Someone has died leaving assets in Italy and your name is in the papers. Three things need doing, and none is what a common-law client expects: establish which law governs the succession, decide formally whether to accept, and file a succession declaration within twelve months of the death. Nothing starts on its own; no court will start it for you.
What replaces probate — and what does not
There is no Italian probate: no court appoints an executor, no administration period, no judge supervising the distribution. Foreign heirs conclude that succession is therefore automatic and that they already own a share of the flat in Palermo. They do not.
An inheritance is acquired by acceptance — accettazione dell'eredità. Until you accept you are a chiamato all'eredità: a real legal position carrying exposure, but not ownership. Acceptance then takes effect retroactively to the date of death — hence the impression of automatic transfer.
One trap: an heir in possession of estate assets — living in the house, holding the keys — is on a short clock. The Civil Code requires an inventory within a few months, failing which the law treats them as having accepted outright, debts included.
Two clocks, running separately
The twelve-month deadline everyone repeats is the tax one: late filing carries penalties, and not filing blocks any sale, freezes the accounts and leaves a dead person on the register.
The civil deadline differs: the right to accept carries a ten-year limitation period from the opening of the succession. An estate can be long out of time for tax and still capable of being accepted — but ten years is a ceiling, not comfort: co-heirs die and multiply, documents get harder to find.
The declaration, and what filing it does not mean
The file needs the death certificate, proof of relationship, the will if any, a schedule of Italian assets with cadastral data, and an Italian tax code for the deceased and for every heir, wherever they live. That last item stalls the most files and is the easiest to fix: how to obtain a codice fiscale from abroad.
Foreign documents do not travel on their own: each needs an apostille at home — never from the Italian consulate — then a sworn translation made in Italy, in that order (which document needs which). A foreign will must also be deposited with an Italian notary; a US grant of probate or English grant will not do alone.
Filing is a tax obligation, falling on those merely called to the succession as well as on heirs, and generally not treated as acceptance — confirm that on your facts. Inheritance tax is not the only one: mortgage and cadastral taxes fall due on filing where there is property, and rate and threshold turn on the relationship to the deceased. The mechanics were reformed recently, so check current procedure.
The two registry steps before you can sell
The voltura catastale moves the land registry into the heirs' names. The electronic declaration usually requests it automatically — but not in the sistema tavolare areas of north-eastern Italy, where title runs on a land-book and needs a separate application.
The second almost nobody has heard of: transcription of the acceptance in the registri immobiliari. The catasto is a fiscal inventory, not a register of title; until the acceptance is transcribed, the chain of title has a gap and no Italian notary will complete a sale across it.
Which law governs, and why heirs get it backwards
For deaths since August 2015, EU Regulation 650/2012 governs, and Italy applies it even where the deceased lived in a country not bound by it — the UK and Ireland did not opt in, which does not stop an Italian notary applying it.
The default connecting factor is the deceased's habitual residence at death — a question of fact, arguable for someone who divided life between Manchester and Liguria. A person may instead choose, in the will, the law of a country of their nationality: relevant to many Italian-American, Italian-Canadian and Italian-Australian dual nationals.
Then the counter-intuitive part. Where the Regulation points to a non-EU law, that country's conflict rules count too, and most common-law systems apply the law of the place where the property sits — often a referral back to Italian law for the Italian house, and with it Italy's reserved shares for the spouse, the children and, failing children, the parents. Whether forced heirship survives a choice of foreign law is contested.
Accepting, refusing, and unseen debts
Acceptance can be express or tacit, and tacit acceptance is where careful people come unstuck: collecting rent, putting a utility in your name or selling the contents can amount to accepting the estate, debts included.
Where debts are suspected, acceptance with benefit of inventory keeps the estate's liabilities separate from your own; it has strict formalities and time limits, so decide early. For a minor heir the law requires this route, the parents acting as legal representatives — minority does not stop any clock by itself, but it changes what may be done. Renunciation is equally formal, before a notary or court clerk and entered in the register of successions — you cannot renounce by ignoring it. On how liability falls, see who pays debts after an inheritance.
What your own tax authority wants
- United States — taxation follows citizenship, so the worldwide estate is in scope; a treaty may relieve double tax, and an inherited Italian account brings possible FBAR and FATCA reporting.
- United Kingdom — inheritance tax falls on the estate, not the recipient, and the connecting factor moved from domicile to long-term residence. Your solicitor extracts the grant while we work the Italian end.
- Ireland — the logic reverses: Capital Acquisitions Tax falls on the beneficiary, by their residence and the relationship threshold, with credit for Italian tax.
- Canada — no inheritance tax, but a deemed disposition at death can create a capital gain on the final return, plus an annual foreign-property return.
- Australia — no death duty, but capital gains roll over to the beneficiary and bite on a later sale.
None of this replaces advice from your own solicitor, attorney or accountant.
When the co-heirs cannot agree
Two rules shape the way out of the usual deadlock — nobody can sell, one cousin lives in the house. Any co-heir may demand division at any time, by agreement before a notary or by judicial partition, and where the property cannot be split in kind the court can order it sold. A co-heir selling an undivided share to an outsider must first offer it to the others, who have a right of pre-emption.
You need not fly over: we act under a power of attorney signed where you live.
If the death was years ago it is still ordinary work: successions reconstructed, declarations filed, registry updated. If you want to talk it through, get in touch: bring the date of death, the address and whatever paperwork exists. Every estate turns on its own facts: treat this as the map, not the answer to your case.