Asbestos, contaminated land and radon in Italy: what a foreign buyer inherits and how to check before signing

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Italian law treats three situations differently: asbestos-cement roofing on a building on the plot, asbestos waste dumped or buried on the land, and a site formally recorded as contaminated. The third carries the rule a buyer most needs to know. Under article 253 of Legislative Decree 152/2006 (the Environmental Code, Codice dell’ambiente), the cost of a clean-up carried out by the public authorities becomes a charge on the land itself (onere reale), backed by a special statutory priority over the property (privilegio speciale immobiliare). The debt stays with the land when it changes hands.

This guide explains each situation, gives a regional reference price for roof removal, shows where to check before you sign (regional contaminated-sites registers, regional asbestos mapping, the zoning certificate) and ends with radon. It is practical guidance for buyers, not legal advice and not a soil survey.

Who’s who: the Italian bodies you will meet

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Source: TerrenoCheck, Diano San Pietro, parcel 444, p. 27

Situation 1: an asbestos-cement roof on a building on the plot

What the owner has to do

An intact eternit roof is not in itself unlawful in Italy. What the law requires is management. The Ministerial Decree of 6 September 1994 says that once asbestos-containing materials are found, the owner (or whoever runs the activity in the building) must adopt a monitoring and maintenance programme: designate a person responsible for checks and keep documentation showing where the materials are.

Whether removal becomes necessary depends on condition. Regional guidelines applying the decree point to remediation, with removal preferred, when damage is evident (for instance cracks or breakage over more than 10% of the surface); an intact surface stays under monitoring. Lombardy uses a formal "degradation index" set by director-general decree no. 13237 of 18 November 2008.

Lombardy’s notification rule

Regions differ. National Law 257/1992 requires friable asbestos to be reported to the health authority. Lombardy goes further: article 6(1) of Regional Law 17/2003, as amended by Regional Law 14/2012, requires owners to notify the ATS of asbestos in compact form too (asbestos cement included) using form NA/1. Failure to notify carries an administrative fine of €100 to €1,500 (art. 8-bis). If you are buying in Lombardy, ask the seller for the NA/1 receipt and the latest condition assessment.

Who may remove it

You cannot hire a general builder, and you cannot do it yourself.

1. A firm registered in category 10 of the Albo nazionale gestori ambientali. Created by a resolution of the Albo’s national committee of 30 March 2004 (no. 1), the category has two sub-categories: 10A for building materials with asbestos bound in cement or resin (eternit sheets), 10B for friction materials, insulation and friable asbestos. A 10B registration also covers 10A work. The legal basis is article 256 of Legislative Decree 81/2008 (the workplace safety code), which reserves asbestos demolition and removal to firms meeting the requirements of article 212 of the Environmental Code.
2. A work plan (piano di lavoro) filed with the supervisory body at least 30 days before work starts, except in emergencies (art. 256 Legislative Decree 81/2008). If the supervisory body raises no objection or conditions within that period, work may begin. An INL note (no. 7269 of 3 September 2025) says the supervisory bodies are both the ASL and the INL, and that for now filing with the ASL alone is enough. In Lombardy the plan goes to the ATS.
3. Transport and disposal at an authorised landfill, with hazardous-waste transfer forms.

Ask to see the firm’s Albo registration and category before you pay a deposit. The registration is public.

What it costs: a 120 m² lean-to

The 2025 public works price list of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region has a dedicated entry, 10.3.BM2.04 "removal of asbestos-containing roofing", at €24.62 per m². Its description includes soaking the sheets with a specific product beforehand and drafting the work plan for the health authority. Landfill disposal is a separate item: for asbestos-cement pipes, for instance, entry 10.3.BM2.05.A gives €1,641.65 per tonne within 15 km.

For a 120 m² lean-to:

• removal: 120 × €24.62 = €2,954.40;
• plus landfill disposal, priced by weight in the contractor’s quote;
• plus a new roof, if the structure is to stay.

