A phone call about family property in Italy turns into a legal problem faster than most people expect. One relative says there is a will. Another says there is not. A bank account is frozen, a house in Sicily is still occupied by somebody, and nobody can explain what the Italian notary will accept.
The nationality on your passport changes some of the paperwork but almost none of the law. What follows applies whether you are in Boston, Birmingham, Toronto or Melbourne — with the country-specific differences flagged where they matter, because that is where the weeks are lost.
The two things nobody tells you first
Italian succession is automatic. There is no probate court appointing an executor, no administration period before anything passes. At the moment of death the estate devolves on the heirs. You may already be a co-owner of an apartment in Palermo without having signed anything — with the tax obligations that come with it.
This is the point that catches common-law families hardest. In the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada and Australia somebody is appointed to gather the estate, pay the debts and distribute what is left. In Italy that intermediary does not exist. The heirs are the estate.
There is a deadline, and it is twelve months from the date of death. The dichiarazione di successione must be filed with the Italian revenue agency within a year, whether or not you intend to keep anything. Late filing carries penalties; not filing blocks any sale, freezes the Italian bank accounts, and leaves a dead person as the registered owner — a problem that compounds with every generation that passes.
Which country's law decides who inherits
Since 2015, EU Regulation 650/2012 generally points to the law of the deceased's habitual residence, unless they chose the law of their nationality in the will.
The practical consequences differ:
- A US, Canadian or Australian citizen who lived at home and owned property in Italy: the analysis is often counter-intuitive, and whether Italy's reserved shares apply to the Italian assets has to be established before anyone signs anything.
- A UK citizen: the United Kingdom never took part in the Regulation, and Brexit did not change that — but the Regulation is universal in application, so Italy still applies it to decide which law governs, and it can point to English law. This is a genuinely technical question and the answer is not the same in every case.
Get a reasoned opinion on this first. It decides who is entitled to what, and everything else follows from it.
Forced heirship: the share a will cannot defeat
Italian law reserves fixed shares for close family — the legittima. A will that ignores them is not void, but the protected heirs can bring an action to reduce the gifts or legacies that encroached on their share.
For a common-law family this is the single biggest surprise. Testamentary freedom is close to absolute in England and in most of the United States, Canada and Australia. In Italy it is not. A will drafted in Surrey or in New Jersey leaving everything to one child can be attacked in Italy by the others, in respect of the Italian assets.
The documents, and where each country gets them
Every foreign document needs to be legalised and translated before an Italian office will act on it. The order is: obtain the certified original, apostille, then sworn translation in Italy.
The apostille authority is different in each country, and sending papers to the wrong one costs weeks:
- United States — the Secretary of State of the state that issued the document, not a federal office. A death certificate from Ohio is apostilled in Columbus.
- United Kingdom — the Legalisation Office of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, for the whole UK.
- Ireland — the Department of Foreign Affairs.
- Canada — the competent provincial authority. Note that Canada only joined the Apostille Convention in January 2024: before that, documents went through consular legalisation, and a good deal of advice still in circulation describes the old route.
- Australia and New Zealand — DFAT and the Department of Internal Affairs.
You will also need an Italian tax code — codice fiscale — for the deceased and for every heir, wherever they live. It is the item that stalls most files, and it is easily solved.
Accepting, and the trap inside it
Acceptance can be express or tacit. Collecting rent, paying a utility bill in your own name, or simply dealing with the property as an owner can amount to accepting the estate — and with it any debts attached to it.
Where debts are suspected there is a protective route: acceptance with benefit of inventory, which separates the estate's liabilities from your own. It has strict formalities and short time limits, so it has to be decided early rather than discovered late. Renunciation, if that is the right answer, is also a formal act: you cannot simply ignore an Italian inheritance.
What it costs, and what it does not
Italian inheritance tax is unusually low by international standards, with substantial exemptions for spouses and children. The cost of an Italian estate is almost never the tax — it is the delay, the missing documents, and the co-heirs who cannot agree.
Your own country may want to know about it, though, and that part is on you:
- United States — foreign financial accounts above the threshold are reportable on the FBAR and, separately, on Form 8938.
- Canada — foreign property above CAD 100,000 in cost is reportable on form T1135.
- Australia — capital gains tax rules apply to a foreign property when you eventually dispose of it, and the cost base is set at the date of death.
Tell your accountant at home when the inheritance opens, not the following spring.
When the heirs cannot agree
Undivided property among five cousins in three countries is the most common Italian inheritance problem we see. Nobody can sell, nobody wants to pay the taxes, and one of them lives in the house.
It is resolved by negotiated division, and when negotiation fails, by the court-ordered partition or judicial sale that ends the deadlock. Where a reserved share was cut out, the action to reduce the gift that did it is separate and has its own timetable.
If the death was years ago
Very often fixable. We reconstruct the chain of successions, file what is missing and bring the land registry up to date. It is common, it is solvable, and it is only more expensive than doing it on time — not impossible.
How we work on this
We establish the governing law and the reserved shares, obtain the Italian records and the tax codes, file the succession declaration and pay the taxes, update the registry into the heirs' names, and release the Italian bank accounts. Under a power of attorney signed at home, none of it requires you to travel.
The first consultation is free and it is with a lawyer. Bring the dates and whatever documents you have; if you have none, we obtain them.