The land register in Trieste and Gorizia: you own the house once a judge orders the entry

Elsewhere in Italy ownership passes on the parties' agreement in the contract; recording it in the public registers makes it effective against third parties. Here the opposite holds: between living persons, ownership and every other right in rem over a property are acquired only by entry in the land register, the intavolazione (R.D. 499/1929, art. 2). The notarial deed is still needed; it just doesn't complete the transfer by itself.

• Who decides. Each land registry office is headed by a judge appointed by the president of the court. On a written application with supporting documents, the judge, or an official acting for them, checks legality and rules by decree; an appeal lies to the court.
• First come, first served. Where two buyers claim the same property, the one who applied for entry first prevails.
• The register is presumed right. Whoever is entered is presumed to be the owner, and a buyer is deemed to know the charges and rights entered against the property, as if they were written into the contract.

The list follows the Trieste court's register of areas (April 2026) and the Region's maps of cadastral districts; near a municipal boundary, the land registry office has the final word. Outside the region the system also covers the provinces of Trento and Bolzano and a handful of municipalities in Veneto and Lombardy, Cortina d'Ampezzo among them.

1. Before the offer, get an extract (estratto tavolare). The competent office issues it on a written or spoken request, for €10 per entry and a €16 revenue stamp, within 10 working days of payment. It shows the registered owner, mortgages and other charges.
2. The Revenue Agency's online searches don't reach here: Trieste, Gorizia and every other land-register area are left out. At the offices, inspection is open to all; online, a private individual sees only their own properties (with SPID, CIE or CNS), while authorised professionals and public bodies see the rest.
3. The seller must be the registered owner. If the name isn't there, after an inheritance that was never entered, say, ask the notary how it will be put right before completion.
4. A preliminary contract can go into the register too, as an annotation.
5. After completion, the application to register. It goes in writing to the office that holds the entry, with the documents, and the interested party can file it personally. Since 2 April 2024 it can also be sent online through the AgileFVG portal, with SPID, CIE, CNS or an eIDAS identity and a digital signature. Fees: €25. Ask the notary who files it and when: until the decree is made, you are not the owner.

By a patent of 10 January 1761 Maria Theresa set up a public land register for the county of Gorizia and Gradisca; Trieste followed in 1772. After the First World War Italy kept the system in its «new provinces» (R.D. 2325/1928), and in 1929 it adopted the Austrian land-register act of 1871 in Italian translation. Today the Region legislates on how land registers are set up and kept.