The paperwork you need to sell a home in Italy — and the two items that stop the deed

The document list for selling a home in Italy is long, but the items do not weigh the same. Some take an afternoon; some take a surveyor and several weeks. Two of them do not delay the deed if they are missing — they make it impossible. Start there.

The two that stop everything

Cadastral conformity. Article 29(1-bis) of Law 52/1985 requires deeds transferring rights over existing buildings to contain, on pain of nullity, the cadastral identification, the reference to the filed floor plan and the owners' declaration that data and plans match the actual state. In plain terms: the plan on file must look like the flat being sold. Moved walls, enclosed balconies, bathrooms carved out of corridors — these are what the buyer's or the bank's surveyor finds.

Planning compliance. Article 46 of Presidential Decree 380/2001 requires the deed to cite the building title: licence, concession, building permit or the alternative filings (SCIA, DIA). The Court of Cassation in joint session (judgment 8230/2019) held that this nullity is "textual" — what counts is that the declaration appears in the deed. A substantial discrepancy, once discovered, still becomes a matter for renegotiation.

Check both before listing. A planning file request at the town hall and a cadastral search with the floor plan cost little and settle the question; if something is off, a surveyor tells you whether it can be regularised and how long that takes.

Everything else, by effort

Easy — already at home or downloadable

• Deed of provenance: the purchase deed, or the gift, or the succession.
• Cadastral record and floor plan, from the Revenue Agency's online services or through a surveyor.
• ID and tax code for every seller.
• Marriage certificate extract, if married: it establishes the matrimonial property regime. Under community of property both spouses sign, even when only one name is on the deed.

Medium — they depend on other people

• The APE energy certificate: compulsory in the listing itself and attached to the deed. It lasts ten years, but lapses if you carry out works that change energy performance or skip the mandatory heating-system checks.
• Condominium rules, thousandth tables, the last two sets of accounts and minutes: the buyer will ask what they are joining.
• The building manager's statement on paid charges, arrears and approved works. It heads off the least pleasant argument: who pays for the roof the assembly already voted through.
• Installation certificates, if you have them. Period buildings often do not: you declare the position and negotiate it. You do not invent it.

Hard — if the property was inherited

• Registered succession declaration and completed cadastral transfer: while the flat is still in the name of someone who has died, it cannot be sold.
• Acceptance of the inheritance: selling is tacit acceptance, but notaries ask for it to be formally registered to make the deed safe.
• The agreement of every co-heir. One unreachable heir stops everything — if that is your situation, start months ahead.

The mortgage still on the property

An existing charge is not an obstacle, it is a task: ask the bank for the redemption figure and arrange the removal of the charge. What you must not do is notice it the week of the deed.

In practice

One rule does the work: the folder is assembled before the listing, not after. Sellers who reach an accepted offer without documents spend the following weeks chasing offices — and meanwhile the buyer has time to reconsider.

This is an informative guide, not legal or tax advice: rules change and every case differs. Your notary has the final word. For your own case write to info@triesteimmobiliare.com or call +39 040 2473628.