The SCIA: when it suffices and what it covers

The notice is not an application. It is an act by which the private party declares that work is starting, accompanied by the certification of a qualified professional attesting its compliance with the planning instruments, the building regulations and the rules in force.

Two features follow from that nature. Work may begin from filing, without waiting for any municipal act. The authority's control is subsequent and is exercised within the statutory period, with power to order prohibition of continuation and removal of the effects where the conditions are not met, subject to the party's ability to bring the work into compliance.

The certification is therefore the heart of the consent, and the responsibility of the professional giving it is the counterweight to the absence of prior review. The professional's liability is the counterweight to the absence of a decision.

Article 22 of the code identifies the works subject to a certified notice, available in conformity with the provisions of the planning instruments, the building regulations and the planning and building rules in force. The list must be read alongside those of the neighbouring regimes.

Category	Condition
Extraordinary maintenance	Where it affects the structural elements of the building or the elevations
Conservative restoration and rehabilitation	Where it affects the structural elements of the building
Building restructuring	Where it does not fall within article 10 paragraph 1 letter c)

The third row is defined by subtraction, and this drafting technique explains why classification requires reading article 10 first. So called light building restructuring is what remains of the category once the situations reserved to the permesso di costruire have been removed.

On the first two rows the dividing line is impact on structural elements, and for extraordinary maintenance also impact on the elevations, under the wording resulting from the 2020 amendments. The assessment must be made by investigation, not by presumption.

The test has a concrete application worth spelling out. Structural elements comprise those with a load bearing function, so beams, columns, floor slabs and load bearing walls. Extraordinary maintenance not affecting these and not altering the elevations remains in the notification regime; the same work affecting them moves to the certified notice.

The operational consequence is that classification rests on a technical assessment of the nature of the elements involved, which must be documented in the drawings. On masonry buildings the distinction between a load bearing wall and a partition is not always evident by eye, and a survey assuming it without verification exposes the certification.

The second paragraph of article 22 extends the notice to variations during construction to a permesso di costruire, on cumulative conditions. The conditions are cumulative and all must be checked.

The variation must not affect the planning parameters or the volumes, must not change the use, must not change the building category, must not alter the envelope of the building and must not breach any conditions contained in the permit. No condition may be taken as met by approximation.

The conditions are cumulative rather than alternative: the failure of a single one rules out proceeding by notice. This is a point on which practice tends to be more elastic than the text, and checking the five conditions individually is the simplest way to avoid a non conformity.

The notice comprises the forms adopted, the design documents and the certification of the qualified professional. To these are added, as the case requires, the assent of other authorities, declarations on the lawfulness of the existing building and seismic requirements where the work affects structural elements.

Two elements deserve attention. The first is the documentation of lawful status, which on an existing building is the premise of the certification rather than an incidental attachment. The second is consistency between drawings and declarations, which is the most immediate check the authority can carry out within its verification period.

An ordinary SCIA generally does not entail payment of the development contribution, which is tied to issue of the permit. The contribution attaches to other consents and other situations.

The rule has a significant exception, however. For extraordinary maintenance increasing infrastructure demand, the code provides that the contribution is commensurate with the incidence of the infrastructure charges alone, provided an increase in usable floor area results.

The SCIA in lieu of a permesso di costruire should also be distinguished: it replaces the express instrument in the cases provided and follows its own regime, including as regards the contribution. That situation is covered in the branch on procedures.

Where the work affects structural elements, the notice is accompanied by the requirements of the seismic rules, which follow their own procedure before the competent regional body. The two procedures run in parallel.

The two tracks are distinct and should be started in parallel. The seismic regime depends not on the building consent but on the nature of the work and the seismic classification of the area, and omitting it is not cured by filing the notice.

The consequence for programming is that the immediate start permitted by the notice may be precluded by the seismic procedure, where that requires prior authorisation rather than a simple filing. The regime applicable in the area of the works should be checked before announcing a site start date to the client.

The place of the notice in the system is clearest by comparison. The neighbouring regimes delimit its scope.

Aspect	CILA	SCIA	Permesso di costruire
Impact on structural elements	Excluded	Permitted	Permitted
Alteration of elevations	Excluded	Permitted	Permitted
Alteration of overall volume	Excluded	Excluded	Permitted
Start of works	From filing	From filing	After issue
Development contribution	Not due	Generally not due	Due
Act of the authority	None	None	Express instrument

The row on overall volume marks the upper boundary of the notice, and the row on structural elements its lower boundary. Between the two lies the whole field of application of article 22.

Carrying out work without the notice, where one was required, attracts the sanctions regime provided by the code, with consequences depending on the nature of the work carried out. The sanction applies regardless of whether the work complies in substance.

Professionally, the position of the technical professional is engaged. A certification given on unverified premises, particularly as to the lawfulness of the existing building or the non structural nature of the elements involved, exposes the professional to a liability that regularising the work does not extinguish.

Using the notification instead of the notice is the first, and almost always stems from a hasty assessment of whether the elements involved are structural. It almost always stems from a hasty view on structural impact.

Treating a variation as minor when it does not meet the requirements is the second, and follows from not having checked the five cumulative conditions. It stems from not having checked the conditions one by one.

Failing to document lawful status is the third, and produces either a request for further information or, worse, a certification without foundation. It produces either a request for further material or a later non conformity.

Reading the start of works as established compliance is the fourth. The immediate start is a procedural facility and not a validation: the authority's power of control remains intact for the whole statutory period.