Planning compliance in Italy: checking a property before you buy or renovate

Before you buy a house in Italy, or before you renovate one, someone should answer a simple question: does the building that exists correspond to the building that was authorised? That is what a planning compliance check establishes.

In Italian practice it starts from the stato legittimo of the property, its lawful state: the building as described by the building permits that authorised it, not as it looks today and not as it appears in the land registry. Whether a property can be sold cleanly, mortgaged without delays and renovated under a simple procedure depends on that comparison.

This guide explains what Italian law says about the lawful state of a property, how the permits are retrieved from the municipality, how permits, land registry records and the actual building are compared, which documents to ask for before you make an offer, and the mistakes we see most often.

It is written by Federico Cappellina Architects, an architecture practice in Verona that designs and renovates houses in north-east Italy and Lombardy, for foreign buyers, owners and advisers who are not familiar with the Italian system. The laws are linked to Normattiva, the official database of Italian legislation, in their current text; the sequence of checks is our practice and is described as such. This page is not legal advice or a survey report, and regional and municipal rules must be checked with the municipality concerned.

Planning compliance in brief

In Italy, planning compliance is measured against the lawful state of the property defined by Article 9-bis of D.P.R. 380/2001, the national building code.
The lawful state rests on the permit that authorised the construction, or on the permit for the last works on the whole property, plus every later partial permit.
For buildings erected when no permit was required, first cadastral records, photographs, maps, archive documents and other deeds of proven origin are used.
The land registry (catasto) describes the property for tax purposes; it does not make it lawful.
Sale deeds must state the permit details and the cadastral conformity, on pain of nullity; the substance of the check is for the buyer’s own technician.
Permits are obtained through a request for access to records under Law 241/1990: a reasoned request, free inspection, copies at reproduction cost, thirty days for a reply.

Planning compliance in Italy and design: stacked white volumes and pool at dusk at AV Home in Dueville, a project by the studio — AV Home, Dueville (Vicenza): a project by the studio, shown as a reference of language, not as an example of a compliance check.

What the lawful state of a property is

Paragraph 1-bis of Article 9-bis, in the text in force since 28 July 2024, states that the lawful state of a building or a unit is the one established by the permit that provided for its construction or legitimised it, or by the permit that governed the last building works affecting the whole building or the whole unit, provided that the administration, when issuing it, verified the legitimacy of the earlier permits. The permits that later authorised partial works are added to that base.

Also counted are permits issued or formed under Articles 34-ter, 36, 36-bis and 38 of the building code, once the related penalties or payments have been made, and the declaration of construction tolerances under Article 34-bis. We do not explain those regularisation and tolerance rules here; they are covered in our guides to regularising building works in Italy and to construction tolerances in Italy.

Paragraph 1 of the same article adds that administrations must obtain directly the documents and data, including cadastral data, already held by other public bodies, and may not ask for certificates of their authenticity. The technician’s job is still to find the permits, read them and put them in order.

Planning compliance, lawful state and cadastral conformity

Three ideas are often blurred together, in Italy and abroad. It helps to keep them apart.

Lawful state (stato legittimo): what was authorised? A documentary reconstruction of the building according to its permits.
Planning compliance (conformità urbanistica or urbanistico-edilizia): does what exists match what was authorised? A comparison between the lawful state and a measured survey of the building.
Cadastral conformity (conformità catastale): do the land registry data and floor plans match the building as it stands? This is the check required in sale deeds by Article 29 of Law 52/1985.

A property can match the land registry and still fail planning compliance: the cadastral plan was updated after works that were never authorised. It can be lawful and still not match the land registry: the plan was never updated after a regular permit.

A sound check keeps the three columns separate and compares them only at the end. If you come from a country where a single register or a single certificate answers all these questions, expect the Italian answer to come from several sources. This is a general caution, not a comparison of specific foreign rules.

The documents behind a planning compliance check

Reading paragraph 1-bis, the elements of the lawful state are:

The original permit: a licenza edilizia, concessione, permesso di costruire or other title under which the building was erected or legitimised.
Alternatively, the permit for the last works on the whole property, if the administration checked the earlier permits when issuing it.
Later partial permits: filings for works on part of the building or unit, such as a SCIA or CILA (see CILA and SCIA renovation permits in Italy).
Regularisation titles under Articles 34-ter, 36, 36-bis and 38, with the payments made.
The tolerance declaration of Article 34-bis, which under paragraph 3 of that article a qualified technician makes for the purpose of certifying the lawful state, either in the forms of a new filing or in a sworn statement attached to a deed of transfer.

