Buying a home at auction in Trieste: bid, payment, land register

At a court auction you bid at least 75% of the base price, with a deposit of 10% of your bid; if you win, the sale notices of the Court of Trieste give you 90 days to pay the rest, followed by the transfer decree and entry in the land register. On 31 October 2026 the Public Sales Portal listed 3 homes with a sale date set by the Court of Trieste.

At a glance

• Minimum bid: 75% of the base price; a deposit (cauzione) of at least 10% of the bid (Code of Civil Procedure, art. 571).
• Balance: at most 120 days by law, 90 in the Trieste sale notices. If you do not pay, you lose the deposit.
• No warranty for defects (Civil Code, art. 2922): read the valuation report.
• The transfer decree has mortgages and attachments cancelled and is the basis for the land register entry (art. 586).
• Taxes: as when buying from a private seller, 2% for a main home, also on the cadastral value (Constitutional Court, judgment 6/2014).

Where to find auctions in Trieste

Every court sale of property goes on the Ministry's Public Sales Portal (Portale delle vendite pubbliche, pvp.giustizia.it) and, with the court order and valuation report, on authorised websites, at least 45 days before the bidding deadline (art. 490). You filter by court, category, price and availability (vacant or occupied), and download:

• the sale notice (avviso di vendita): prices, minimum raise, bidding deadline, account for the deposit, delegate and custodian;
• the judge's order (ordinanza), with the rules of the procedure;
• the valuation report (perizia): what the home is like, who lives there, what is not in order.

As a rule the sale is run by a delegated professional (delegato): a notary, lawyer or accountant (art. 591-bis). A Court of Trieste order of July 2026 points out that buyers at auction owe no fees to agents or brokers.

Today's figures. On 31 October 2026 the portal, filtered for the Court of Trieste, listed 3 homes with a sale date set: base prices of €83,200, €90,637 and €131,000, minimum bids of €62,400, €67,978 and €98,250. All were at their first attempt, at the valued price; two vacant, one occupied. The portal's history is incomplete (for Trieste, no sales at all for 2025), so we give no averages on price cuts.

What to read in the valuation report

The law sets out what the report must cover (implementing provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, art. 173-bis). Look for:

• building irregularities: whether they can be regularised and at what cost. If they can, you have 120 days from notification of the decree to apply (Presidential Decree 380/2001, art. 46); see cadastral and planning compliance;
• occupation: vacant, lived in by the debtor, let, or occupied without title;
• unpaid condominium charges for the last two years. Whoever takes over is jointly liable with the former owner for those of the current and the previous year (implementing provisions of the Civil Code, art. 63), and the Trieste notices leave them at the buyer's risk;
• land register data: the land register entry (partita tavolare), to check with an extract (€10 plus €16 stamp duty).

The valuation already allows for all this: the expert deducts regularisation, occupancy, unpaid charges and the lack of warranty from the market value (art. 568).

Viewing with the custodian

You ask the custodian (custode), also through the portal with "Prenota visita" (Decree-Law 59/2016, art. 4); a debtor living there must allow it (art. 560).

The bid: 75%, deposit, paper or online

• How much: at least 75% of the base price. Below the full price the delegate does not sell if a creditor has applied for assignment, and may decline to sell if a new attempt looks likely to fetch more (art. 572).
• Deposit: at least 10% of the price you bid, by banker's draft or bank transfer. The transfer must be credited before bidding opens, or the bid is void.
• On paper: in a sealed envelope at the delegate's office, with a €16 revenue stamp.
• Online: with the Ministry's form; you send it by certified email (PEC) by 12 noon on the stated day, digitally signed or from a "PEC for online sales".
• Main home: declare it in the bid itself, as two of the three notices we read require.

The bid is irrevocable, unless it has not been accepted after 120 days (art. 571).

The contest and the award

A single bid that reaches the base price wins (art. 572); with several bids there is a contest starting from the highest (art. 573). In the three notices we read the sale is "synchronous mixed" (sincrona mista): paper bidders raise in front of the delegate, online bidders from the operator's portal, with minimum raises from €1,000 to €2,000. Losing bidders get their deposit back.

The balance and the mortgage

The balance (price minus deposit) is due within the period in the notice: by law at most 120 days from the award, or in instalments over up to 12 months if the judge allows it (art. 569). In the Trieste notices it is 90 days, within which you also pay taxes, the delegate's share and the land register costs, and hand in the anti-money-laundering declaration (art. 585).

With a mortgage, the bank pays the court procedure directly, secured by a first-ranking mortgage, and the decree is entered only together with that mortgage (art. 585). 90 days is not long: take the valuation report to your bank before you bid, and run the numbers with our mortgage guide. We found no list of banks for auction purchases on the Italian Banking Association (ABI) website: ask your own bank.

If one of the creditors is a bank holding a land mortgage loan (mutuo fondiario), you pay its share of the price to it directly, or take over the debtor's loan (Consolidated Banking Act, art. 41). If you do not pay in time, you lose the deposit and, if the next sale fetches less, you pay the difference (art. 587).

The transfer decree and the land register

Once the balance is paid, the judge signs the decree drafted by the delegate: it transfers the home, orders the cancellation of attachments and mortgages and the handover of the property, and it is the basis for the land registers and for eviction (art. 586).

In Trieste, instead of the transcription used elsewhere in Italy, the delegate applies to the Land Register Office (Ufficio tavolare) for the entry in your name (intavolazione) and for the cancellations. In the Trieste notices the cancellations are carried out "at the procedure's care and expense"; you pay the out-of-pocket costs of the entry, with €25 in fees per land register application, and of the cadastral update. Until the entry comes through, the land register (Libro fondiario) still shows the debtor: ask the delegate for the application number (GN), and read how it works in from offer to deed.

