Buying or selling without being in Italy

The form is your country's. The content is not.

The form of the document is governed by the law of the country where it is drawn up. You do not have to reproduce an Italian deed abroad, and you should not try: a notary in your country works the way notaries work there.

But for the document to be usable in Italy it has to satisfy a minimum content, and one requirement inside that minimum is the one everything turns on: the power of attorney must be signed in the presence of the person who certifies the signature, and that person must have identified the signatory.

That single sentence explains every power of attorney we have had to refuse. A document you print at home, sign at the kitchen table and scan is not enough — not because it is informal, but because nobody watched you sign it and nobody established who you are. The same is true of a signature certified from a photocopy of your passport, without you in the room.

This is not a formality we could waive if we wanted to. Without it the deed cannot be signed, and finding out on the day means the appointment is lost.

Where you sign it

Before a notary in the country where you are — someone who performs a function comparable to ours. That is the route. The Italian consulate is not an option here: consular powers of attorney are for Italian citizens, and if you are not one, the consulate cannot draw yours up.

That does not make the consulate useless to you: it can issue your codice fiscale, and that service is open to everyone. It is the power of attorney it cannot do.

The document then has to be made usable in Italy. Where your country is party to the Hague Convention that means an apostille, obtained in that country from whichever authority issues it there. Where it is not, it means consular legalisation instead.

The translation into Italian is made here, and sworn here. Do not have it translated in your own country: a translation sworn abroad does not do the job, and paying for one twice is a common and avoidable waste. Send us the apostilled original and we deal with the translation.

We write the text, you take it to be signed

Do not have a power of attorney drafted abroad and hope it fits. The powers it has to confer are specific to the deed — the property, the price, the conditions, what your attorney may agree to and what they may not — and a generic authority to "deal with property in Italy" is either too vague to be used or wider than you intended.

Tell us what you are doing and we prepare the text and send it to you. You take that text to the notary who will receive your signature. It costs you nothing extra and removes the most common reason these documents come back unusable.

Who your attorney should be

Anyone you trust and who can be in Italy on the day. What we would avoid is appointing the other side of the transaction, or someone who works for them: the same person cannot usefully represent both interests, and even where it is formally possible it is not a position to put anybody in.

The estate agent is not the natural choice either, for the same reason.

Start as soon as you know you cannot come

We cannot tell you how long it will take, and we would rather say so than invent a figure. The steps are in the hands of offices we do not control — a notary in your country, the authority that issues apostilles there, the post — and they differ from one country to the next.

What we can tell you is that it is never quick, and that photocopies and scans do not shorten it: the deed needs the original document in our hands. It is the first thing to arrange, not the last. If a date is already fixed, tell us now.

Write before you book anything

Tell us the country where you will sign, what the deed is, and the date if there is one. We will tell you which route is open to you and send you the text.

Write to segreteria@notaiochianese.it.

The general rules — citizenship, codice fiscale, the language of the deed — are on the international guide.

Last updated 4 September 2026