International Property Sales

The legal framework regulating international property sales is set by the Italian Law together with international treaties. When there is a conflict between Italian and International laws, the latter will prevail.Art.51 of the Italian law n. 218 (31st of May 1995) states that a real estate conveyance will be regulated by the law of the place where the property is located.

The Rome Convention binding the all EU Member States (19th of June 1980) regulates the applicable law to contractual obligations. The signatories to a contract may choose the law applicable to the whole or a part only of the contract and select the court which will have jurisdiction over disputes. By mutual agreement they may change the law applicable to the contract at any time (principle of freedom of choice). 

If the parties have not made an explicit choice of applicable law, the contract is governed by the law of the country with which it is most closely connected, according to the principle of the proper law (place of habitual residence or place of central administration of the party performing the contract, principal place of business or place of business responsible for performing the contract). However, specific rules apply in the following case:

• Where the contract concerns immovable property, the law applicable by default is that of the country in which the property is situated.

As a consequence, when the property is located in Italy and the sale involves individual’s resident in Italy or in other States, the transaction will always be submitted to the legal requirements of the Italian law.

EC Regulation 44/2001 lays down rules governing the jurisdiction of the courts in civil and commercial matters. A judgment given in a Member State is to be recognised automatically, no special proceedings being necessary unless recognition is actually contested. According to this Regulation, in case of real estate transactions, the exclusive jurisdiction will belong to the Courts of the country where the property is located. As a natural consequence if the property is located in Italy the exclusive jurisdiction will belong to the Italian Courts. 

You should consider yourself and your transaction to be unique. Therefore, by all means listen to, but never rely on, anecdotal or other general advice – however well intentioned it may be – given by friends or other people who already own or are in the process of buying Italian properties. The saying goes that “the devil is in the detail” and here is just one of the countless examples where this is true. Italian town and country planning regulations can vary markedly from municipality to municipality, and this is also true for also other regulations affecting Italian properties. So, what is permitted for one property may not be allowed for an identical property in the same geographical area.

At the risk of sounding self-serving, from our experience we strongly urge that no-one should attempt to buy any Italian property by relying solely on the advice of a notary or an estate agent, without having all documents checked by bilingual specialists.