CompromessoCheck
Guides · Updated 2026-08-07
The seven classic ways foreign buyers get burned in Italy
Outright fraud in Italian property purchases is rare — the notarial system makes classic title fraud hard. What actually burns foreign buyers is subtler and more common: legal, documented traps that a local would smell and a foreigner signs. Here are the seven we see most, each with its antidote.
The verbal-promise economy
'We'll fix the roof before the deed.' 'The furniture stays.' 'The neighbour never uses that path.' In Italy, if it's not in the contract, it doesn't exist. Antidote: everything negotiated goes in the compromesso, in writing, with deadlines and consequences.
Related: the 'friendly' translation. The agent's summary in English is not the contract; the Italian text is. Deviations are usually simplifications — occasionally they're conveniences.
The casual proposal that wasn't
The proposta d'acquisto presented as a formality 'just to start negotiating' — which, once accepted, binds you and moves your money to a caparra. Antidote: treat every signature like a contract, because it is one.
The property that doesn't match its papers
The veranda, the extra bathroom, the converted barn — charming in person, absent from the planimetria. The cost and risk of regularizing lands on whoever owns it at the deed. Antidote: cadastral and planning conformity checked by your technician, and seller declarations in the contract.
The one-sided draft
Standard agency and seller templates are drafted by one side. Typical tells: termination rights spelled out only for the seller, commission due at the preliminare and non-refundable, no mortgage condition, the seller choosing the notary. None of this is illegal — all of it is negotiable, but only before signing.
The pressure clock
'Another buyer is ready to sign this weekend.' Sometimes true, always convenient. A real seller with a clean file can wait five days for your checks; a file that can't survive five days of checks is telling you something. Antidote: never wire a deposit under time pressure you haven't verified.
The check that covers all seven
Every trap above lives in (or is missing from) the documents. That's the design principle of our service: upload the compromesso, proposta or visura, and get the risks, the missing protections and the questions to ask — before the deposit leaves your account. From $39, in about a minute.
Have the document in hand? Don't guess.
Upload your compromesso, proposta or visura and get a plain-English report — clause by clause, with the risks ranked — in about a minute.
Analyze my document — from $39Or see a sample report first.
Related guides
This guide is general information about Italian law and practice, written by CompromessoCheck. It is not legal advice. Laws change and cases differ: verify your specific situation with a notary or an independent lawyer.