These are reference prices for public works in one region, not a quote. Private contractors in Tuscany or Puglia may charge differently. The point of the figure is to test a seller’s claim that the roof "costs nothing to take off".

The mayor’s order

If the municipality finds that a degraded roof is releasing fibres, the mayor can order removal by an urgent ordinance (ordinanza contingibile e urgente). A recent case: in June 2026 the mayor of Merate (province of Lecco) ordered a residential building to file a work plan with the ATS and have its asbestos sheets removed and disposed of by an Albo-registered firm, within 15-day deadlines. Such orders need a technical basis. The Campania regional administrative court (TAR Campania, judgment no. 2087 of 2020) annulled one for lack of investigation because the risk of fibre release had not been assessed, while other rulings have upheld orders based on ARPA and ASL reports.

Situation 2: asbestos waste dumped or buried on the land

Article 192 of the Environmental Code bans the abandonment and uncontrolled deposit of waste on and in the ground. The person who dumped it must remove it and restore the site. The landowner, and anyone holding rights over the land, is jointly liable only if the breach can be attributed to them through intent or negligence. The mayor orders the necessary work by ordinance and sets a deadline.

The Council of State (Italy’s supreme administrative court, judgments nos. 3966 and 3967 of 2019) has ruled out strict liability: an owner cannot be ordered to clear dumped waste merely for being the owner. One regional court, in a ruling reported in the specialist press, held that an owner who had taken proportionate precautions against third-party dumping could not be penalised.

The practical reading for a buyer: if you buy land with visible dumped waste at a discount and leave it there, you hand the municipality an argument about negligence. If buried waste has polluted the soil, the matter moves from removal into the formal remediation procedure below.

Situation 3: a recorded contaminated site

The polluter pays first

Part Four, Title V of the Environmental Code puts the remediation duty (bonifica) on the person who caused the contamination (art. 242). An owner who did not cause it (proprietario incolpevole, the "innocent owner") has narrower duties under article 245(2): notify the authorities and take preventive measures. The Council of State (no. 4225 of 2015) has held that remediation itself cannot be imposed on the innocent owner.

Why the buyer is still exposed: article 253

When the polluter cannot be found or does not pay, the authorities carry out the work themselves (art. 250). Article 253 then provides that:

• the public works constitute a charge on the land (onere reale), entered after the remediation project is approved;
• the costs are secured by a special statutory priority over the property under article 2748(2) of the Civil Code;
• the innocent owner can be required to repay them only up to the market value of the site after the work (Council of State no. 5814 of 2018); an owner who cleans up voluntarily can claim the costs back from the polluter.

Because the charge runs with the land, a buyer of a site where it is entered, or where a public remediation project has been approved, takes on the risk of repaying public costs up to the value of the cleaned-up land. A judgment of the Lombardy administrative court in Brescia (section I, 20 May 2026, no. 704, following TAR Liguria of 25 February 2025, no. 201, according to the published headnote) confirmed the market-value cap and held that entering the charge is not unlawful just because the innocent owner had started, without finishing, voluntary clean-up work.

Where a contaminated site shows up

Article 251 of the Environmental Code requires each region to keep a register of sites to be remediated. It also requires that, where a site-specific risk assessment finds risk thresholds exceeded, this be recorded in the zoning certificate (certificato di destinazione urbanistica, CDU) as well as in the plan maps and rules. The seller of land has to provide a CDU for the deed anyway; ask for it early and read it for this. See our guide to the CDU.

For a sense of scale: Piedmont’s regional register (ASCO), set up by regional resolution no. 22-12378 of 26 April 2004, counted 2,175 sites as of 31 December 2025 according to ARPA Piemonte, 895 with an open procedure and 1,280 closed. A closed procedure is not a problem in itself. An open one needs reading before you sign anything.

The checks to run before you sign, from abroad

The checks below are ones you or your surveyor run; for what the notary covers, see our guide to the notary’s role.