A missing element breaks the chain. A variation carried out but never filed, a veranda enclosed without a permit, an attic turned into a bedroom without a title: these are links that cannot be found in the archive, and that is where the lawful state and the actual building part ways.

Older buildings: when no permit was required

Many farmhouses and villas in Italy were built at times and in places where no building permit was required. For these cases paragraph 1-bis allows the lawful state to be inferred from the first cadastral records (catasto di primo impianto) or from other probative documents: photographs, map extracts, archive documents, or another public or private deed of proven origin. The same rule applies where there is initial evidence that a permit existed but no copy or reference to it can be found.

When a permit became compulsory depends on the law of the time, on the place and on municipal planning instruments, and must be checked case by case. In our practice, for an old building, we put together historic cadastral maps, first cadastral plans, aerial photographs and dated family photographs, and compare them with the parts added later, which are usually the ones that needed a permit.

Common parts and individual units

Paragraph 1-ter of Article 9-bis matters if you are buying a unit in a building with several owners, such as a semi-detached villa or a house in a small complex. Irregularities in the common parts do not affect the lawful state of an individual unit, and irregularities in an individual unit do not affect the lawful state of the building as a whole.

It is still worth knowing what is going on in the common parts, because future works on the roof, façades or structure will involve them; but the planning compliance check for the unit you are buying is carried out on that unit.

Why planning compliance matters at the notary’s desk

In Italy a property sale is signed before a notary (notaio), a public official who drafts and authenticates the deed. Three rules link the compliance check to that deed.

Article 46 of the building code

Under Article 46, deeds that transfer, create or dissolve co-ownership of rights in rem over buildings, or parts of them, whose construction began after 17 March 1985 are null and cannot be signed unless they state, by declaration of the seller, the details of the building permit or of the permit issued in regularisation.

Where only a monetary penalty applies, proof of payment must be attached. If the details are missing but the permit exists, the deed can be confirmed later by one party in the same form; the nullity does not apply to deeds arising from enforcement sales. Paragraph 5-bis extends these rules to works carried out under a SCIA in the cases it indicates.

Article 40 of Law 47/1985

For older buildings, Article 40 of Law 47/1985 requires the deed to state the details of the licence or concession, or of the regularisation application with proof of the payments. For works begun before 1 September 1967 it allows, instead of the licence details, a sworn statement by the owner or another entitled person declaring that the works began before that date.

Article 29, paragraph 1-bis, of Law 52/1985

Article 29, paragraph 1-bis requires deeds on existing buildings to identify each urban unit in the land registry, refer to the floor plans filed there and include the owners’ declaration that cadastral data and plans match the actual state, on pain of nullity. That declaration may be replaced by a certificate from a technician qualified to file cadastral updates. Before signing, the notary identifies the registered owners and checks them against the property registers.

Read together, these rules require the deed to state the permit details and the cadastral conformity. They do not replace the buyer’s own check that the permits actually match what is being bought. That is why planning compliance should be verified before you commit, by a technician who works for you.

Access to records: how the permits are retrieved

Building permits are kept in the archives of the municipality (Comune). They are obtained through the right of access governed by Articles 22 to 25 of Law 241/1990, the Italian law on administrative procedure.

Who may ask: under Article 22, anyone with a direct, concrete and current interest, corresponding to a legally protected situation and linked to the document requested. The right is exercised towards public administrations, public bodies and operators of public services (Article 23).
How: the request must give reasons and is addressed to the administration that created the document or holds it permanently (Article 25). Inspection is free; copies are subject to reimbursement of the reproduction cost, plus stamp duty and search fees where applicable.
Timing: if thirty days pass without a reply, the request is deemed refused. Against a refusal, express or tacit, an appeal may be lodged with the regional administrative court, or a review may be requested from the competent civic ombudsman (difensore civico).
Limits: Article 24 excludes certain categories of documents and states that requests aimed at a general check on the administration’s activity are not admissible; access must in any case be granted to documents needed to protect or defend one’s legal interests.

In our practice, for a property not yet bought, we ask the owner for a written authorisation with a copy of their identity document: it makes the interest evident and simplifies the request. Forms, search fees and the real time needed depend on the municipality; in some offices the older archives are on paper and a consultation must be booked. It is worth starting early, ideally as soon as an offer becomes likely.

Planning compliance for a lakeside villa in Italy: Lugana Bay at San Benedetto di Lugana, white volumes and pool, a project by the studio — Lugana Bay, San Benedetto di Lugana (Lake Garda): a project by the studio, shown as a reference of language.

