Finding out that our house is mortgaged and no one had warned us of this, it is possible … in Italy! The well-known collection company Equitalia, can in fact mortgage a property even without the notification of the payment notice (concept reiterated on March 21, 2013 by the Court of Cassation). Therefore, the taxpayer, unable to claim to be notified by Equitalia, how can he protect his right to information? Fortunately, it is always possible to check whether there is a mortgage on your home: it is therefore the citizen himself who must take action to check, from time to time, if a mortgage has been registered on his home.
Check that mortgages are not burdened on a house, it is a measure to keep also in case you decide to buy a house, in order not to have bad surprises in the future.
To check whether a property is mortgaged, it must request a certificate called specifically “hypocatastal business profile” (or mortgage). This is a research activity that allows you to check whether the taxpayer is the owner of real estate on which mortgages of various types are registered:
- voluntary (and in this case not even a title search would be needed since the taxpayer already knows that he has registered a property with a mortgage);
- legal (such as those of Equitalia);
- judicial mortgages, that is those decreed by a judge and registered due to sentences, injunctive orders;
- for citations in a civil case (for example to contest ownership of a house).
The title search should be requested from the Real Estate Registry at the offices of the Land Agency (also called “real estate advertising”), of the place where the property is located. For newly built properties, the search can also be requested in a place other than the Municipality of competence, since the archives are computerized. The search can be requested personally, by going to the office counter, or by delegating the assignment to a real estate agency, providing in both cases the details of the property (parcel, sheet, etc.), indicated in the deed of ownership. On the internet it is also possible to find various sites that allow you to obtain a hypocatastale survey online, for a fee (usually the cost does not exceed 30 euros).