Condono, sanatoria, Salva Casa: Italy's building amnesties for confused buyers

Condono vs sanatoria: two different animals

A condono edilizio is an extraordinary amnesty: on three occasions (L. 47/1985, L. 724/1994, L. 326/2003) Italy allowed owners to legalize works built without permits, on application and payment. There is no 'rolling' condono: if works were abusive and no application was filed under those laws, they generally cannot be condoned today.

A sanatoria (accertamento di conformità) is the ordinary procedure to regularize works that could have been permitted all along — different tool, different risk profile. The Salva Casa decree (DL 69/2024, conv. L. 105/2024) widened tolerances and simplified several regularizations, which is why any older assessment of 'unfixable' issues deserves a fresh look by a professional.

The buyer's real question: concluded or pending?

A condono that was applied for, paid and formally granted decades ago is usually a closed chapter — ask for the concessione in sanatoria and file it away. A condono still 'in corso di definizione' after 30 years (astonishingly common) means the file sits unresolved at the Comune: outstanding payments, missing documents, or simply municipal backlog.

Buying with a pending condono means inheriting that uncertainty: possible extra costs, limits on future works, complications with mortgages and resale. If you proceed at all, do it with eyes open: get the file number, have a geometra check the status, and consider making the purchase conditional on the outcome — or pricing the risk.

Words to circle in your documents

'Domanda di condono presentata', 'in corso di definizione', 'difformità', 'opere realizzate in assenza di titolo', 'agibilità non rilasciata'. Any of these in a proposta, compromesso or perizia deserves a specific answer before you sign — not reassurance from the agent, but paper from the Comune.

Check your document for these flags

Our analysis reads your contract and flags every building-compliance declaration, quoting the exact clause and telling you what to demand before signing — including whether the Salva Casa changes may be relevant to your case. From $49, in about a minute.

Related guides

• What is a compromesso? Italy's binding preliminary contract, explained
• Buying property in Italy as a foreigner: the 12-point checklist
• Visura catastale explained: how to read Italy's property record (and what it won't tell you)