Italy

Registering Property in

Italy

Listed below is a detailed summary of the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute.

The information appearing on this page was collected as part of the Doing Business project, which measures and compares regulations relevant to the life cycle of a small- to medium-sized domestic business in 183 economies. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2011.

  • Standard Property Transfer

  • Property Value: EUR 1,261,302.79
  • City: Rome

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No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs
* 1 Obtain copies of building and occupancy permits from Municipality

The notary obtains a copy of the Building Permit, Occupancy Permit and of application(s) for Building Amnesty, if any, from the Municipality. Otherwise, the seller might provide them. Should those documents not be available the seller requests copies from the Municipality. This can be done by an instructed surveyor normally appointed and paid by the seller.
Note that it is not necessary to produce the Building Permit for buildings erected prior to the year 1967 and that should a copy of such a document not be available for buildings erected after that year it is sufficient that the Seller mentions in the deed of conveyance the data of the relevant Building Permit, after having been warned by the Notary of the criminal sanctions which apply in case of false and reticent statements.

Note: On the basis of the Decree n. 192/05, for properties over 1000m2, it is compulsory for the vendor to obtain an energetic certification since July 1st, 2009, for the all the immovable or part of the immovable property, newly built or old building and regardless of its surface area. Legislative Decree no 192/2005 ("Decree n. 192/05"), entered into force on October 5, 2005 and has been amended by Legislative Decree no. 311/2006. The Notary shall only inform the parties of the duty of the vendor to obtain and provide such Energetic Certification to the purchaser.

The energetic certification contains the data concerning the energy efficiency and, if necessary, other specific standards of the immovable property. On June 26th, 2009, the Ministry of Economic Development issued the Decree no. 39540 (the “Decree no. 39540/09”) implementing the national guidelines concerning the building energetic certification. The Decree no. 39540/09 published on July 10th, 2009, in the Official Gazette no. 158, entered into force on July 25th, 2009.

Prior to the entry into force of the Decree no. 39540/09, the energetic certification (so called “ACE” - “attestato di certificazione energetica”) was replaced by a declaration of energetic qualification (so called “AQE” - i.e.:”attestato di qualificazione energetica”). According to the provisions of the Decree no. 39540/09, all declarations of energetic qualification (AQE) issued as of June 26th, 2009 will remain valid for 12 months following the mentioned date. As of June 26th, 2010, the sole document that may be used for attesting the energetic efficiency of the real estate properties will be the energetic certification (ACE).

Pursuant to Section 15 of the Legislative Decree no. 192/05, the energetic certification shall be issued by enrolled professionals (i.e.: architects, engineers, land-surveyors).


Agency: Municipality 		10-15 days (simultaneous with procedures 2, 3, 4, and 5) EUR 25 (permits) + EUR 150 (fees for the surveyor to check the files with the Municipality)
* 2 Obtain necessary surveys from Land Registry

The notary public obtains a report from the Land Registry stating:
(i) the ownership situation of the property in the last twenty years, and
(ii) that the property is free from any encumbrances.
The notary needs to verify the Land Registrar files (usually by means of an instructed surveyor) and extract the relevant information, that are then included in the report and are certified as truthful by the notary, since the issuance of an actual certificate from the Land Registrar would require an extremely long time.

Since 1996, this information is in electronic format and since 1998, this information is available on-line for notaries. In most of the cases in Italy, the information online is enough and no visit to the physical land registry is necessary.


Agency: Land Registry (online) 		1 day (simultaneous with procedures 1, 3, 4, and 5) EUR 25 (Cost of for obtaining all relevant files from the Registries)
* 3 Obtain necessary surveys from Cadastral Registry

The notary public obtains from the Cadastral Office:
(i) historical cadastral situation and Cadastral Certificate (EUR 25, normally requested online)
(ii) Cadastral Maps of the premises (EUR 38 cost + EUR 50 fees for the plans of the premises) and of the land (EUR 25 cost plus EUR 50 fees for the general map including the land)
Since January 2010, the cadastral data can be requested and obtained online immediately. The map is received as an attachment in the inbox of the notaries in the notarie's intranet.

