Works without a building permit

1. With no formality at all

You need neither a permit nor a notification. This applies to interventions on existing buildings, outside protected built-up areas and historic-monument protection zones:

• Repairs to fences, if the shape and materials do not change.
• Repairs to roofs, roof coverings or terraces, if the shape and appearance do not change.
• Repairs and replacements of interior joinery.
• Repairs and replacements of exterior joinery, if the shape and the dimensions of both the openings and the joinery are kept, even if the material changes.
• Repairs to plastering, painting, coatings and exterior finishes, if the facade elements and colours are not changed.
• Repairs or replacements of interior finishes and flooring.
• Repairs and replacements of heating stoves and chimneys.
• Repairs or replacements of interior installations, as well as repairs to service connections and exterior hook-ups, within the boundaries of the property.
• Installing local heating and domestic hot water systems, individual air-conditioning units and consumption meters.
• Works to implement fire prevention and firefighting measures, in order to obtain the fire safety authorisation.

Separately, the following can also be carried out with no formality:

• Service connections and exterior hook-ups of any kind, within the boundaries of the property.
• Retaining walls or ground-floor access stairs, inside the property; demountable outdoor terraces and pergolas inside the property, outside protected built-up areas.
• Landscaping a front garden, outside protected built-up areas.
• Funerary construction works, with the approval of the cemetery administration.

With no permit, but with a minimal formality:

• Installing photovoltaic panels for electricity generation by prosumer owners, and/or solar panels for hot water, with prior notice to the town hall. The supporting structure must ensure the stability of the assembly.
• New annexes exterior to single-family homes in rural areas (covered terraces, pergolas, summer kitchens, kiosks, sheds, sanitary facilities) under the following cumulative conditions: maximum 20 sqm in total, maximum height 2.5 m, no foundation, of a temporary nature, demountable, on a wood or metal structure, complying with the local PUG. They are declared on your own responsibility and are taxed.

2. With simplified notificare

You fill in a notification form and attach a simplified-content technical execution project, prepared by an architect with signing rights and specialist engineers. You submit everything to the town hall, in writing or digitally, before starting the works.

The town hall has 15 working days to respond. If it does not respond, the notificare is considered tacitly approved. The works can start 15 calendar days after this term is reached.

The following can be carried out by notificare, outside protected zones:

• New constructions exterior to single-family homes (garages, covered terraces, pergolas, summer kitchens, kiosks, pools, sanitary facilities) not exceeding 50 sqm in total, only in rural areas, within the built-up area boundary, except rural localities within metropolitan zones. This also includes annexes under 20 sqm built with a foundation, permanent and non-demountable, that do not fall under the no-formality regime.
• One single-family home, with its own access and plot, ground floor only or semi-basement plus ground floor, with no basement, with a maximum built floor area of 150 sqm, within the built-up area boundary of rural localities, only based on standard designs made available by the authorities or on individual designs prepared by an architect with signing rights, approved by the county chief architect.
• Building a new enclosure by demolishing the existing one.
• Replacing the existing roof in the same shape, or by reconfiguring and raising it by at most 0.50 m, if it stays within the maximum permitted height.
• Loft conversion in an existing attic, including interior stairs in single-family homes, without changing the building's volume and without structural reinforcement.
• Renovating and extending the kitchen or the bathroom; uniformly enclosing loggias and balconies in multi-family housing.
• Changes to the partitioning of non-structural interior or exterior walls, if the size of the house does not change (single-family homes).
• Facade remodelling, only where it has no load-bearing structural role.
• Uniform energy retrofit of the envelope and/or roof, for individual residential buildings with at most 3 levels, if the structural system does not change.
• Change of use, only where no works requiring a permit are needed, for commercial functions or offices with public access.
• Extensions or changes of use for fitting out sanitary facilities or technical rooms, at most 25 sqm.

In buffer zones around historic monuments and protected built-up areas, notificare is possible only for minor works (repairs that do not affect the volume, shape and facade decorations), with the written approval of the culture directorate.

3. With a building permit

Anything that does not fall into the two categories above needs a building permit.

Fences: all four situations

Fences are where all three regimes are easiest to see. The possible situations, each with its own regime:

• Repairs to an existing fence, without changing its shape or materials: no formality at all (art. 299 para. 2).
• A new fence, put up by demolishing the existing one: simplified notification (art. 294 para. 2).
• A completely new fence, on land that never had a fence: building permit (art. 259 para. 6). The regime is the same in urban and rural areas; being in a protected zone only makes the procedure stricter.
• A fence built together with a new building: included in the building permit for the building, no separate permit needed.