Third building amnesty: what can be fixed and what is excluded

The Third Building Amnesty and the recent ruling

The Third Building Amnesty, regulated by law 326 of 2003, was the subject of a recent ruling by the Lazio Regional Administrative Court that clearly defined what are sanctionable abuses and those excluded from regularization.

Stringent regulations and limitations

It is important to remember that the legislation governing the Third Building Amnesty is very stringent, and the regularization of abuses is not only linked to landscape constraints but also to the type of interventions carried out on the property.
In restricted areas, only minor works are eligible for regularization, while any new constructions or expansions are excluded from the amnesty.

The June 2024 ruling

The ruling 12515 of June 19, 2024, by the Lazio Regional Administrative Court reaffirms that an intervention involving an expansion of a dwelling in a landscape-constrained area cannot be granted amnesty.
The ruling emphasizes the limited scope of the amnesty, especially in areas with landscape constraints, where only minor abuses such as restoration, conservative rehabilitation, or extraordinary maintenance are eligible.

Exclusions from the Third Building Amnesty

Expansions of building volumes and surfaces are always excluded from the Third Building Amnesty.
Specifically, abuses related to new constructions, renovations that involve expanding volumes or surfaces are never eligible for amnesty.
In these cases, the rejection of the amnesty does not even require the opinion of the Authority protecting landscape constraints, even if the constraint implies a relative prohibition on building.

In a case reviewed by the Lazio Regional Administrative Court, a petitioner had expanded their dwelling by more than 40 sqm without building permits or approvals from the Authority protecting landscape constraints in a multi-constrained area.
As a result, the petition was rejected based on the principle that amnesty is never possible under the Third Building Amnesty, regardless of whether the expansion stems from a building renovation or a new construction.