Managing a Sappada home from afar: what the snow, the Comune and the tax office ask of you

The census counts 2,762 dwellings in Sappada, and 76.5% have no residents in them: second homes, places let to tourists, houses left shut. Their owners usually open them at Christmas, on a few ski weekends and in summer; the remaining months the house stands alone, in a municipality of climate zone F, the coldest in the national classification.¹¹¹⁴

Managing it from afar means three things. Keeping it in line with the Comune's rules, which in Sappada are mostly about snow. Paying the right taxes without losing the reductions due to non-residents. And having someone on the spot, because what matters happens when you are not there.

Sappada's building regulation has four rules that owners living far away need to know.

Besides the regulation's requirement there is civil liability: everyone is liable for damage caused by things in their custody, unless they prove a fortuitous event. A slab of snow sliding off a roof onto the road or a neighbour's car can be damage of this kind; in a condominium, for the shared roof, the custodian is normally the condominium. For how much snow a roof must bear by law, our guide to risks has the loads calculated for Sappada's altitude.²

After heavy snowfall, then, someone has to look at the roof, the gutters and the snow guards, and clear the access: for your own visits, but also for a technician who needs to get in.

In a house closed for the winter the costliest risk is water: a pipe that freezes and bursts, discovered weeks later. The Comune's rules say nothing here; what counts are the owner's choices and the insurance policy, which should be read under frost and unoccupied homes.

The heating system, on the other hand, has precise obligations: the logbook, periodic inspections, registration in the regional register of systems. Our heating guide explains them, along with what a winter costs with the system turned down. For owners far away one thing more counts: the technician doing the inspections must be able to get in, so keys and a snow-free access are needed.

ILIA, introduced by the Region in place of IMU and paid to the Comune, follows the national rules for payments and penalties: two instalments, the first by 16 June and the balance by 16 December. It is paid with the F24 form, code 5901 for the first building and 5902 for the others; if the F24 cannot be used from abroad, it is paid by bank transfer to the account indicated by the Comune, stating tax code, tax-payment code, year and instalment in the reference, and a copy of the transfer is sent to the Comune.³⁵⁶⁷

The rule that costs most to forget is the first-building one. Across the whole region each owner can pick just one dwelling, besides the main home, to count as their first: in Sappada it pays 0.7% instead of 1.06%. The choice is notified online, in the application provided by the Region, and the reduction is lost if this is not done by 30 June following the tax year. Once made, the notice remains good for later years too, until a new one is sent. Whoever does not make it pays the rate for additional dwellings.³⁴

Paying late or not at all brings the national penalty, currently 25% of the amount unpaid, cut by half when payment is at most ninety days late, and lower still with voluntary correction.⁸

Two reductions concern owners abroad specifically, and they go together. Regional law halves ILIA on one home only, provided it is not let or lent, belonging to someone who lives outside Italy and draws, in their State of residence, a pension accrued under an international agreement with Italy; on the same conditions national law cuts TARI by two thirds. Sappada's regulation, «unless national rules provide otherwise», writes the TARI reduction for Italian citizens registered with AIRE and already retired in the country where they live: which criterion the office applies today should be asked of the Comune.³⁹¹³

TARI is calculated in two parts: one on the square metres, the other on the number of people presumed to live in the home. For homes kept available by people who do not live there, Sappada's regulation counts the occupants by floor area, if the owner has not stated how many there are: two up to forty square metres, then one more for each band of twenty, up to six above one hundred square metres.⁹

A house that is closed but furnished, or has active utility contracts, pays all the same: the regulation says that not using the service does not exempt you from the tax. Only homes with no furniture and no active electricity, water or gas contracts are excluded, and this must be declared. Changes, for instance a different number of occupants or a house let out for over half the year, are reported to the Comune's TARI office within ninety days.⁹

Lending the house to a brother or a friend for a week is not a let, and it does not require the national identification code. There is, however, a duty few people know about: if the guest is not a citizen of a European Union country, even when they are a relative, whoever gives them lodging has forty-eight hours to send a written notice to the local public-security office. The notice gives the details of host and guest, the guest's document, the address of the house and the basis on which it is provided. Failing to send it risks a fine from €500 to €3,500. Where there is no police station, the local public-security authority is the mayor: which office takes the notice in Sappada, the Comune will tell you.¹⁰¹⁵

If, on the other hand, you take payment for the house, the rules for letting apply: CIN, safety devices, guests reported to the Questura, tax on the rent. Our guides to short lets and to letting for the season explain them.¹²

No rule requires anyone on the spot, but almost everything above assumes it: the roof to check after the snowfall, the pavement to clear, the boiler technician to let in, a water leak to stop.

There comes a moment when an owner managing from afar does the sums: ILIA and TARI running on, heating kept low, condominium charges, insurance, calls to whoever has the keys, and the weeks the house is actually used. There are three ways forward.

Letting it by the week needs, at every arrival, someone on the spot or a live video link, because guests have to be recognised and a key-box code alone is not enough: our guide to short lets explains how. Letting it for the whole season takes less work and a well-chosen contract: our guide to seasonal lets explains the two possible ones. Selling it closes the account: our guide to selling says where a defensible price comes from and which papers are needed before the listing. The costs of ownership, item by item, are in our guide to costs and taxes.

In Sappada our work is sales: we do not look after houses and we do not manage lettings. What we can do for those who own a house here and live far away is tell them what it is worth today, in writing and with every comparison in plain view, and come to see it by appointment: our office is in Trieste.

If managing the house from afar has become more burden than pleasure, let us start from that valuation. Deciding to keep it remains your choice, but made with the figures in hand.