Guide · Fees

What an engineer costs in Italy, line by line.

This guide publishes no figures, because an honest number cannot be written before someone has seen the building and the scope of the work. What it does publish is the whole structure of an Italian engineering fee: how it is calculated, what Italian law adds on top of it, and what makes it move.

No price list, no invented numbers
The full anatomy of an Italian fee
A written proposal before any work begins

Ask for a written proposalUpdated August 2026

The two ways an Italian engineering fee is built

An Italian engineering fee is built in one of two ways, and which one applies depends on the type of engagement. Either the fee is proportional to the value of the works, or it is a fixed amount agreed for a single filing.

A proportional fee is the normal structure for design and for site supervision, the two engagements that run alongside a project from beginning to end. The calculation base is the value of the works to be carried out. It is not the market value of the property and it is not the price you are paying for it, which is the single most common misunderstanding among buyers arriving from abroad. Parameters are then applied only to the services actually engaged, and those services add up: architectural design, structural design and site supervision are three separate engagements, each with its own fee.

The reference method most commonly used to build that calculation is the ministerial decree on professional fees (D.M. 17 June 2016). It is not a compulsory tariff, since minimum tariffs were abolished in Italy, but it is a public method. That matters to you for one practical reason: it makes the arithmetic inspectable, so you are entitled to ask on what basis any quotation in front of you was built.

A fixed fee is the normal structure when the object is defined and bounded. A single pratica edilizia, the Italian building filing lodged with the comune; a cadastral update; a technical check on a property before you commit to buying it. The advantage to you is that the amount is known before anything starts and does not move unless the scope itself changes.

design and site supervision: a fee proportional to the value of the works;
a single building or cadastral filing: a fixed agreed fee;
a pre-purchase technical check: a fixed agreed fee;
mixed engagements: both structures coexist, but each must be stated separately in the proposal.

What makes the fee go up or down

The size of a technical fee in Italy is driven by a short list of concrete factors, every one of them checkable before you sign, and none of them visible in the photographs of a listing.

How complex the intervention is. Replacing a roof, opening an aperture in a load-bearing wall and remodelling a whole floor do not require the same quantity of technical work.
Whether the building has a clean planning history. If the permits exist, are legible and match what is actually built, the work goes into the project. If they do not, someone first has to reconstruct what was authorised, and that time is chargeable.
Whether structural work is involved. Touching load-bearing elements means calculations, drawings and a filing with the competent office. These are additional services, not a detail inside the architectural design.
How much documentation has to be recovered through accesso agli atti, the formal request to inspect and copy the file the comune holds on the building. A well-ordered municipal archive and a filing from the nineteen-sixties that has to be found by hand are not the same job.
How many authorities are involved. The comune, the land registry and the office competent for structures each lengthen the path, in proportion to their number rather than to the size of the works.

This is why the first step of any engagement is reading the documents. Before that point any figure is a guess, and the client is always the one who pays for a guess that turns out wrong.

What sits on top of the fee, and is almost always forgotten

The total cost of an Italian building filing is not the same thing as the professional fee: Italian law adds items on top of the fee, and other sums travel through the filing without ever being the professional's income.

The contributo integrativo is a pension-fund levy of 4% which the law requires the professional to charge on the invoice and pass to the professional fund. It is not a mark-up and it does not stay with the professional. IVA, Italian VAT, then applies at the ordinary rate of 22% to the fee increased by that levy. Because these services relate to a property located in Italy, they are as a rule taxed in Italy, so Italian VAT applies even if you live abroad; your own tax adviser should confirm your position.

Separately from the fee, oneri and diritti di segreteria are charges owed to the comune for lodging and processing the filing, and where the intervention triggers them, development contributions are added. Some applications require a marca da bollo, the Italian duty stamp. Obtaining the permit file from the comune carries search and copying charges. None of these sums is the engineer's fee, even when they are paid through the engagement.

So when you compare two quotations, the first thing to check is not the amount but the basis it is expressed on. Two numbers only become comparable once both state whether they include or exclude the 4% levy and 22% VAT, and whether the sums owed to the authorities are inside or outside the figure.

Why the cheapest quotation is frequently the most expensive outcome

The cheapest quotation is frequently the most expensive outcome, because the saving is almost always produced by removing from the engagement exactly the work that prevents problems.

The incomplete filing. The office asks for further documents, the file goes back, and the programme slips by weeks or months while the property sits still.
The discrepancy found late. The same mismatch between the cadastral plan and what is actually built is a modest cost during negotiation and a serious one when it surfaces at the notary's desk or once the works are open.
The site stopped mid-course. A missing permit or a missing filing suspends the contractor, who continues to cost money while nothing is being built.

A quotation that does not list what is excluded is not cheaper. It is less defined. The difference appears later, and it is almost always larger than the amount originally saved.

What to ask of a quotation before you sign it

A technical quotation can only be compared with another one if it states six things, and asking for them in writing is entirely normal with any Italian professional.