Agency: Cadastral Registry (online) 		1 day (simultaneous with procedures 1, 2, 4, and 5) EUR 25 (historical cadastral situation) + EUR 163 (cadastral maps)
* 4 Notary verifies the powers of relevant signatories

The notary public checks the Company Registry online regarding the selling and purchasing companies and verifies the powers of the relevant signatories. Should it be required, according to the by-laws of the selling or purchasing company, that a resolution be adopted by the administrative body or by the shareholders’ meeting to authorize the transaction, an extract of the minutes of said resolution, certified by a notary public, shall be provided. The Chamber of Commerce's certificate can be requested online.


Agency: Company Registry ("Registro imprese" online) 		1 day (simultaneous with procedures 1, 2, 3, and 5) EUR 25-50
* 5 Authentication of seller’s documents

The seller must provide the buyer with:
(i) an authenticated copy of the Seller's purchase documents and
(ii) an authenticated copy of the Transcription Note
The documents are authenticated by a notary public, at a cost of about EUR 100. As of July 2006, all payments must be made with cheques or bank transfer, and the notary must indicate these details (check number, bank account, etc.) in the deed; in the same way in the final deed parties have to indicate all amounts paid to real estate agents. This increases slightly the time needed to complete this procedure.

 1 day (simultaneous with procedures 1, 2, 3, and 4) EUR 100
6 A notary public drafts and executes the deed of sale

The notary public prepares and executes the deed of sale.
The National Notary Publics' Order proposes a table of fees to the Ministry of Justice who has the power to approve them, which is sent to all the Notary Publics, in which there are certain thresholds. Notary fees (Law 248 of 2006) might vary and are adjusted according to local districts economic conditions and vary across the regions; they can be calculated on the website for Lecco and Como (not for Rome):
http://www.notaicomolecco.it/jumpCh.asp?idChannel=98&idUser=0&idLang=IT&tariffa=1.
The fees are subject to 20% VAT. Stamp, archive and registration taxes may also be due to the notary public.
10 days Notary’s fees are EUR 5019 (without VAT)
7 Registration of the deed

It is mandatory for the notary to file the documents within 30 days of the signature of the contract. If he fails to do so, he has to pay a fine. The notary files on line the deed of sale and the transcription note using the “Modello Unico Informatico (MUI)”.

With a single electronic transmission, with uniform data and digitally signed by a notary, the following information are sent: (i) the data concerning the payment of taxes (debited from bank account), (ii) the offices of destination, i.e. Tax Agency for tax registration, Land Agency for the Land Registry and Cadastral office (jointly), Land Registry Offices (Ufficio Tavolare) for the municipalities where this specific method of registration for real estate transfers is operational; (iii) the certified copy of the deed with its attachments.
Taxes are credited directly to the central Revenue Office and the various offices retain the competence to verify the correctness of the payment. The notary gets online receipts of the various procedures and payments made.

In the case of a warehouse used for commercial purposes, sold by a company that is not in the construction business the cadastral tax is equal to 1% of sale price, according to the law 248 of 2006, and the transcription tax is equal to 3% of sale price.
Italian VAT law applicable to commercial properties states that the sale of a commercial property is generally VAT exempt, unless (i) in the cases mandatorily provided for by the Italian tax law (ii) if the seller has elected for the VAT regime. In any case, the transfer of a commercial property where both the seller and the purchaser are Italian companies is subject to a fixed registration tax rate.

The Land registry and cadastre are 2 different databases, but managed by the same government agency since 2008-2009.

The Land Registry has the purpose of rendering deeds enforceable towards all third parties. Until a deed has been registered in the Land Registry, it is only enforceable between the parties thereto. The Italian Land Registry system is based on the principle of continuity of the registrations ("continuità delle trascrizioni"). This means that an individual or an entity may sell a property only if the relative deed of purchase has been registered beforehand in the Land Registry.


Agency: Land Registry and Cadastral Office 		2-7 days (simultaneous with procedure 8) EUR 168 registration tax (imposta di registro)+ 3% of property value (imposta ipotecaria) + 1% of property value (imposta catastale)
* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.
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