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Pioltello02 9210 1818Milano02 3676 5770

Studio fondato nel 1979Italiano

Studio Notarile ChianeseNotaio a Pioltello e MilanoGet a quote

The Italian notaio is not a notary public

The two words look like translations of each other. They are not, and the difference is the reason people arrive here expecting a twenty-minute appointment and find something else.

What a notary public does

In common-law countries a notary public certifies that a signature is genuine, administers oaths, and certifies copies. The document itself is somebody else's work — a solicitor's, a company's, your own. The notary public does not write it and is not responsible for what it says.

What an Italian notary does

An Italian notary is a public official appointed by the State, and the deed is the notary's own act. For a property purchase that means, in order:

  • checking who actually owns the property, and what is registered against it — mortgages, rights of way, seizures, claims;
  • checking the planning and cadastral position, and whether the building as it stands matches the building as it is recorded;
  • drafting the deed, reading it to both parties and explaining what it commits them to;
  • calculating the taxes, collecting them from you and paying them to the State;
  • registering the deed so that your ownership is enforceable against everyone else.

The deed the notary draws up is an atto pubblico — a notarial deed — and it carries a particular evidential weight: what the notary records as having happened in front of them is taken as proved unless someone brings a specific action to challenge it.

Three consequences that surprise people

The notary is not your lawyer. We are impartial between buyer and seller. If you want someone arguing your side of the price or the conditions, that is a different professional, and you can have both.

In a purchase, the buyer normally chooses the notary, because the buyer pays. If the estate agent or the seller tells you the notary is already decided, that is a custom, not a rule.

Most of what you pay is not the notary. A quote that mixes the fee and the taxes into one number makes the notary look expensive and the tax invisible. Ours separates them.

If you only need a signature certified

That we do as well — it is called autentica di firma, and it is the closest thing to what a notary public does. Bring the document and valid photographic identification. If the document has to be used abroad it will usually also need an apostille, which is issued by the Prefecture, not by us; we will tell you whether yours needs one.

For that, and for anything else, write to segreteria@notaiochianese.it or call the Pioltello office on 02 9210 1818.

The things that are the same whatever you are signing — citizenship, reciprocity, the codice fiscale, the language of the deed — are on the international guide.