1 The kinds of registers that exist in the Member State, containing information relevant to successions
- Court (Register of Successions)
- Municipality - Population Register (Anagrafe) and Civil Status Office (Stato Civile)
- ANPR (National Registry of the Resident Population)
- General Register of Wills c/o Notarial Archives
- Voluntary Register of Wills c/o the National Council of Notaries
- Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) - Succession Office (Ufficio Successioni)
- Revenue Agency - Property Ownership and Liens Registers (Registri Immobiliari) and Land Register (Catasto)
2 Information contained in each of the registers of the Member State, as listed under point 1
1. Court (Register of Successions)
Succession events are recorded in the Register of Successions in order to make them public.
Article 456 of the Civil Code states that succession is opened at the time of death, at the place of the deceased person’s last domicile, which determines the court where the succession must be registered.
The Register is kept by the Clerk of the Court, who makes entries ex officio if they personally receive a declaration, or a court measure, or upon a party’s request accompanied by a certified copy of the document.
The Register is public and can be consulted by anyone; however, it has not been digitised and is therefore not accessible online.
The Register is made up of three parts. The first part lists the declarations of acceptance of the succession subject to inventory (beneficio d’inventario) of all the documents, plus the details of the inventory and of the administration/liquidation of the inheritance after inventory. The second part lists the waivers of succession. The third part lists the court measures appointing administrators (curatori) for estates in abeyance, as well as the acts relating to such administration, and the declarations of acceptance or waiver by the executors of the wills.
The Clerk of the Court must issue any extract or certificate of entries in the register.
2. Municipality (Population Register and Civil Status Office)
All certificates relating to birth, marriage, residence, civil status and death can be requested from the municipality of residence, following the procedure established by each. Some municipalities accept requests through their website using citizen digital identity (Public Digital Identity System (SPID) or Electronic Identity Card CIE). Others reply via e-mail or certified e-mail (PEC). In all municipalities, certificates can also be requested in person at the counter.
Population Register (Anagrafe)
This is a register kept by the municipalities, containing the data on their resident population (APR). Each municipality also keeps a register of its citizens who have moved abroad (AIRE). Since 2022, the municipal population registers have been incorporated into the National Registry of the Resident Population, which has been established at the Ministry of the Interior to centralise population data nationally (see below).
Civil Status
Civil status means an individual’s overall legal position within their family, the State and the legal community.
Every municipality has a civil status register (Article 1 of Presidential Decree No 396/2000).
Civil status entries are made using specific forms, approved by decree of the Minister for the Interior, to meet the requirement of publicly recording facts affecting the civil status of individuals: birth, marriage, civil partnership, death and citizenship.
These entries are recorded in specific registers that include declarations made to the official, entries sent by other public officials, and annotations of events following the initial registration.
Civil status records are public (Article 450 of the Civil Code), as also reflected in the issuance of extracts and certificates.
Extracts from civil status records may be issued in summary form, setting out the information contained in the record itself and its annotations, or as full copies. Full copies are only issued when expressly requested by persons having an interest in them and if their issuance is not prohibited by law.
Civil status records serve as valid proof, unless challenged as forgery, of what the public official certifies as having been done in their presence or by them (Article 451 of the Civil Code).
3. Ministry of the Interior – ANPR (National Registry of the Resident Population)
The National Registry (ANPR) is the Ministry of the Interior’s single database established to facilitate the exchange of information between municipalities and public administrations and the dialogue between municipalities and citizens.
National Registry services can be accessed using a digital identity, such as SPID, CIE, CNS, or eIDAS for European citizens, solely for the user’s personal data or those of a family member.
Citizens residing in municipalities and those registered in the Register of Italians living abroad (AIRE) can check their biographical data online and request corrections from the relevant municipality via the online data correction service. They can also independently and free of charge download various types of digital certificates. Lastly, they can declare their change of residence online when changing address within the same municipality or between different municipalities, or when moving back to Italy.
There are 15 types of certificates available from the National Registry:
birth certificate
marriage certificate
certificate of nationality
proof of life certificate
certificate of residence
living abroad certificate (AIRE)
civil status certificate
family status certificate
family status and civil status certificate
certificate of residence in cohabitation
AIRE family status certificate
family status certificate with kinship
single status certificate
civil union registry certificate
cohabitation agreement certificate.
