The Italian notary and the deed of sale: what happens, and how foreigners sign

The 1913 notarial law (art. 1) makes notaries public officials who receive deeds, give them public faith and keep them. Before you sign, the notary:

• establishes identity and capacity, and the property regime of married buyers;
• searches for mortgages, seizures and restrictions; checks planning and cadastral compliance, pre-emption rights, the energy certificate;
• applies anti-money-laundering rules and, for buyers from outside the EU and EEA, checks reciprocity. The Foreign Ministry's country note reports no obstacle for US citizens; its note on the UK dates from 2020, so there the notary decides.

On completion day the notary collects the taxes and pays them to the state.

Article 1475 of the Civil Code puts the costs of a sale on the buyer unless agreed otherwise; hence the rule of thumb, repeated by the national council of notaries, that the buyer names the notary, with no agent or bank imposing one. Fee scales were abolished in 2012: the fee is negotiated, with a written estimate.

At either party's request the notary keeps the purchase money in a separate notarial account, releasing it after registration and recording once no new charges have appeared. The money is ring-fenced: even the notary's creditors cannot seize it.

Deeds are in Italian. If you declare you do not understand it, the notarial law (arts 54–55) offers two routes:

• the deed in your language, with an Italian translation alongside, if the notary and witnesses know it;
• an interpreter you choose, not one of the witnesses, who takes an oath and signs every page; the deed stays Italian, with your translation beside it.

The law, in other words, does not let you sign what you cannot follow. Interpreter and translation appear in the notary calculator on each property for sale.

Someone you trust can sign for you. A power of attorney must take the form of the contract itself (Civil Code, art. 1392), so for a house it is made before a notary, at home or in Italy. If signed abroad, it must be lodged with an Italian notary or notarial archive before use (notarial law, art. 106), with an apostille where required and a translation. Get the wording from the notary handling the sale: they must accept it.

Elsewhere in Italy ownership passes with the consent in the deed. In the lands that were Austrian before the First World War, from Trieste and the Karst to the Isonzo area, the eastern lowlands and the Val Canale, ownership is acquired only on the entry ordered by the land-register judge. The system covers 43 municipalities in full, plus eastern Pontebba: the land register.

The rest of the process: buying in Italy, step by step and checks before you buy.