Salva Casa,
without illusions

Since 2024 the provisions known as the Salva Casa decree (d.l. 69/2024, converted into law 105/2024 — Italy’s building-regularisation reform) have amended the Testo Unico dell’Edilizia, the Consolidated Building Act, in several places, with the aim of simplifying the regularisation of the most common irregularities. A great deal of confusion has grown up around these rules, however: this is not a building amnesty, and not everything can be regularised. This guide explains, in practical terms, what can really be regularised — and how it is done in the municipalities of southern Lake Garda, where the picture is made more delicate by the prevalence of landscape restrictions.

The legally authorised state of the property

The stato legittimo — the legally authorised state — is, in short, the snapshot of the property as it stands authorised: what was built under the original title and altered under the later ones, supplemented by the tolerances and regularisations that have occurred over time. It is the obligatory starting point of every operation — a sale, a mortgage, a renovation, a regularisation.

Salva Casa simplified the way it can be demonstrated, giving weight to the title that governed the last intervention on the property as a whole, but it did not remove the work of verification: the permit history must still be reconstructed through access to the municipal records (accesso agli atti) and compared with the actual state surveyed on site.

A practical rule we often repeat: the cadastral floor plan does not prove building compliance. The Land Registry (Catasto) serves tax purposes; compliance is measured against the building titles filed with the municipality.

When the problem surfaces

Building irregularities are rarely discovered by chance. The typical moments are:

• a sale: the notary or the buyer’s surveyor spots differences between the actual state, the floor plans and the titles;
• a mortgage: the bank’s valuer flags inconsistencies that stall the application;
• an inheritance or a gift, when the property changes hands and the documents are read afresh;
• a new building application: the designer must certify the legally authorised state and finds works that were never authorised;
• a dispute with neighbours, the condominium or contractual counterparties.

In all these cases time is precious: a verification started early makes it possible to choose the best route, instead of having it imposed on the eve of a deed of sale.

Construction and execution tolerances

Not every deviation is a violation. Article 34-bis of the Testo Unico recognises construction tolerances: failing to comply with heights, distances, volume, covered area and any other parameter within 2% of the approved measurements does not constitute a building violation.

For works carried out by 24 May 2024, Salva Casa introduced a more generous scale for dwellings of modest size, with percentages that rise as the usable floor area falls: up to 5–6% for the smallest units. Alongside these are the execution tolerances: minor geometric irregularities, services and internal works positioned differently, material errors of execution.

Beware, though, of two often-overlooked limits: tolerances are assessed parameter by parameter and must be certified by a qualified professional in applications and deeds of transfer; and in protected properties their recognition meets stricter rules.

Regularisation: Articles 36 and 36-bis

When the irregularity exceeds the tolerances, the route is the conformity assessment (accertamento di conformità), now organised on two tracks:

• art. 36 — for works executed without a permit or in total deviation from it: it requires so-called full double conformity, that is, conformity with the planning and building rules in force both at the time the works were carried out and at the time of the application;
• art. 36-bis — introduced by Salva Casa for partial deviations and essential variations: the test is “asymmetric”, requiring today’s planning conformity together with the building rules of the time of execution. This is the channel that has made many previously blocked situations regularisable.

The art. 36-bis procedure involves paying a penalty fee (oblazione) proportionate to the increase in value or to the cost of the works, allows the municipality to make regularisation conditional on adaptation works and — a significant novelty — treats administrative silence in the citizen’s favour, whereas under the traditional art. 36 silence still amounts to refusal.

The subject is still evolving: further legislation and implementing circulars have followed since 2024, and municipalities do not always read them uniformly. One more reason to set up applications with documentary rigour.

Properties in protected areas: the Garda case

In southern Lake Garda most of the territory is subject to landscape protection (vincolo paesaggistico): the lakeshore belt, the historic centres, wide areas declared of outstanding public interest. Here building regularisation must also reckon with the landscape authorisation, which as a rule cannot be granted retrospectively.

The law admits retrospective landscape compatibility only in narrow cases — in particular for works that created no usable floor area or volume — and the art. 36-bis procedure sets out a specific step involving the opinion of the Soprintendenza, the State heritage authority. In plain terms: in protected areas the assessment must be made case by case, with even more caution, and there are no shortcuts.

The documents you need

Every well-founded regularisation application starts from a complete file:

• the municipal records: licences, concessions, permits, DIA/SCIA notices and their variants;
• historic and current cadastral floor plans, registry searches;
• a survey of the current state carried out by a qualified professional;
• photographic documentation and, where useful, deeds of provenance and period reports;
• for protected properties: the exact identification of the restrictions and of the dates they were imposed.

On this basis the professional compares the authorised state, the actual state and the Land Registry, classifies the irregularities (tolerance, partial deviation, essential variation, absence of title) and identifies the route: no application, certification, art. 36-bis, art. 36 or reinstatement.

Mistakes to avoid

• Updating the Land Registry without checking building compliance: a cadastral update regularises nothing and can entrench the problem.
• Trusting remote assessments based on photographs or floor plans: classifying irregularities requires a survey and the municipal records.
• Waiting until the deed of sale: the time needed for records requests and applications is rarely compatible with a completion date already fixed.
• Assuming that “Salva Casa will sort it out”: the date of the works, the planning rules and any restrictions can rule regularisation out.
• Ignoring the “small” irregularities: even a repositioned partition wall can block a mortgage if it is not correctly addressed.

Discuss it with the studio

Every property has its own administrative and technical history: this guide offers a general picture, but decisions must be taken on the specific case. The studio receives clients in Sirmione and follows projects across southern Lake Garda.

Contact the studio or write to studiovolpipiccoli@gmail.com.