Mini building amnesty: the measures of Salvini's house-saving plan

I will bring to the Council of Ministers by the month of May a measure to regularise and sanction all the small domestic irregularities that exist inside the home'. This was reiterated by the leader of the League Matteo Salvini, at the presentation of his book 'Controcorrente' on 30 April in Rome, on stage with Roberto Vannacci at the Temple of Hadrian. The "save-home" plan is the ace that the Lega Nord leader wants to play, together with the candidature of General Vannacci, to recover consensus at the European elections and avoid Forza Italia's overtaking. But, beyond the stakes put in place not by chance by the premier Giorgia Meloni ("It cannot be an amnesty," she told the leader of the League, claiming the last word on perimeter and stakes), what would the vice-priemier and Minister of Infrastructure want to bring to the Cdm?

This is a series of measures aimed at regularising minor discrepancies or structural irregularities that affect, according to a study by the National Council of Engineers, nearly 80 per cent of Italy's real estate stock. The note issued in recent weeks by the Ministry specifies: discrepancies of a formal nature, linked to uncertainties in the interpretation of the regulations in force; 'internal' building discrepancies, regarding individual building units, to which owners have made minor changes (partitions, mezzanines, etc.); discrepancies that could be remedied at the time the work was carried out, but which cannot be remedied today due to the 'double-compliant' regulations, which do not allow for the obtainment of a permit or report in amnesty for many interventions dating back in time. And also to allow changes of use of buildings between homogeneous categories.

The rationale,' it is explained, 'is to protect small property owners who in many cases have been waiting for decades for their positions to be regularised and who are often unable to renovate or sell their homes. At the same time, it deflates the work of municipal technical offices, which are often overwhelmed by applications for amnesties. In the light of administrative simplification and efficiency, it was also planned to intervene on administrative procedures to guarantee citizens certain answers in certain timeframes.

Let us look in detail at some of the aspects on which the standard should intervene. Firstly, there is the very frequent case of those who buy a house on the basis of a plan that does not correspond to the actual state of the organisation of the interior spaces. It would become possible to regularise it, if third-party interests are not affected.

Another case that has been brought to the attention of the Ministry's technicians is that of the purchase of a property built before the 1960s, which is to be renovated. If documentation on its legitimate status is missing, it becomes a problem to renovate. In this case too, then, regularisation will be possible.