One of the downsides to buying or owning a property here in Puglia is the possibility that parts of it are illegal. We find that when applying for planning permission for a project, around 75% of the properties have something that is not registered correctly which prevents the planning process going ahead before the problem is resolved.
These are generally buildings or extensions that were not registered correctly before the property was purchased or more concerningly, work that the existing owners have had done since they purchased the property and which they thought had been done legally by the agent, geometra or builder. It is an unpleasant surprise to find that your swimming pool or the extension you had added was never correctly registered at the comune and as such is illegal.
If you want to sell the property or would like to open another project then these issues need to be resolved before you can go ahead so it is always worth checking that your property is legal.
We offer all our management clients a free property check to find out what the current status of their property is and what work, if anything, needs to be done to legalise any discrepancies between what is registered with the comune and what is actually in situ.