Rental laws in Italy

07/22/2009 - 06:55

This was a question from another member in another thread, I though it was worth starting a discussion on this point:"I understand if you are renting your property to a person who is elderly(or maybe there is no age limit)  you cannot force them to move out, even if they the ownership of the real estate changes.  In fact if they have dependants, the dependants may have a right to continue the lease.  Maybe you can explain this in more detail, it is very different than US law."    

Comment

 because we do not deal in rentals cannot add to the observation re how long...however to add to your experience ...  recentley the comune sold off by auction a very nice property close to the town center...occupied by an old lady...  the public open auction so called... meant that the ladies son refused to show you the property...although you had to sign a paer for the auction saying you had seen it, the mayor of the comune, now ex, when asked to arrange a vist just said to see the son, in a meeting jusdt kept his eyes fixed to the floor.,.. well one, the other spontaneously wanders whereever... anyway if you did manage to buy the property the woman and her heirs had rights to the place...  although because the son owned another place or rented it am not sure he could have been seen as in need, the rental she paid... 800 euro a year... fixed... if you placed an auction bid...it was signed bids... the son had a right to enter a second bid to yours after it had been opened either equal or higher... so when all bids were opened the son had the final say... plus his mother had occupancythe auction day arrived and suprise no bids apart from the sons... way below market price... funny thing was that its the ex comune library/record office... which we only wanted the ground floor of... the comunes geometra said that it would be good for us ...obviously hadnt spoken to the ex mayor ...  we were willing to bid at the comunes valuation... and to sign to let the mother live in the apartment above until she died... at the rental of the past... bloody hell shes 90 plus and although they do live long down here we dont really need an apartment ...anyway there are lots of rules regarding rentals... not just for those that rent... be careful on the contract you sign anyway...which should be registered but can tie you in for longer than you think..as far as i know... the only people that can chuck old or infirm peiople out of rented accomodation here is the catholic church... they are italies biggest landlords and the vatican recentley worked out that their aprtments in city centres were not earning their true potential earnings...under the guise of updating they moved their tenants out... and now they cannot get back.. the places are full of the new rich here with lovely historic updated town centre pads...  all this before the recent crisis ... and the vatican smiling all the way to the bank... some of its ex tenats now living on the streets   

It is not necessarily the case that an elderly tenant cannot be asked to leave. The Catholic church can do it as Adriatica says!In the case of a normal Italian rental agreement the owner has the right to ask the court for an eviction order if a rental agreement ends or the tenant is in breach ie not paying their rent, although in practice if the tenant is very elderly and has a valid contract this may take years and then be unenforceable becaue the court bailiffs don't want to deal with it.If the rental agreement is long term, usually signed 4 + 4 years at a time, the legal owner could decide instead of going to court to end the agreement and to sell off the bare title, "nuda proprietà", at a reduced price, which is calculated depending on the age of the tenant, which probably was the case of the Comune landlord in this auction.  The new owner may then decide to go to court to evict the old lady.It is possible that in the death of a tenant in a long term lease, their spouse or partner or dependant children have the right to take over the existing contractual rights.Charlotte