The role of a Real Estate Agent and Notary in Italy

Buying a house is one of the most important decisions, often the most important, in the life of a person or a family.

I often do consultancy work for clients who, once they have found the house they like, ask me to verify the documentation received from the sellers.

It seems useful to me to write this post because I realized that the roles of the various professionals involved in a real estate sale are not very clear, in the eyes of the buyer and the seller, and they are even less clear, for obvious reasons, in the eyes of of a non-Italian buyer who is not familiar with our country, both on a linguistic and regulatory level.

The first figure the buyer meets is the seller, who can be the owner of the property, or more often a real estate agent who has a mandate to sell from the owner.

The real estate agent

The most common confusion concerns the role of the real estate agent who, under Italian law, is identified as a mediator, in this case, appointed by the seller for the success of the sale. He is required to inform the buyer of all the information known to him relating to the property and provide the documents necessary for the signing of the deed.

For this reason, the real estate agent can legally offer properties for sale that are completely or partially illegal. The real estate agent rarely receives the formal assignment for the technical verification of the property from the owner, which he therefore cannot report to the buyer because he is not aware of it.

But which documents from the seller are important for signing the deed?

1) The title deed ("atto notarile") of the property for sale;

2) Seller's identity documents and tax code;

3) Land registry survey ("visura catastale") of the property;

4) Land register floor plan ("planimetria catastale") of the property;

5) Energy performance certificate (APE)

6) Certificate of habitability (if the property has one)

Of these documents, real estate agents usually show the potential buyer the land registry survey and the land register floor plan because these are usually the documents the owner has and also because it will be needed if you progress to the notary.

The notary

Once the buyer has identified the desired property, he must contact and hire a notary to sign the deed of sale.

The notary has the task of:

1) drawing up the deed according to Italian laws and the wishes of the buyer and seller;

2) verifying that the property being sold is free of mortgages, foreclosures or pre-emptions, which are not known to the seller and/or the buyer.

Both the real estate agent and the notary don't have the task of verifying the regularity of the property according to urban planning and building laws. It is therefore highly recommended before making a purchase proposal to appoint an architect or engineer to carry out all checks on the regularity of the house in order to avoid future surprises. In fact, the land register floor plan, which is the only graphic that is attached to the purchase deed, does not certify whether the property is in order but graphically represents its actual state at the time of purchase.

To recap, the most important advice I can offer is to always have an architect or engineer verify the legal status of the house before you sign anything and certainly before you give any type of deposit. This is a deep check into the history of the house from a legal viewpoint, which is very important in Italy because many properties, unbeknownst even to their owners, have many illegal aspects. If a property has illegal parts, the future owner cannot do any renovations until they fix those illegal parts. In some cases, it can affect your ability to get a loan for the house as well, as banks will perform a more rigorous check on the legal status of the house. So, be extra careful when purchasing a house with savings because you can legally buy an illegal house that shows a lot of surprises in the future!