Torre dei Moro, single contract for 82 families. And each will pay up to 30-40 thousand euro

A 20-storey skyscraper (18 above ground and two below) was hit by flames and burnt down in half an hour; 82 households with a total of more than 100 people involved. When the Moro Tower caught fire in Milan on 29 August 2021, there was no precedent in Italy for residential fires on skyscrapers of this size (only two years earlier in London the Grenfell Tower had caught fire, in which a young Italian couple had also lost their lives).

A maze of insurances, appraisals, and preventive assessments to quantify the damage, ascertain who was responsible to be brought to trial, share out the burdens, and relaunch the reconstruction. Today, precisely three years later, the reconstruction machine has been set in motion "with a single, particularly complex contract worth over 20 million," explains Roberto Panetta, a lawyer with the Studio Panetta law firm, civil lawyer for the condominium in Via Antonini 32, "that brings together the requests for reconstruction of the common parts and the renovation of the interiors, restoring - at the expense of the insurance companies - materials and finishes of similar value to those that had been included in the flats and leaving any more costly customisation choices than the standard provided to the tenants. Easy to say. In reality, the drafting in black and white of obligations and faculties on the part of the builder, the 82 families and the insurance companies called upon to cover the costs, required chisel work, which, precisely, could not take its cue from previous similar cases.

"The tender was called in September 2023 and it was complex because a reliable general contractor had to be found and the risk of unforeseen events had to be avoided," Panetta explains. "In May, Imprecom srl was identified, with a single contract for the renovation of the common parts and the flats, to which all flat owners adhere by mandate. Private insurance companies bear the cost of the restoration work with subrogation towards those responsible, once ascertained. Finally, the contract contains a variance protection system to minimise unforeseen extra costs that would be borne by the condominium owners."
The construction sites opened on 19 July and are scheduled for delivery in June 2026. However, for the lower surrounding cottages and houses, where debris has fallen and which are also damaged, the handover is planned earlier, in two tranches: in March and July 2025.

If the contract costs for the reconstruction - over 20 million euro - are borne by the insurance companies, these do not cover the demolition costs. "The policies, in fact, cover the costs up to the ceiling of 150 thousand euro, but a share of about 600-700 thousand euro," Panetta further explains, "will be borne by all residents. And not everyone's home is uninhabitable. There are flats destroyed, others damaged in a less serious way, others practically intact but uninhabitable". If the disaster is natural, aid and compensation are provided. If it is culpable, as in this, case, this is not provided. Everyone will pay for the demolition and disposal of the debris in the common parts and 'there will be some condominiums,' Panetta adds, 'that will have to shell out up to 30-40 thousand euro. To this must be added the condominium expenses, lawyers' and experts' fees, and above all, the rents waiting to be returned. "The same insurance company," Panetta concludes, "has quantified that every year the outlay for all the condominium owners to live away from home, between those who still have a mortgage to pay (only some banks have agreed to negotiate its suspension) on an uninhabitable house and the rent for a temporary flat - amounts to 2.5 million euro a year.