Occupied homes: when they are vacated

• By the debtor and family: they stay until the decree, which orders them to leave, unless they obstruct viewings or neglect the home (art. 560).
• By others with no title valid against the procedure: vacating must be ordered at the latest with the order for sale.
• By a tenant: the lease binds you too if it has a certain date before the attachment, unless the rent is a third below a fair rent (Civil Code, art. 2923).

The custodian enforces it, at no cost to you, unless you release the custodian from this; the law sets no date.

Taxes and the first-home relief at auction

You pay as when buying from a private seller: registration tax at 2% for a main home, 9% otherwise, never less than €1,000, plus €50 mortgage tax and €50 cadastral tax (Agenzia delle Entrate). The base is the award price (Presidential Decree 131/1986, art. 44), but if you buy a home as a private individual you can ask for the cadastral-value method (prezzo-valore): the cadastral income (rendita) × 1.05 × 110 for a main home (Constitutional Court, judgment 6/2014).

The first-home relief and prezzo-valore must be claimed before the decree is registered, and the undertaking to move your residence to the municipality within 18 months must be signed with an authenticated signature (Agenzia delle Entrate, resolution 38/E of 2021). The amount of tax is given to you after the award; the requirements are in our guide to buyers' taxes.

Worked example: a flat with a €120,000 base price

Example. A vacant flat in Trieste, base price €120,000, cadastral income €600; bought as a main home. Assumptions: you bid €100,000, no creditor applies for assignment and you win the contest at €106,000.

Item	Calculation	Amount
Minimum bid	75% of €120,000	€90,000
Deposit	10% of €100,000	€10,000
Balance within 90 days	106,000 − 10,000	€96,000
Registration tax, prezzo-valore	2% of 600 × 1.05 × 110 = €69,300	€1,386
Mortgage and cadastral tax	50 + 50	€100
Delegate's share	half of €1,500, plus 10% overheads	€825
Land register application	fees	€25
Total	106,000 + 1,386 + 100 + 825 + 25	€108,336

The delegate's share is the base amount under Ministerial Decree 227/2015, plus VAT; agency commission, none. Without prezzo-valore the registration tax would be €2,120; as a second home, on the cadastral value, €6,804.

The steps and the deadlines

Step	Who	Deadline
Notice, order and report online	delegate	at least 45 days before the bidding deadline
Bid and deposit	you	by 12 noon on the stated day
Balance, taxes, costs, anti-money-laundering	you	at most 120 days; 90 in the Trieste notices
Transfer decree	judge	after the balance; no legal deadline
Land register entry and cancellations	delegate	after the decree
Application to regularise	you	120 days from notification of the decree

What can go wrong

• No bids: at the next attempt the base price can drop by up to a quarter, and after the fourth unsuccessful attempt by up to half (art. 591). With a full cut, €120,000 becomes €90,000 and the minimum bid €67,500.
• Suspension: at the request of all creditors holding enforceable titles, the judge can suspend the proceedings for up to 24 months (art. 624-bis); after the balance, the judge can suspend the sale if the price is "notevolmente inferiore a quello giusto", well below a fair price (art. 586).
• Assignment: if a creditor has applied for it and the contest closes below the base price, the home goes to that creditor (art. 573).

Frequently asked questions

How do you buy a home at auction in Trieste?

Find the lot on the Public Sales Portal, read the report and the notice, view it with the custodian, and bid at least 75% of the base price with a 10% deposit; if you win, you pay the balance and the judge signs the decree.

Property auctions in Trieste: where are they listed?

On the Public Sales Portal, selecting "Tribunale di Trieste", and on the websites named in the notices. On 31 October 2026 there were 3 homes, with base prices from €83,200 to €131,000.

What does the 75% minimum bid mean at a Trieste auction?

Below 75% of the base price a bid is not valid (art. 571). Between 75% and the base price it can win, but the delegate may decline to sell if more seems obtainable.

Can you get a mortgage for a court auction in Trieste?

Yes: the bank pays the procedure and its mortgage is entered together with the decree (art. 585). In the Trieste notices the balance is due within 90 days: ask for a valuation before you bid.

When is an occupied auction home in Trieste vacated?

If the debtor lives there, vacating is ordered with the decree and enforced by the custodian, at no cost to you. A tenant whose lease has a certain date before the attachment stays until it expires.

What to do now

• Download the notice, the order and the report.
• Request the land register extract for the entry given in the notice.
• Book the viewing through the portal.
• If you need a mortgage, take the report to your bank before bidding.
• Ask the building manager (amministratore) for the charges left unpaid over the last two financial years.

What this guide does not tell you

It does not cover bankruptcy sales, auctions by public bodies or sales subject to VAT, and it does not tell you how much to bid. On irregularities and occupation you need a surveyor or a lawyer; on taxes, an accountant. From 2027 the tax rules move into the new consolidated codes.

Looking for a home in Trieste? We do not handle auctions. The homes we sell are under properties for sale, with estimated taxes on each listing; if the right one is not there, tell us your budget, the work you would accept and your constraints, and we will send you a list of ideas, including properties not yet published. Selling? We read the papers before your home goes online, land register included: tell us about your home.

A guide to inform, not legal or tax advice: the delegate, notary, lawyer and accountant (commercialista) have the final word. To write to us: info@triesteimmobiliare.com · +39 331 8940822.