Pre-1967 urban planning compliance for properties

What does pre-1967 property mean?

A 'pre-1967' property refers to a building constructed or renovated beforeentry into force of the 'Bridge Law' of 1967. This law, which came into force on 1 September 1967, introduced the obligation of a master plan and building regulations for the entire national territory.

Before this date, the obligation to obtain a building permit was limited to population centers and areas with municipal planning. Therefore, buildings constructed before 1967 can be considered legitimate even without technical documentation, as long as it can be demonstrated that the construction took place before that date.

At first glance, it may therefore appear that properties built or renovated before 1967 are exempt from the obligation of urban planning compliance or may exist in derogation from the master plan. But is it really like that?

The path of the 1967 Bridge Law

To understand whether properties prior to 1967 are truly free from building permits, it is necessary to take a step back to understand the legislation in force up to that date.

Before Bridge Law 765 of 1967, for the management of the legitimacy of the properties the reference was the Law 1150 of 1942. The latter provided for the obligation of a building permit only for properties located in inhabited centres, or in areas where municipal planning actually existed. Although the Municipalities were still advised to draw up a master plan that was valid for the entire territory, this situation has long led to the existence of municipal areas de facto exempt from urban planning.

With the legislative intervention of 1967, as already explained, the extension of the master plan to the entire national territory became an obligation and, consequently, also the need to obtain an appropriate building permit. 

In simpler words, from 1 September 1967 the request for authorization from the Municipality to carry out building interventions was therefore made mandatory, with the regulation of the urban planning conformity certificate. The latter proves the structural regularity of the building and adherence to the project filed with the Municipality, in accordance with the housing title granted for its construction.

Properties before 1967 and urban planning compliance: what are the obligations?

As explained at the beginning, it is a widespread opinion that pre-1967 properties are somehow exempt from the most recently approved building regulations or, even, are not considered for checks and sanctions on building abuses. But is it enough that a property was built before the Bridge Law 675/67 to consider its construction legitimate? Generally speaking, it is necessary for jurisprudence prove the legitimacy of the property even when built or renovated in periods where the building permit requirement was not in force. Furthermore, it is also necessary to demonstrate any amnesties from which the owners of the property may have benefited, such as the one introduced with the Law 47 of 1985, which provided for the possibility of amnesty following the payment of an oblation. 

How to prove that the construction is before 1967?

First of all, the first and fundamental step is to demonstrate that the property was built before September 1, 1967. To do this, in the absence of a building permit, it is advisable to recover:

• there cadastral plan, whose conservation began in 1939;
• any other document, such as photographic shots, cartographic extracts, public or private documents, which demonstrate the construction period, provided they have proven provenance.

However, the date of construction or renovation is not a sufficient condition to justify the absence of building permits, such as urban planning compliance, it is also necessary to verify:

• For buildings prior to 1942, the building permit is not necessary for those Municipalities which, at the time, had not yet implemented a building regulation;
• for them constructions after 1942, but before 1967, the building permit is not necessary for properties built outside urban centres, as long as they are in a municipality which at the time had no building regulations.

As evident, the presence of a building regulations represents the prerequisite for the building title: consequently, for pre-1967 properties included in planning contexts, such as urban centres, the same title is required.

On the other hand, it is Presidential Decree 380/01 that explains that even for pre-1967 properties it is necessary to prove their legitimacy, even in the absence of a residential title or certificate of urban planning conformity. The state of legitimacy is in fact “deduced from first-time cadastral information, from other probative documents such as photographic shots, cartographic extracts, archival documents or other documents, public or private, whose origin is demonstrated”.

The declaration for properties before 1967

When the property falls into one of the cases that justify the absence of a building permit, and therefore urban planning compliance, it is still necessary to produce the statement before 1967. The latter is one declaration in lieu of the affidavit, also in the form of self-certification, which certifies that the building was built before September 1967, in areas where there was no licensing requirement.

The declaration is the responsibility of the owner of the property - or his heirs, in the event of death - and is necessary to testify to the history of the building, as an act of transparency in the event of a sale of the property, donations and so on. The declaration can be drawn up by the notary, who will take care of verifying and attaching all the available proof documentation.

How is the habitability and usability of pre-1967 properties achieved?

Still with regard to pre-1967 properties, a common belief is hard to die: according to many, these buildings would be exempt from theobligation of habitability and usability. In reality, this would be an erroneous belief, since:

• the 1967 Bridge Law extends the need to obtain a building permit, therefore a building permit, throughout the national territory, even in municipal areas that were once exempt. It therefore does not directly concern the habitability or usability of buildings, but theirs compliance based on urban planning;
• habitability and usability permits, respectively for residential and non-residential buildings, they date back to at least 1934 and, in some cases, they are even older. Consequently, all properties built between 1934 and 1967 should still be equipped with them.