Which services are included and, more importantly, which are excluded.
Which documents you are left holding at the end, and in what format.
Whether the amount is stated before or after the 4% levy and 22% VAT.
Which sums are owed to third parties, the comune and the land registry included, and who advances them.
What happens if the scope changes while the work is under way.
How long the quotation stands, and the estimated time for each stage.

If one of those answers is missing, ask for it before you engage anyone. A professional working in an orderly way has no difficulty putting it in writing, because it is information already in hand.

How I put a proposal together

Ivan Nozzi is an Ingegnere, an engineer qualified and registered in Italy with the Ordine degli Ingegneri della Provincia di Chieti, and he works only on a written proposal that you have accepted: nothing begins before you have seen in writing what I would do and what it costs.

The sequence does not vary. First I ask a few questions and read whatever you already hold: the cadastral extract and plan, the building permits if you have them, photographs or the sale listing. Then I send a proposal setting out the object of the engagement, the services included, the services excluded, the documents I will deliver to you, the estimated timing and the agreed fee, marking clearly what is subject to the pension levy and VAT and which sums are instead owed to the authorities.

The details of my professional indemnity cover are disclosed to you at the moment the engagement is entered into, as Italian professional rules require.

If, after reading the documents, I conclude that the engagement falls outside my competence or will not serve the objective you described, I say so and I decline it. This page explains how a technical cost is composed in Italy. It is not tax advice, and it is not a quotation.

The whole bill

What the cost is made of

Every item that appears around an Italian building filing, with what it is, who receives it and when it falls due. Only the first row is the professional's income.

Item	What it is	Who receives it	When it is paid
Professional fee	Payment for the technical services engaged, calculated in proportion to the value of the works or as a fixed amount for the single filing	The engaged professional	On the dates set in the proposal, normally against stages of progress
Contributo integrativo, 4%	A pension-fund levy Italian law requires to be charged on the invoice; calculated on the fee and not a mark-up	The professional pension fund	With the invoice for the fee
IVA, VAT at the ordinary 22% rate	Italian value added tax, calculated on the fee increased by the pension levy	The Italian treasury, collected by the professional	With the invoice for the fee
Oneri and diritti di segreteria	Charges owed for lodging and processing the filing and, where the intervention triggers them, development contributions	The comune	When the filing is lodged, before or at the same time
Marca da bollo	The Italian duty stamp, required on certain applications and, in the cases provided for, on the invoice	The Italian treasury	When the application is lodged
Accesso agli atti charges	Search and copying charges for obtaining the permits and drawings the comune holds on the building	The comune	When the request to inspect the file is made

No amounts appear here because no generally valid amount exists: sums owed to the authorities are set by each comune, and the statutory rates are set by law. The 4% levy and 22% VAT are statutory rates, not the professional's margin.

A written proposal before any work begins

Before I start you receive a written proposal setting out the object of the engagement, the services included, the services excluded, the documents I will deliver, the estimated timing and the agreed fee, with the professional fee kept separate from what is owed to the authorities. The details of my professional indemnity cover are disclosed when the engagement is entered into. Nothing begins until you have accepted.

Ask for a written proposal

Frequently asked

The questions I am asked about cost

Why is there no price list on this site?

Publishing fees is expressly lawful in Italy, so the reason is not a legal one. The reason is that the fee depends on the building and on the scope, and a number published without having seen either would mislead you into the wrong comparison. So I publish the complete structure of the cost instead, and send you a figure in writing once I have read the documents.

Is the fee calculated on the purchase price of the house?

No. Where the fee is proportional, the calculation base is the value of the works to be carried out, not the purchase price and not the market value of the property. Two houses bought for the same price can need interventions of very different size. Where the engagement is a single filing or a pre-purchase check, the fee is fixed and agreed in advance instead.

Does the fee include the municipal charges?

No, and the distinction matters. Oneri, diritti di segreteria, the marca da bollo and accesso agli atti charges are owed to the comune or to the treasury. They are not the engineer's income, even when they are advanced or handled through the engagement. The written proposal keeps the two categories apart, so you can see what is fee and what is a sum owed to somebody else.

When do I pay?

On the dates set out in the proposal, normally tied to stages of progress: delivery of the drawings, lodging of the filing, the phases of site supervision. Sums owed to the authorities follow the authority's own timing and fall due when the filing or the request is made. Every due date is written down before work starts, not negotiated while it is running.

What happens if the scope changes during the work?

The agreed fee stands as long as the object of the engagement stands. If something unforeseen appears while the work is running, for example a discrepancy that requires an additional filing, I stop and send you a written supplement naming the new service and its fee. You decide whether to proceed. You never discover an extra item once the invoice has been issued.

Next step

Describe the property and I will send you a written proposal

The address, what you would like to do and whatever documents you already hold are enough to begin. I reply with what is needed, in what order, and what the fee is, before any work starts. I work in Italian, but you are welcome to write to me in English or German too.

Write to me +39 320 930 6853