Our planning compliance check, step by step

The sequence we follow before a purchase or a project is always the same. It is not a legal obligation; it is the method that lets us give the client a written answer that can be verified.

Seller’s documents: title deed, cadastral extract and plans, copies of the permits they hold, any earlier technician’s report.
Up-to-date land registry records: cadastral extract (visura), cadastral map and, for buildings with several units, the site plan of units (elaborato planimetrico).
Access to records at the municipality, as described above.
Reconstruction of the lawful state: original permit or last permit on the whole building, partial permits, regularisations, declared tolerances, in chronological order, each with its drawings.
Measured survey of the building as it stands: dimensions, heights, openings, room uses, outbuildings.
Three-column comparison: permits, land registry, actual building, room by room.
Written report: what complies, what falls within the tolerances, what needs a filing, what cannot be regularised, and how each point affects the project and the price.

Where planning compliance usually fails

Differences between the lawful state and the actual building tend to appear in the same places. We check them in this order:

Volumes and floor areas: extensions, verandas, enclosed porches, storage rooms turned into living space. Volume is also what the building volume calculation measures.
Heights: attics and basements made habitable.
Uses: a storeroom that became a bedroom, a cellar that became a family room.
Façades: windows opened, moved or enlarged, new French windows, balconies.
Internal layout: partitions moved, bathrooms added, often works for which a CILA was never filed.
External structures: canopies, enclosed pergolas, swimming pools, guest houses, boundary walls.
Position on the plot: outline and distances from the boundaries.

Each difference must then be classified: does it fall within the tolerances of Article 34-bis, does it need a regularisation, or can it only be resolved by restoring the authorised state? That classification is made on the text of the rules and, where doubtful, with the municipal technical office, not by eye.

Documents to ask for before buying a house in Italy

For a planning compliance check, this is the list we give clients who are about to make an offer:

From the seller: title deed, building permits with their drawings, habitability (see the certificate of habitability in Italy), declarations of conformity for the systems, the energy performance certificate, and any amnesty or regularisation files with receipts.
From the municipality: the permits in the archive, the urban planning certificate if land other than the garden of the house is included, and information on constraints.
From the land registry: historic cadastral extract, plans, map and site plan of units.
From the notary: the searches on mortgages, charges and title, which are not the technician’s task.
From your own technician: the survey and the written comparison.

If the area is subject to other constraints, such as the hydrogeological one, the related consents are needed too: see our guide to the hydrogeological constraint in Italy.

Planning compliance before a renovation

The same check applies if you already own the house and plan to renovate it. Every new filing, whether a CILA, a SCIA or a building permit, starts from the lawful state: the designer swears that the new works comply, and to do so must know the starting point.

An earlier irregularity does not disappear with a new filing; usually it has to be regularised first, or together, in the ways the law allows. This is why, in the house design process, reconstructing the permits is the first activity, before the concept, and why it affects the cost of renovating a house in Italy and the choice between renovating and demolishing and rebuilding.

In our practice, when the check reveals a regularisation issue, we plan it as a separate phase with its own timing, before the site opens and before the safety filings described in our guide to construction site safety in Italy.

If planning compliance fails: where to go next

This guide stops at the check. What follows depends on the type of discrepancy, and we do not repeat it here:

minor differences in measurement or execution: construction tolerances in Italy;
works carried out without a permit or departing from it: regularising building works in Italy;
new works to be authorised after regularisation: CILA and SCIA or a building permit.

On the purchase side there are generally three routes: ask the seller to regularise before completion, renegotiate the price to reflect the cost and time of regularisation, or walk away. The clauses of the preliminary contract (compromesso or contratto preliminare) are drafted by the notary or a lawyer; the technician says what must be checked and regularised, and when.

The most frequent planning compliance mistakes

Treating the land registry as proof: an up-to-date cadastral plan does not prove planning compliance.
Stopping at the original permit: later filings and variations count as much as the first licence.
Reading the decisions without the drawings: what was authorised is shown in the attached drawings.
Relying on the seller’s declaration: the deed states the permit details; it does not certify every room.
Checking after signing the preliminary contract: you negotiate better before you are bound, and a deposit paid under a preliminary contract is not easy to recover.
Ignoring outbuildings: pools, canopies and guest houses are often the part without a permit.
Filing new works on an irregular base, hoping the earlier discrepancy will not surface.

Planning compliance check before a renovation in Italy: overhead daylight from a roof window at Villa Lonigo, a project by the studio — Villa Lonigo: a project by the studio, shown as a reference of language, not as an example of the topic.