Link: https://www.anagrafenazionale.interno.it/
4. General Register of Wills
The General Register of Wills can be consulted to check if a deceased person made a will, whether in Italy or abroad. It is available from the District Notarial Archives, a service of the Ministry of Justice.
Through the Registry, it is possible to request from the competent authority of a foreign State party to the Council of Europe Convention on the Establishment of a Scheme of Registration of Wills a certificate of the will of the deceased person registered with that authority.
The States which have so far ratified the Convention are, in addition to Italy: France, Cyprus, Türkiye, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Luxembourg, Spain, Estonia, Lithuania and Ukraine.
Interested parties can apply to the General Register of Wills for a certificate of the entries in the name of the deceased person and an indication of the district notarial archive in which the registered documents are held, if the notary is no longer practising.
The request form may also be submitted by simple or certified e-mail, respectively to registrogeneraletestamenti.ucan@giustizia.it or registrogeneraletestamenti.ucan@giustiziacert.it, with a copy of the requester’s identity document attached. The form allows you to specify whether you want to receive the certificate on paper or in digital format and to make self-certifications pursuant to Presidential Decree No 445 of 28 December 2000.
In the event of the testator’s absence or presumed death, it is necessary to attach a copy of the measure ordering the opening of the testator’s will (in case of absence) or a copy of the court judgment declaring presumed death.
In the case of certificates from foreign authorities, it is necessary to provide the original death certificate or other proof of the testator’s death that is deemed sufficient under the laws of the foreign State.
Link: https://www.giustizia.it/
5. Voluntary Register of Wills
This service was set up to record the existence of wills held by notaries, so they can be retrieved upon the testator’s death.
Entry in the register is voluntary and at the testator’s request.
The register can only be consulted by notaries and authorised institutions.
Link: https://webrun.notariato.it/rvt
6. Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) - Succession Office (Ufficio Successioni)
Anyone inheriting movable and immovable property and rights in rem on immovable property must submit a declaration of succession and pay any inheritance tax owed.
As a rule, the declaration of succession must be filed within 12 months of the date on which the succession was opened, by one of the persons required to do so, at the Revenue Agency office in the district where the deceased resided.
The declaration can be submitted online directly by the heir or through an authorised intermediary.
Link: https://www.agenziaentrate.gov.it/
7. Revenue Agency - Property Ownership and Liens Registers and Land Register
In Italy, information on ownership of real estate (buildings and land) is recorded in the Property Ownership and Liens Registers (Registri Immobiliari) on a personal basis, except in certain areas such as Trento, Bolzano, Gorizia, Trieste and other districts where a title registration system (tavolare) is used. Ownership information can also be found in the Land Register (Catasto) on a property basis.
The Revenue Agency, through its local offices (Conservatorie and provincial offices of the Land Register), is responsible for the upkeep of the respective registers, which are all digitised and therefore may also be consulted online.
Professionals and other private parties can perform online queries and searches in the land register (visure e ricerche catastali) and ownership and lien searches (ispezioni ipotecarie), using the query services available on the restricted access area of the Agency’s website, under ‘Fabbricati e terreni’ (Buildings and land).
Transcription in the Property Ownership and Liens Registers is the formal procedure for publicly recording agreements or deeds that transfer the ownership of immovable property or create, amend or transfer any other right in rem on such property, as well as other instruments, agreements, measures or legal claims that are legally required to be recorded. To obtain transcription and registration, it is necessary to file the title deed (in the form required by the Civil Code or special laws) and the related note with the details required by the Civil Code.
Link: https://www.agenziaentrate.gov.it/
Through a data query (visura catastale) it is possible to consult land register documents and plans and obtain:
- identification and cadastral income data on immovable property (land and buildings), and lists of properties
- the biographical data of the individuals or legal persons who own the property
- graphic representation of land (cadastral maps) and urban property units (floor plans)
- monographs of the reference points and vertices of the cadastral reference network
- floor plans (list of property units and their graphic representation)
- the identification data (filing number and date) of land register updates and the related notes.
The information in land register query reports is public, except for floor plans, which can only be viewed by persons with a legal interest in the property or their authorised representatives. Therefore, all other information can be accessed by anyone, subject to fees for ownership and lien register services and land register services and in accordance with current legislation.
Persons with ownership rights or other rights in rem over all or part of an immovable property can access information about their property free of charge, including over the counter. They can thus obtain land register reports, floor plans, and ownership and liens register reports for their properties.
