Salva casa law: discounted amnesty with the House's green light Funds for universities, clash over cuts between rectors and Minister Bernini

The Salva casa is about to become law. After winning the vote of confidence yesterday (180 yes, 99 no and three abstentions), decree no. 69/2024 received the final go-ahead from the Chamber of Deputies today with 155 yes, 79 no and nine abstentions. The decree now passes to the Senate for a sprint: by 28 July it must go to the Official Gazette. At this point, in short, no more corrections are possible. Thus, Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini comments: 'Excellent news for millions of Italians'.
Having confirmed all the novelties anticipated in recent days, such as the amnesty extended to increases in cubage and the possibility of making mini-dwellings habitable, with the passing of the hours new technical details emerge on the contents of the changes brought by Parliament. The tolerances, for example, will also apply to sanitary requirements. In other words, a margin of error of 2 per cent will also have to be considered for minimum heights and surfaces (but also for the aero-illumination ratios, which are governed by the Ministry of Health's decree of 5 July 1975).

These tolerances (i.e., the difference between what was authorised and what was actually realised) will also be applicable to the new habitability parameters, in the version revised by the law converting the Salva casa decree. Thus, the minimum height may be slightly lower than 2.40 metres (it may be around 2.35 metres) and the minimum surfaces may be slightly lower than 20 square metres for one-room apartments and 28 square metres for two-room apartments (it may be slightly higher than 19.5 square metres and slightly lower than 27.5 square metres, respectively).

In the final version of the decree, then, there is a substantial discount for the benefit of those who want to regularise their property, using the new conformity assessment. In other words, sanctions have been cut, following a philosophy similar to that adopted for the reduction of the perimeter of the adjustment works that municipalities will be able to request in the context of amnesties: the regularisation operation, between sanctions and adjustments to the various standards, will have to cost citizens less overall.
The final text of the measure, then, removes the passage that measured the possible sanction to be borne by those who regularise works. The old text spoke of an oblazione equal to double the increase in the market value of the property, ranging between 1,032 euro and 30,984 euro. This will no longer be the case. And it should be remembered that, on the basis of that calculation criterion, it was easy to imagine that the penalties, in most cases, would be at or close to the maximum level, at least for the amnesty of the most important works.
The new sanction system is more complex, but for all experts it is destined to produce extremely lower penalties than the first version of the decree. For a building permit in amnesty, one will pay double the construction contribution: this varies from municipality to municipality, but is in the order of a few tens of euro per metre (or, at the highest levels, is just over one hundred euro per metre).
In the same way, for the Scia in sanatoria the sanction will be equal to twice the increase in the market value of the property, as it was in the past, but with two important differences. The first is that this increase will have to be assessed 'by the competent offices of the Revenue Agency'. The second is that the penalty will be quantified in an amount not less than EUR 1,032 and not more than EUR 10,328. Exactly, two-thirds less than indicated by the first version of the measure.

The funds for universities risk being reduced by more than 500 million euros, 513,264,188 to be exact: the draft ministerial decree on the Ordinary Financing Fund foresees this. The alarm is being raised by the Italian university rectors united in the Crui. With these cuts - they claim - it is unsustainable to cover even personnel costs. And they go further: 'The measure presents considerable critical elements that, if confirmed, risk not only halting the virtuous evolution of the national university system but also jeopardising the very survival of the Italian state university'. So it is not only salaries that are at risk, but also research.

The 85 rectors were supposed to meet this morning with University Minister Anna Maria Bernini and talk to her about this thorny issue, but the meeting suddenly broke down and frost fell between the parties. The minister appeared disappointed and irritated by the Crui's articulate document in which the rectors demanded, among other things, to be informed beforehand of the distribution criteria and a round table. "With the Ordinary Financing Fund still under discussion, the choice was made to spread unfounded and alarmist figures on alleged cuts to universities. Instead of confrontation on the merits with the minister and his staff, the road of prejudice and public polemics is preferred," says the minister, who closes to any hypothesis of confrontation.