Dimarco & Partners International Law Firm
Purchase a Real Estate in Rome (Lazio, Italy)

Our lawyers in Rome are expert about dealing with real estate purchases (residential and commercial properties). We can represent the client in every step necessary for the transaction. We advice the foreign Clients in the negotiation activities, drafting the preliminary contract, the definitive acquisition contract and representing them in front of the notary. In case of notarial power of attorney we can sign the sale deed on the behalf of the Client. Our lawyers in Italy assist the foreign Clients in the purchase of a real estate in all the italian territory, included Rome.
This operation in Rome normally involves many subjects, as the buyer, the seller, the notary and the real estate agencies, so it is convenient for the Client to hire a lawyer to be protected during all the activities. In our firm all the professionists are english speaking lawyers. This aspect is very important, infact, very often, the problems of communication between the Client and the lawyer, can bring to negative results. We also cooperate with many professionists, lawyers, real estate advisors and translators that are able to speak russian, romanian, bulgarian, polish, dutch, french, hungarian, spanish, english, italian and greek.
The sale of the property in Rome (Italy), usually consists in the following activities:
1. The parties sign the proposta irrevocabile d’acquisto in Rome:
When the real estate agency is involved in the purchase, this contract is always signed by the parties.
It is a document in which the seller and the buyer agree just on the main conditions of the purchase, first of all the price and the modalities of payment. Normally at the signature of this contract the seller receives from the buyer a deposit that can be named as a caparra confirmatoria or as acconto. For a foreigner Client it is not easy to understand the difference between caparra confirmatoria and acconto and they often think they are two words with the same meaning to describe a simple deposit. Actually there is a crucial difference between the two words:
- caparra confirmatoria: according to the art. 1385 of the italian civil code, if the buyer gives a deposit appointed in the contract as a caparra confirmatoria, in case the seller will not respect his duties, he will have the right to require the double of the paid amount. If the buyer will not respect his duties arising from the contract, the seller will be authorized to keep the money as a compensation.
- acconto: in this case the amount given from the buyer is just an account on the final price of the real estate. There will be no right to pretend the double of the acconto from the buyer if the seller does not respect the contract. Of course the seller, if the buyer does not respect his duties, cannot keep the account and has to give it back to the buyer.
It is very important to be assisted from an italian lawyer since the beginning of the negotiations, in order to understand many important aspect of a difficult law as the italian one and to protect the rights of the foreign buyer/seller of a real estate in Rome.
The first work to carry out is to ascertaining that the property is free of debts, mortgages, claims or that it was not promised to third parties. The Due diligence activities on the real estate register of Rome and on the house, can protect the customer in a stronger way.
2. Preliminare d’acquisto (preliminary contract):
This second phase consist in an agreement between the buyer and the seller on all the essential elements of the purchase agreement. This contract normally is stipulated in front of the notary and registered to the competent office. The notary, anyway, is not compulsory. The registration has a double important effect:
a.It will be duly noted in the real estate register that the real estate is submitted to a preliminary contract.
b. In case the seller decides to infringe the law and to stipulate many preliminary contract with different subjects, the one who registered before has a juridical right on the real estate.
In this phase our lawyers in Rome can assist the customer during the negotiations of the contract, its drafting and even represent the Client in front of the Notary with a power of attorney.
3. Definitive purchase contract:
Once the preliminary contract is registered or at least it is subscribed by the parts, the last steps before the conclusion of the real estate transaction consist in:
a. Drafting the definitive contract:
Our lawyers will draft the definitive real estate contract (or will assist the notary in this activity), checking that all the condition and terms required by the preliminary contract and by the law are respected.
b. Organizing the means of payment for the real estate:
This activity is very important. In the transaction between italian and foreigners, it is important to guarantee the Client the safety of the transfer of money. Before transfering a relevant amount it is very important that it is always available for the client before signing the definitive contract that will transfer the property of the real estate.  Our experience taught us that many inconvenient can arise just before the conclusion of the agreement, so it is crucial that the last amount will not be transferred before the end of the transaction to the seller.
c. Representing the Client in front of the notary:
If it is requeted by the Client, our law firm can represent him in front of the notary and sign the purchase contract on his behalf. This option is very comfortable for the Client that lives far from Italy, that will not be required to go phisically in front of the notary to sign the deed. Our lawyer can do this procedure in every italian city.
d. Further checkings on the real estate:
Our italian lawyers, once the deed is signed and the property is belonging to the Client, will check that all the taxes for the purchase will be paid by the notary and that the new owner appears in the real estate registers of Rome correctly.
We look forward to offer you the experience of our real estate lawyers.