Salva casa slows down in Sicily, first clash with the regions

The dangerous crossovers between the Salva casa (decree law No 69/2024) and regional building and town-planning regulations are beginning to produce their first slowdowns. The slowdowns begin in Sicily: in recent days, the Region has published a circular (no. 12002/2024 of 8 August 2024) certifying that many of the innovations included in the text promoted by League leader Matteo Salvini at the end of May will not be immediately applicable on the island. This is the case, for example, with the amnesty for minor discrepancies, one of the essential pieces of the measure.

Thus, the Sicilian governor, Renato Schifani, has already announced that he intends to approve, at the first useful council, a Ddl implementing the text, to be then sent to the regional assembly. In the meantime, however, one of the knots that risks slowing down the application of the Salva casa is clearly emerging. Building and town planning, in fact, are matters of concurrent competence between the State and the Regions. It is easy to imagine, then, that these conflicts will recur elsewhere.

Returning to Sicily," explains the circular signed by the Councillor for Territory, Giuseppa Savarino, "the problem arises from the fact that the Consolidated Building Law (Presidential Decree no. 380/2001), which is the norm modified in several points by the Salva casa, was transposed at the time by the Region in a special way, through Regional Law no. 16/2016. One part was the subject of a dynamic transposition: in this way, the rules of the Consolidated Building Law enter (including amendments) directly and automatically into force in Sicily. Another part, on the other hand, was transposed with amendments, with articles expressly inserted in 2016 in the regional regulation. For this part there is greater rigidity. Only the articles of Presidential Decree No. 380/2001 subject to dynamic transposition, then, are applicable with the amendments of the Salva casa also on the island.

The problem is that many of the key instruments of the amnesty just launched by the government fall into the category of regulations to be transposed. The circular lists them in detail. The simplifications on awnings, bioclimatic pergolas and Vepa are not immediately applicable. The amnesty on pre-1977 variants and for buildings for which habitability has been declared by the municipality does not apply. This is - says the circular - "a new discipline whose content poses problems of formal and substantial compatibility with regional building regulations".

Again, the new conformity assessment, i.e. the amnesty for minor non-conformities and essential variations, which is the cornerstone of the Salva Casa (Save Home), is not applicable. Although it is, in fact, a new regulation (not yet present in the Consolidated Building Code), it does not, according to the circular, fall within the limits of formal and substantial compatibility 'with the national legislation in force'.