The deed of purchase relative to a property in Italy is kept by the Notary Public before whom the parties have signed it. This act is public and, therefore, accessible to everyone by law. The copy of the deed may be useful to verify the ownership of a property, possible irregularities, planimetric variations, the price at which it was purchased, if special conditions were inserted in the contract, specific matters relating to the condominium, etc. In addition to the above, the deed (so-called act of origin) is required in case you want to buy the property in question.

How to obtain a copy of a deed 

The copy of the deed may be useful to verify the ownership of a property, possible irregularities, planimetric variations, the price at which it was purchased, if special conditions were inserted in the contract, specific matters relating to the condominium, etc. In addition to the above, the deed (so-called act of origin) is required in case you want to buy the property in question (usually in this case it is the seller who provides the Notary with a copy of the act).

A Notary has an obligation to keep the documents received and those deposited at his office, including deeds, both when requested by the parties or when established by law.

Therefore, if you want to request a copy of a deed of purchase relative to a property in Italy in which you were not involved, you will need to know who the Notary (before whom the parties have signed it) is, and then go to his office and ask him for a copy.  The Notary might ask you for a very small sum of money to cover copying expenses.

Otherwise, if you are able to write your request in Italian, you can save time by sending the Notary your request via e-mail, or even better via PEC (posta elettronica certificata)n1. You could also consider asking an Italian professional to request the copy from the Notary on your behalf. In this case, the Notary should send you (or the professional) a scanned copy of the contract within a few days.

If the Notary who drew up the deed has retired or moved to another notary district, the copy of the deed can only be requested from the Notarial Archives (Archivio Notarile) of the district where the notary was working at the time of the signing (for example Archivio Notarile di Roma, Milano, Torino, etc.). It is possibile to use the search system Archinota, on the website of the Ministry of Justice, to find out in which notarial archive the act you are interested in is located.

If the applicant does not have the information related to the act he/she may request, on the basis of the information available to him/her, that the competent Notarial Archive search for the act of interest in the database. The request can be filed by mail, fax, e-mail, or PEC. Otherwise, it is always possible to research for the deed you are interested in at the Real Estate Registry (“Conservatoria“) either by going to the Office or onto its website, or online where there are many dedicated websites.

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