Properties Around Italy
Information On Purchasing
THE LEGAL SIDE OF BUYING A HOME THROUGH PROPERTIES AROUND ITALY (PAI)
There are no restrictions placed upon non-residents wishing to purchase a house in Italy, be they from Europe or elsewhere. All registered property transactions in Italy must take place in front of a Notaio (A Notary Public who represents the Italian government.) The Notaio’s job is to check that the sale documents are correct, to verify the identities of the parties involved, to collect the tax due to the Italian Government on the sale and to ensure that the entries in the land registry are updated to show the new owner. The Notaio is an independent person, working for neither purchaser nor seller. He is there solely to ensure that the property is the one referred to in the documentation and that the purchaser and seller are the relevant persons referred to. If you wish someone to act on your behalf, you are advised to enlist the services of a solicitor. Before the transactions can take place in front of a Notaio, the documentation has to be prepared for the purchaser and the seller.
We therefore need to check with the land registry to ensure that the property is correctly registered to the vendor, that the property is registered as either a residential property, or in the case of property that is not presently a dwelling, for example a barn, that the required permissions are forthcoming, that essential services are available, that there are no undisclosed rights-of-way through the property, no outstanding mortgages, and to generally ensure that you are buying what you expect. Once we are happy with all of this we pass the information to the Notaio who draws up the sale document.
To see the steps for purchasing a house in Italy through PAI please click on the link Purchasing Info