WHAT IT MEANS AND HOW TO CHECK IT
Building a property requires the appropriate municipal authorisation or filing. Alterations may also require a building procedure, depending on the work involved. This archive article describes the general distinction between ordinary maintenance and more substantial interventions; a technical professional must identify the procedure applicable to each project.
Planning and building compliance means that the property's actual condition is consistent with its lawful approved status. Differences between the building and the relevant authorisations may be irregularities.
The article groups irregularities into three broad categories:
Major: construction without authorisation or wholly inconsistent with the approved project.
Intermediate: for example, external alterations or small increases in building volume.
Minor: commonly, internal alterations without the required filing or unreported changes of use. The legal classification depends on the actual case.
If an irregularity is identified, a qualified technical professional should assess whether it can be regularised.
The original article discusses the double-compliance mechanism under Presidential Decree 380/01 and regional legislation. Planning law involves national and regional rules, so the applicable procedure must be established for the property's location and circumstances. Later reforms may have changed the position described here.
Under the double-compliance approach described, an irregularity had to comply with the relevant planning rules both when carried out and when regularisation was requested. The article uses work undertaken in 1995 as an example. Regularisation also involves professional fees and municipal charges or penalties; present-day requirements must be checked separately.
The subject continues in the article on Italian building amnesties (condono edilizio).
