-step plan with sunlight data
An objection based on gut feeling rarely succeeds. This step-by-step plan shows how, within six weeks, you use 3DBAG, BAG and AHN4 to quantify exactly how many sun hours you lose — the evidence on which the District Court of The Hague ordered a roof addition demolished at 75 to 80% sunlight loss on 17 January 2024.
10 min read