This is a complicated story, and I can't give out many details, but I need some advise:

I have a "friend" who made out a will and recently died.

Turns out he owned some property in Italy but it never made it into his will.

Research indicated that the Italian government/town decided to occupy the property, not actually "taking it" from him.

We have a thing of "eminent domain" in the US where the government can take someones property if the government needs it for government use, paying fair market value for it of course.

Why would the town in Italy "occupy" the property and not just take or seize it, removing the current owner due to abandonment or buy buying it out right?

Anyone have a clue to this process?

grazie !

Ciao Mike
C.J is our legal expert, hopefully he will be able to give you updated info on this legal matter.
Many property owners in Italy who left to go too another country had their properties taken over by the township for many reasons: major reason was unpaid property taxes and sometimes total abandonment of the property. Your friend must have had some notification from the township for their action. Every situation varies for example; was the property just land or did it have a house on it? Was it livable for someone else to walk in and after so many years under the past Italian law claim it? The Italian laws have changed regarding these issues. Its always best to speak with a lawyer and dont give up on the property present him or her with the facts and documents.

For example mike here is my experience with government townships:

I was forced to sell some of my farmland to the township at fair market value several years ago. (They paid me) The township needed a small part of my land to build a new water station for the town residents. I have a river and a gorgeous fresh water stream that runs thru my land. You can see the view from land in my picture (avatar).

When I went back to Italy too divide my farm land into building lots and started excavating to build foundations for new homes on it. I found water pipes that had not been removed nor was the township given permission by me the owner to run these water lines thru a border section of my land. Although these existing lines did save me thousands when I was building the water and sewer system for these new home foundations. The good news is that they left the main shut off valve in that small section of my land which I can turn off and no one in the town can have water...if they piss me off! So today, I get a lot of favors fulfilled when I request building permits from the township! I always wondered why they got a little nervous every time I walked into the Technical office.

From the little I remember of Civil Laws, there's a thing in Italy called "usucapione". It works like this: after a certain amount of years, a property becomes of those who used it. So it's better to hurry up. I don't know about detailed thing, but if the State took it, after some year you can't do anything about it, so move fast

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Hi M1ke

CJ's company is good - we're using them at the moment to sort our purchase which has gone a bit wobbly.

If you go the site http://www.luchettipartners.com/ (Italian and English) there is an option to submit your query online, and get a price before commiting yourself.

Thanks for all your replies. I will pass them along to the estate attorney.

Without seeing the will it is difficult to offer a more precise opinion. It would also be a good idea to carry out a search to determine what dispositions have been made in favour of the Comune. It is strange that your friend has forgotten about the house. It may well be possible that a disposition was made.

In Italy, a public entity, such as a Comune for example, may expropriate a property required for its purposes, or it may attempt to posses the property via usucapione because the property has been abandoned.

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CJ
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Luchetti & Partners Studio Legale Tributario