Most of what gets written about inheriting Italian property assumes the heir is going to sell. A good number are not — the house is a grandparent's, there is a plan to retire into it, or nobody in the family wants to be the one who let it go. Keeping it is a legitimate choice, and it closes one set of questions while opening another: an empty or let property in another country does not run itself, and Italy's rules for it do not pause just because the owner lives abroad.
Finish the registration first, even if you are not selling
The same two steps a sale would require — the voltura catastale, which updates the land registry's fiscal record, and the transcription of the acceptance of inheritance in the registri immobiliari, the actual register of title — still have to be completed. There is no shortcut for an heir who intends to keep the property rather than sell it: without the transcription, the title is not clean, and a clean title is what every later step (a mortgage, a future sale by your own heirs, even a straightforward insurance claim after damage) will ask for. We set out how these two steps work in our note on the succession declaration; it is worth finishing them before anything else on this page.
The costs that keep running whether or not anyone lives there
Italy charges municipal property tax, IMU, on any property that is not the owner's primary Italian residence — and an inherited house kept as a second home or left empty is squarely in that category. The rate is set by each municipality within a national range, so it varies from comune to comune and changes periodically; do not rely on a figure quoted for a different town or a different year, and have a local accountant (commercialista) confirm the current rate and the payment dates, which normally fall in two instalments during the year. Alongside IMU, an occupied building has ordinary condominium charges if it is part of a shared building, and an empty one still needs insurance, basic heating to prevent damp and pipe damage over a winter, and someone local who can be called if something goes wrong. None of this is optional simply because the owner is not in Italy.
Letting it out: what changes, and what does not
Renting the property out does not require Italian residency on the owner's part, but it does put the rental income inside the Italian tax system regardless of where you live, because Italy taxes income from Italian real estate at source. Two broad routes exist for an individual letting out a residential unit outside any business activity: ordinary taxation under the normal progressive income tax rules, or the flat-rate cedolare secca regime, which replaces several separate taxes with a single rate and is generally open to non-resident owners on the same terms as resident ones for qualifying residential leases. Which route is better depends on the numbers for your specific lease, and the choice is made (and can sometimes be changed) when the tenancy contract itself is registered — this is a decision to make with an Italian accountant before signing, not after the first rent payment arrives.
Either way, a tax return has to be filed in Italy for the rental income even though you live elsewhere, using the codice fiscale already obtained for the succession itself. Your own country then taxes that same income again on your worldwide return — the US, Canada and Australia all tax residents on income earned anywhere — but a tax treaty and a foreign tax credit normally prevent you from paying twice on the same euro. Keep the Italian filing and the tax paid on record; your accountant at home will need both to claim the credit correctly, and a US heir should also check whether the property or the account receiving the rent falls within the FBAR and Form 8938 reporting already triggered by the inheritance itself.
Someone has to be reachable
A landlord who is twelve time zones away cannot be the first call when a boiler fails or a tenant has a question. Most owners in this position appoint either a local property manager under a limited power of attorney, or rely on the same lawyer who handled the succession to receive post, respond to the condominium administrator, and flag anything that needs a decision. The power of attorney used for this does not need to be the broad one used for a sale; it can be scoped narrowly to property management, which is usually what a local manager or administrator will actually ask to see.
Selling later does not undo what you do now
Keeping the property today does not foreclose selling it in five years, and nothing about letting it out changes the capital gains position described in our note on selling an inherited property — inherited property generally falls outside Italy's ordinary gains rule in the way that note explains, and a period of rental does not appear to change that, though it is worth re-confirming with your accountant given how much Italian tax law shifts year to year. What does change is paperwork volume: a few years of IMU payments, tenancy registrations and Italian tax returns to keep organised, so that whenever a sale is eventually agreed, the file is not being reconstructed from scratch under time pressure.
What a decision to keep it actually requires, at minimum
Before treating "we're keeping it" as a settled plan, four things should already be in place: the registration finished, not just the inheritance accepted (see the note above); a current IMU and insurance arrangement, confirmed with a local professional rather than inherited guesswork from a relative's old notes; a clear answer on whether the property will be let, and under which tax regime, before any tenant moves in; and one named person, local or not, who is actually responsible for responding when something in Italy needs a decision this week, not next time someone visits.
None of this is harder than selling — it is simply ongoing rather than one-off, and the issue that catches heirs out is not any single step but assuming the file closes once the inheritance is accepted. For a property you are keeping, it has only just opened. The first consultation is free and it is with a lawyer.