Managing a planning compliance check from abroad

Many of the buyers we work with live elsewhere and visit the property only a few times before completion. A few habits keep the process under control. Ask for the report in writing and in English as well as Italian. Agree who will hold the owner’s authorisation for access to records and who will receive the municipality’s replies.

Ask for copies of every permit and drawing found, not just a summary. Schedule the survey on the same trip as a viewing, so that it does not delay the offer. Keep the whole file with the property documents: it is what the next buyer’s adviser will ask to see. None of this is a legal requirement; it is what makes a purchase easy to explain later.

How the practice works

For us, a planning compliance check is not a formality to hand off at the last minute; it is the basis on which the decision to buy, and the design itself, are made. We reconstruct the permits, survey the building, compare the three columns and deliver a written report that the client can take to the notary, the bank and, where needed, the seller.

When the project continues, the same file becomes the starting point of the building application and of site supervision. Anyone considering the purchase or renovation of a house in Italy can write to the practice from the contact page.

Italian terms at a glance

Stato legittimo: the lawful state of a property, as defined by its building permits (Article 9-bis of D.P.R. 380/2001).
Conformità urbanistica: planning compliance, the match between the lawful state and the actual building.
Conformità catastale: cadastral conformity, the match between land registry data and plans and the actual building.
Catasto: the land registry, which records properties for tax purposes; visura is an extract from it, planimetria a floor plan filed there.
Accesso agli atti: access to administrative records under Law 241/1990, the route to obtain permits from the municipality.
Titolo edilizio: building title, a generic term for permits and filings (licenza, concessione, permesso di costruire, SCIA, CILA).
Notaio: the notary, the public official who drafts and authenticates the deed of sale.
Compromesso: the preliminary contract of sale, signed before the final deed.

Planning compliance: frequently asked questions

What is planning compliance for a property in Italy?

It is the match between the building as it exists and the building as authorised by its permits. The authorised state, the stato legittimo, is defined by Article 9-bis of D.P.R. 380/2001; compliance is verified by comparing it with a measured survey.

Does the land registry prove planning compliance?

As a rule, no. Article 9-bis refers to first cadastral records only for buildings erected when no permit was required, together with other probative documents. For other buildings the basis is the building permits.

How do I obtain the building permits for a house in Italy?

Through a request for access to records at the municipality under Articles 22 to 25 of Law 241/1990. The request must give reasons; inspection is free and copies cost the reproduction fee. If there is no reply within thirty days the request is deemed refused, and an appeal is possible.

When should planning compliance be checked before buying?

Before the preliminary contract becomes binding, so that the outcome can be reflected in its conditions and in the price.

What does Italian law require in the deed of sale?

The permit details for buildings begun after 17 March 1985 (Article 46 of D.P.R. 380/2001), the licence details or a sworn statement for works begun before 1 September 1967 (Article 40 of Law 47/1985), and cadastral conformity (Article 29, paragraph 1-bis, of Law 52/1985), on pain of nullity.

Can I still buy if planning compliance fails?

It depends on the discrepancy: some fall within the construction tolerances, others need regularisation, others can only be solved by restoring the authorised state. Classify them with a technician first, and deal with them in the preliminary contract with the notary.

Who carries out a planning compliance check?

A qualified technician, such as an architect or surveyor, working for the buyer or owner. The notary carries out the searches on title and charges, which are a different check.

Planning compliance: the minimum file before you buy

To close a planning compliance check, the practice’s method puts at least the following in the file.

Planning compliance is reconstructed from the permit that built the house and from those that changed it, with the details of each.
Planning compliance is compared with the land registry plan, noting every difference in layout, use or size.
Planning compliance is compared with the building as found on site, measured and not judged by eye.
For planning compliance, every discrepancy found is classified: within tolerance, possible regularisation, restoration.
Planning compliance enters the preliminary contract with the conditions that follow from it, agreed with the notary.
Planning compliance is summarised in writing at the end, with date, sources and the technician’s signature.
A planning compliance file for a house with several owners over the years also lists each past permit, so that gaps in the history are visible.
Planning compliance of the garden, the pool and the outbuildings is checked in the same file, not left to a separate search.
Planning compliance in a renovation is rechecked after the design stage, because a variation can change the starting point.
Planning compliance checks that cite the offices consulted and the dates of access can be repeated by the next owner.
Planning compliance documents are kept with the deed of purchase, together with the technician’s summary.
Planning compliance questions the municipality answers in writing are worth more than answers given at the counter.
A planning compliance check is a technical document, not a legal opinion, and says so in its heading.