Properties to be built and protections for the buyer

Almost twenty years after the entry into force of Legislative Decree no. 122 of 20 June 2005, introduced in implementation of Delegated Law no. 210 of 2 August 2004, the regulation for the protection of the patrimonial interests of purchasers of properties to be built continues to cause significant uncertainties in its practical application. Uncertainties that have not been resolved by the recent changes to the legislation introduced by Legislative Decree no. 14 of 12 January 2019 (Corporate Crisis and Insolvency Code); in fact, while clarifying some regulatory aspects, this has introduced specific disciplinary innovations, which are at the same time difficult to interpret, also in relation to the content of recent ministerial decrees nos. 125/2022 and 154/2022, implementing, respectively, the standard model of surety bond and the standard model of insurance policy. The work, in particular, deals with analyzing the instruments for the protection of the buyer of a property to be built, and therefore the discipline dictated by the legislative decree n. 122/2005, but it does not constitute a commentary; in fact, there is no complete analysis of the aforementioned legislative decree. Conversely, this work examines in depth the economic operation of purchasing a property under construction with a very specific objective: "realigning" the interpretation of the legislation in order to guarantee substantial protection of the interests of the buyer, the weak party in the relationship.