Installation of lifts and hoists: still free construction?

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Emma Potter

Free construction includes all those interventions that can be carried out without having to request any authorization and without the need to send notices of the start of work. Among the interventions admitted to the free construction regime also includes the installation of lifts and goods lifts, but under certain conditions.

It is worth specifying that free construction today is divided into:

  • Totally freewhich mainly includes ordinary maintenance work (find out more here);
  • Partially free, which includes the works that can be achieved following CILA (Certified Notice of Commencement of Works). See what they are here.

Let's delve deeper below.

Installation of lifts and hoists in free buildings: obligations and limits

The installation of lifts and hoists is an intervention included in totally free construction and, therefore, no authorization or CILA is needed to proceed.

However, please remember that carrying out the intervention will always require compliance with:

  • Of the prescriptions of the municipal planning instruments;
  • Of all sector regulations having an impact on the regulation of construction activity, with particular regard to anti-seismic, safety, fire prevention, sanitation, energy efficiency, protection from hydrogeological risk, and protection of cultural and landscape heritage regulations.

Therefore, taking into account all the provisions established by the regulations in this regard, the Consolidated Law on Construction provides that all interventions carried out with the aim of breaking down architectural barriers can be achieved under the totally free construction regime, with the exception of:

  1. Construction of external lifts, as they involve the development of a new technical volume for the building. External elevators require SCIA to be built and are therefore excluded from both totally free and partially free buildings;
  2. Creation of artefacts that alter the shape of the building.

Architectural barriers in free construction: permitted interventions

Given what has been said, the interventions aimed at eliminating architectural barriers that can be carried out with a view to totally free construction are, specifically, the following:

  1. Installation, repair, replacement, renovation and compliance of internal lifts and goods lifts, provided that the intervention does not affect the load-bearing structure of the property;
  2. Installation, repair, replacement, renewal and compliance of stairlifts, stairlifts and similar;
  3. Installation, repair, replacement and renovation of ramps;
  4. Installation, repair, replacement and renewal of sanitary appliances and sanitary and hydro-sanitary systems;
  5. Installation, repair, replacement and renovation of sensory devices.