Hi everybody, Is a planning permit needed if you

What you have heard is true. When you say "legal documents" it would be best to express the issues as administrative procedures. Unless you are Italian and know the process in formal formal terms you would be advised to the professionals address the subject.

Anthony Alioto

www.italianlaw.net

What you have heard is true. When you say "legal documents" it would be best to express the issues as administrative procedures. Unless you are Italian and know the process in formal formal terms you would be advised to the professionals address the subject.

Anthony Alioto

www.italianlaw.net

Merely painting a property is manutenzione ordinaria and requires no specific permission. However it may be that the comune or the Beni Culturali have imposed rules on the colours permitted and you will need at the least a nulla osta.  Your first step should be to contact the comune and ask them if they have a set of guidelines.   

If you are not painting, but using a coloured intonaco then you need permissions as its no longer manutenzione ordinaria. 

Hello PaulDV,

I am an Architect and have carried out a number of projects on Lake Como. Your area  is in the Comune of Tremezzina, and is under the protection of the Soprintendenza (as most of the Lake Como shore is) - and you cannot change the property's outer appearance - in theory not even the garden fence, without the Official permission from the Local Commissione Paesaggistica followed by the authorization from the Soprintendenza.

The name of the process is Autorizzazione paesaggistica – your proposals will qualify for the streamlined version called autorizzazione paesaggistica semplificata, requiring “only” 60 days maximum in the Soprintendenza of Milan. 

In reality it is the first hurdle – getting passed the Local Commissione Paesaggistica that is the tricky part, but if you are proposing to colour your house to something similar to the neighbouring context I do not see any problems. Once passed the Local Commissione Paesaggistica – it gets sent to Milan to sit on a desk of the Soprintendenza, who most likely will not look at it and you gain authorisation after 60 days if Soprintendenza do not reply. In the great majority of small projects (and yours is a very small project) the Soprintendenza will not contradict the Local Commissione Paesaggistica.

Locals who tell you that you application could be refused in Milan for a mysterious reason are scaremongering and it is not what I have experienced with the Sopritendenza which is an organisation that can certainly cause problems that do not follow any logic, but generally only for bigger, very visible or historical projects, not small simple domestic ones.     

All the best

Conor