Dealing With Inherited Property

08/25/2012 - 11:44

Ciao. I'm new here and am in need of advice. Please help if you can. I have recently jointly inherited a house near Agrigento in Sicily with my brother and 4 sisters. However, only I and my sister Angela want to use the house. Our remaining siblings are happy to relinquish their claims on the house as they want it to stay in the family but want no responsibility over its maintenance. There is also some land and a magazzino which we have all agreed to sell, with the proceeds being divided between all 6 of us. We have potential buyers for these but need to have them valued and agree a price.Angela and I are going to Sicily next month to (hopefully) sort out all the legal requirements regarding the inheritance. As one of the executors of the will, Angela has a Procura Speciale document signed by all of us so she can act as signatory on everyone's behalf. Unfortunately we don't speak Italian very well and are new to the legendary Italian bureaucracy. Please help if you can advise on the following:1) Can we remove the other 4 names from the title deeds when no exchange of money is involved?2) What documents do we need to bring with us? (e.g. birth certificate, codice fiscale)3) Can we do any preparatory work on the legal side before we go out there?4) What professionals do we need to approach? (e.g. solicitor, notaio, property valuer)5) What happens at the comune and what documents do we need to take with us when we go there?6) Should we get an Italian will drawn up or will our UK ones suffice (if we state the law of our nationality should apply when we die)?7) Can anyone recommend a solicitor, notary or property valuer in Agrigento? (Preferably English-speaking)We are all English-born British citizens. I and my sisters live in England and my brother has recently moved to Singapore.Any advice you can give us would be gratefully received. Grazie.(p.s. I'm sorry if you've seen this before as a legal topic, I'm aiming to resend it specifically to the 'Italian succession law' and 'Property Law' Groups.)

Topic

Legal

Comment

1. You can't. The only way is for the other 4 owners to donate their quota, but it will cost the same as a sale, or sell it to you. However, this does depend whether they have formally accepted their quota of succession. If not they can renounce their share - but if it came via the legittima, this may not be possible. 2. Bring as much as possible, marriage certificates, birth certificates, CF, 4. You will need a notaio, and a translator as you are not fluent in Italian. If you sign a document in ITalian without knowing what you are signing, it is legally null. I would suggest - 'My House' in Cianciana - they speak English and are an honest estaate agents - who will be able to help you at least with the sale of the land. They probably offer translation services too, but you should pay. If you have a UK will then you will only have to do a holographic Italian will, saying that you want the law of your nationality to govern any probate.

Your advice will be of great help to us. I will contact 'My House' asap. Thanks again.

The Notary will be able to help you decide whether your siblings can sign an "atto di renuncia all'eredita", although where there has also been a succession in the UK it could be argued a partial renunciation is not possible. The deeds of renunciation could be signed in the UK, and attached to the declaration of sucession. I think that it would also be possible for an "atto" or public deed to be drawn up by the Notary in which you all agree who should own this property, like a formal "settlement". If you post this also in the succession law group you may find other member who have dealt with inheritance in Sicily who could recommend a Notary. Charlotte

before giving advice, it would be good to know if Angela and his brothers, have Italian citizenship and nation in which they live now (it is not written in his post) - remember that the Italian consulate in any country, it is as a part of Italy, therefore there is no need to go to Italy to make any document or action on the Italian-owned Italian citizens, but simply contact the offices of the consulate -

if you have Italian citizenship or birth, should go to the Italian consulate and ask the notary service !

Ugo, I don't know if you have ever used an Italian Consulate in another Country; but having experience of the ones in the UK I can honestly say they are anything but helpful.

I fear you may find things not as simple as you hope, and it is quite possible that you won't manage to get everything sorted out in one visit. There probably isn't time to get the 'legal stuff' about the successione resolved using a Noatio local to you (ie not in Sicily), but presumably you have already contacted one in order to get a procura drawn up, and you might be able to get some answers to some questions from him. The procura which you have should be enough to put the sale of the land and magazzino in hand, (but that would assume that your co-heirs have accepted their inheritance). It would not be possible, I don't believe, to use a procura for any donation or sale from your siblings to you and your sister - because the holder of the procura (your sister) would be a 'beneficiary'. Good luck with it, I'm sure it will all get sorted out the way you want, but it is quite complicated and won't be quick. It would be as well to make sure you are in the clear in respect of any future claims made on the estate by any children of your siblings, especially if they donate the property to you. A sale might be a more straightforward option.

There's certainly a lot for us to be getting on with. Unfortunately the Consulate won't be much help for us as we are all English-born British citizens. My sisters and I still live in England but my brother has recently moved to Singapore. (I'm female, by the way.) I will send this post to the succession law group as suggested. Thanks again.

Thanks for posting here. The first thing you will need to do is have a dichiarazione di successione completed and lodged with the Agenzie delle Entrate, you will need codice fiscale for all your siblings to do this. you will pay the necessary succession taxes before you present the dichiarazione. You did not say whether the deceased left a will, if he or she did, this will need to be attached to the dichiarazione. If in English it will need to be translated. If a Grant of Probate was obtained in the UK this should be fixed with the Apostille and translated. You will need an original death certificate. the property, land and maggazzino should all be entered on the dichiarazione. As I understand now that you are selling part of the property, your siblings should not renounce their inheritance as we suggested earlier in the thread. You mentioned "taking your siblings name off the title deeds". They would not yet be on the title deeds if the dichiarazione has not been presented. Usually a goemetra or tecnico will arrange the Catasto entries to be updated with the names of all heirs after the presentation of the Dichiarazione. After the presentation the Notary should draw up a deed - atto di transazione - in which the heirs divide up the property as necessary, with an agreement to sell the magazzino and land and divide the proceeds. That way, your siblings names can go on the deeds of the magazzino and land only, and your name only goes on the property. charlotte

I need to go and study exactly what documents Angela has and follow your advice. I will let you know how we get on. Thanks to everyone who has replied to my request for help.

Having looked at all our paperwork we have come to the conclusion that we are not going to be able to do all we want during one visit to Sicily. The 'Dichiarazione di Successione' has already been presented and the taxes have been paid so it is too late to remove our siblings names from the title deeds of the house. Bearing this in mind we intend only to sell the land and magazzino for the time being. Do we need a solicitor for this or do we just need the notaio?

Just because you have presented the declaration of succession does not mean that the property is automatically registered in the names of all the heirs. you can check this with the Catasto Fabbricati. This would only have been done if someone has requested the transfer into their names, this is known as a voltura. If the voltura has not yet been done you can instruct a Notary to prepare a deed of settlement.