1. Look, or have someone look. Ask your geometra to photograph every roof, tank and outbuilding, and to walk the field edges and ditches near demolished structures.
2. Check the regional asbestos map. Ministerial Decree no. 101 of 18 March 2003 launched national asbestos mapping. In Piedmont, ARPA has mapped both man-made and naturally occurring asbestos since 2004, and since 2013 asbestos-cement roofs identified by remote sensing and checked on site; the map is public on ARPA Piemonte’s asbestos portal. Other regions publish similar data in varying detail.
3. Check the regional contaminated-sites register. Search by municipality and locality. Lombardy, for instance, publishes a "remediated and contaminated sites" dataset on its geoportal.
4. Read the CDU for any reference to remediation or exceeded thresholds (art. 251).
5. Ask the seller for paper. In Lombardy the NA/1 receipt; everywhere, condition assessments, past work plans, waste transfer forms from earlier removals, and any ordinances received.
6. Ask the municipality. A request for access to records at the environment office will show orders under article 192 or open procedures.
7. Put it in the preliminary contract. Seller’s statements that there is no buried waste, no remediation procedure and no pending ordinance; a commitment to remove identified roofing at the seller’s expense before completion, by a category 10A firm; a right to withdraw if a procedure under articles 242–253 comes to light. See our guide to the preliminary contract.

Buying a ruin to restore? Any demolition of eternit roofing starts with a work plan; see our guide to ruins and restoration rights.

The planning zone, constraints and mapped hazards of the parcel are collected, with source and date, in a TerrenoCheck report; the asbestos and remediation checks above remain yours to run.

Check zone and constraints for your parcel in a TerrenoCheck report, from €29 → · See a sample report

Regional differences at a glance

• Lombardy: prevention handled by the ATS; compulsory NA/1 notification for asbestos cement, €100–1,500 fine; degradation index under decree 13237/2008.
• Piedmont: public asbestos map covering man-made and natural asbestos; contaminated-sites register with more than two thousand sites.
• Friuli Venezia Giulia: the regional public works price list carries specific asbestos removal entries, useful as a cost benchmark.
• Elsewhere: the ASL takes work plans and health checks, ARPA environmental checks; what is mapped and how easily you can consult it varies by region.

Radon, briefly

Radon is a natural gas that rises from the ground and builds up indoors. It concerns the house more than the land. Legislative Decree 101/2020 sets reference levels in article 12, as annual average concentrations: 300 Bq/m³ for existing homes and for workplaces, and 200 Bq/m³ for homes built after 31 December 2024. Article 11 asks the regions and autonomous provinces to identify "priority areas", where the estimated share of buildings above 300 Bq/m³ reaches 15%.

In a priority area, ask whether the house has been measured and with what result. If you plan to build there, ask your designer at the outset how the new-build level of 200 Bq/m³ will be met. The regional authority or ARPA publishes the map of priority areas.

The TerrenoCheck report shows, for the parcel you pin on the map, the mapped constraints and hazards (planning zone, environmental and landscape constraints, flood and landslide areas), each with source and date, in English and Italian. It is not a soil analysis, it does not measure radon and it is not legal advice.

Check zone and constraints for your parcel in a TerrenoCheck report, from €29 → · See a sample report

If the checks come back bad

An intact eternit roof. Not a reason to walk away. Get a condition assessment and negotiate: either the seller removes it before completion with a category 10A firm, or the price drops by at least removal, disposal and a new roof.

A cracked or crumbling roof. An ordinance is a real possibility. Require removal before completion, with copies of the work plan filed with the ASL (or ATS) and the waste transfer forms.

Dumped waste. Ask the seller whether they reported it and whether any order exists. Ask for removal at their cost before completion; if you take it on, price it in and have it done by a registered firm straight after you buy.

An open procedure on the register. Stop. Ask the municipality or region for the file: who has been identified as the polluter, what stage the procedure is at, whether a remediation project has been approved and whether the charge has been entered. With a charge entered, the land carries a potential debt up to its post-remediation value. That needs an Italian environmental lawyer before any price talk.

A closed procedure. Ask for the closing decision or remediation certificate and check on the CDU that no use restrictions remain.