Non-owners can obtain free of charge reports for any properties in the land register.
The types of reports that can be issued are:
- current land register reports by owner or by property
- historical reports, by owner or by property.
Apart from the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano, land register data stored in the national database can be accessed at any provincial office of the Revenue Agency (Ufficio provinciale – Territorio), local land register offices, or online via the Revenue Agency’s website.
The report provides details on the parcels included in the Land Register (Catasto dei Terreni) and the properties recorded in the Building Register (Catasto dei Fabbricati) - property units, common areas, roof terraces, etc. It also contains information on the cadastral map and the floor plans of urban property units.
If the data are digitised, the land register report is issued to the applicant as a printout if it was requested at the counter, or as a PDF file if it was requested online.
To access data that are only available on paper, it is necessary to go to the competent provincial office (Ufficio provinciale – Territorio) of the Revenue Agency. In this case, users can take notes. At the office, it is also possible to consult the historical records of the land register (registri di partita, maps, splitting of properties, Form 55, etc.).
How to search for data
The land register can be queried using various search methods, over a specified period: by property, by owner or by owner number (partita).
To access the service, you must hold credentials from the Public Digital Identity System (SPID), an Electronic Identity Card (CIE) or a National Service Card (CNS).
The Land Register query service for non-owned properties allows electronic access to cadastral databases even if the applicant does not own any part of the property.
https://www.agenziaentrate.gov.it/portale/come-accedere-servizi-online-agenzia
3 The availability of information on bank accounts
The current account registry, also known as ‘financial relationship registry’ (anagrafe dei conti correnti / anagrafe dei rapporti finanziari), is a database that collects information on deposits and transactions made in Italian citizens’ current accounts, prepaid cards, passbooks and debt securities.
How banking information is obtained
The Revenue Agency acquires information on current accounts through two main channels: by consulting the Financial Relationships Registry, a section of the Tax Register Information System (Anagrafe Tributaria) that collects the data supplied each year by banks and post offices on active bank accounts; or by making specific enquiries to the banks, requesting them officially to provide the complete documentation on a client’s accounts.
Banks naturally hold all the details of transactions performed by their clients, including deposits and withdrawals. However, those data can only be accessed by authorised staff and only for the purpose of managing the banking relationship. Any data consultation not justified on operational grounds would breach data protection legislation.
Anyone who is owed money has the right to check their debtor’s financial situation, but only under specific conditions. To access account information, creditors must possess an enforceable title, such as a court’s judgment or payment order; alternatively, they must serve a writ of execution, demanding payment by a specified time limit, or obtain a court’s permission to access the Tax Register Information System.
Heirs have the right to know from the bank the history of the deceased person’s bank movements, by providing proof of their status as heirs.
4 The availability of a register of intellectual property rights
The Italian Society of Authors and Publishers – SIAE – maintains an archive (repertorio) of all the works deposited directly by its members or entrusted to it by foreign authors’ societies. SIAE’s archive contains over 62 million works by Italian and international artists. Creative works are expressions of intellectual labour, for which the law, just as it does for any other type of work, guarantees fair remuneration, thereby safeguarding their creation and existence. Copyright is the mechanism by which creative works are protected and promoted.
It arises automatically when the work is created; therefore, no administrative procedure is required to obtain copyright. The Law on Copyright (Law No 633/1941, as amended) also established another category of rights: related rights, that is to say, rights which the law grants to other persons associated in some way with the author of the work (such as, for example, performers).
Link: https://www.siae.it/
5 Other registers with information relevant to successions
There are no other registers containing information relevant to successions.
6 The availability of information on closed wills and wills not subject to registration
In Italy, most wills are holographic, meaning they are entirely handwritten and signed by the testator; there is no requirement to seek professional assistance. There are no official estimates of the number of these wills.
The source of information on the existence of a will depends on its type:
- Holographic wills are not subject to registration and are often entrusted to a professional chosen by the testator, such as a notary or a lawyer. At the testator’s death, it is therefore difficult to obtain information on the existence of the holographic will. For this reason, the National Chamber of Notaries has launched a ‘Voluntary Register of Holographic Wills’ (see question 2 above). Generally, on the testator’s death, interested parties contact the local Notarial District, which periodically forwards these requests to the local notaries.
- For public and secret wills, which are formally received by a notary, information on their existence can be obtained from the General Register of Wills.