philat98

I have an old barn (55square metres) that was used for keeping animals on a bit of agricultural land. The barn was in a very bad condition so I applied to the Comune to put a new roof on it and rebuild the wooden walls.. I want to use the barn as a workshop (not for any business purposes) and equip it with water and electricity. What I wonder is whether the Comune will want to put a tax on it when the work is finished? They might think that I am making a house on the sly. I am not sure when something stops being a barn and starts being a house. Any ideas?

modicasa

There will be iMU to pay on it, as it will have a rateable value - presumably italready has. They cant assume you are building a house on the sly asyou are not putting in a bathroom or kitchen, and therefore it wont have the requisites. However they may insist you have a tecnico do your plans as presmuably it is over 1.80 high and you will still have to obey the antiseismic laws etc.

philat98

Thanks for the reply. We made the application through a Geometra. He told us what materials to use but there was no plan of the project. The local vigile has been standing at the gate with his notebook so I suspect we might be getting a letter from the Comune.

jonwel

If the Geometra does his job properly he should be making sure your legal side is in order.. If there are surprises it's his fault.

philat98

Professional people here dont fill me with much confidence. I just received a tax demand from Equitalia that comes down to an accountant making a mistake on an F24 in 2013. It seems that it is normal in Italy for the customer to pay regardless of who made the mistake.

Margaret M

Pretty much what I was about to say.

jonwel

Yes, that does seem to be the case, but if the works are still in progress I'd say you must breathe down the geometra's neck, tell him about the vigile, ask for the plan, why he hasn't prepared one etc.
Not all Italian officials are unhelpful. You might find someone friendly at the Land registry (Catasto) who will tell you if our application is in order. No guarantee, I'm just suggesting a possibility.

modicasa

It may be that a plan isn't required - it is an agricultural building and seems to be all in wood. I assume the geometra is doing it with a SCIA which will be a replacemt of what is existent and may not require plans and whatnot. However, as you're paying the geometra, I would ask him how he is going about it.

jonwel

The important thing is never to assume that the people you're paying are doing their job properly. Lawyers etc. always take on more work than they can comfortably handle - to make more money - and then give priority to the customers who break their b***s most.

philat98

We have a permit a Autorizzazione Paesaggistico - Ambientale Semplificata from the Comune. The dimensions are unchanged. The roof was in corrugated iron but had to be changed to tiles. We are using false metal tiles for this but they look quite realistic and reduce the weight of the roof.