Selling a home received as a gift: what you need to know

Until recently, all it took was to say the word “gift” during a sale to see the buyer’s expression change immediately.

The house could be beautiful, fully compliant and perfectly in line with their needs. But as soon as it emerged that the owner had received it as a gift, the questions started:

“Could I lose it after buying it?”

“Will the bank give me a mortgage?”

“Could another heir challenge the sale?”

I have seen it happen many times: the problem was not the house, but what people feared might happen after the purchase.

Today the situation has changed significantly. Law no. 182 of 2 December 2025, which came into force on 18 December 2025, amended the rules governing the transfer of assets received as gifts. The stated aim of the reform is to make purchases by third parties safer and to facilitate access to credit.

But be careful: simply saying that “gifted homes are no longer a problem at all” would be a dangerous oversimplification.

The new legislation has removed the main risk that affected these sales for years, but before publishing the listing you still need to check the date of the succession, the provenance, the entries in the Property Registers and any clauses contained in the deed of gift.

CAN YOU SELL A HOME RECEIVED AS A GIFT?

The answer is yes.

A gift (donazione) is a fully valid contract through which one person, the donor, transfers an asset free of charge to another person, the donee.

Whoever receives a home as a gift becomes its owner and, subject to any restrictions contained in the deed, can use it, let it, mortgage it or sell it.

The real problem was never whether the donee formally had the right to sell.

The problem was the security of the buyer purchasing from them.

To understand what has changed, you first need to understand, in simple terms, what the previous risk was.

WHY WERE GIFTED HOMES CONSIDERED RISKY?

The law protects certain close relatives of the deceased, known as forced heirs (legittimari): the spouse, the children and, in certain situations, the parents or other ascendants.

These persons are entitled to a minimum share of the estate, called the reserved share (quota di legittima), which cannot be removed by a will or even by gifts made during the person’s lifetime.

Let’s imagine that a parent gives their only valuable property to one of their children and that, at the time of their death, there are not enough assets left to respect the rights of the other forced heirs.

In this case, anyone who believed their share had been infringed could bring an action for reduction against the donee, asking for the effects of the gift to be reduced to the extent necessary to restore their reserved share.

Up to this point, the dispute mainly concerned the donee and the heirs.

The real concern arose when the donee had already sold the house to someone else.

Under the previous rules, where certain conditions were met and after unsuccessfully trying to recover what was owed from the donee, the forced heir could also bring an action for restitution against the subsequent buyer.

In very simple terms: a person could lawfully buy a home, pay for it and later risk being drawn into a family dispute in which they had no part whatsoever.

This possibility was also linked to the twenty-year period from the registration of the gift and could be extended by registering a deed of opposition. It was precisely this risk, even though it did not arise automatically with every gift, that made many buyers and lenders particularly cautious.

WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE 18 DECEMBER 2025?

The reform has radically changed the most delicate point.

For successions opened after 18 December 2025, any reduction of the gift no longer prejudices the third party who bought the property from the donee, provided that their purchase was registered before any court action for reduction.

A forced heir who proves they have suffered an infringement can still assert their rights, but their protection becomes mainly financial: they will have to turn to the donee and claim monetary compensation to the extent necessary to restore the share they were entitled to.

Put plainly:

the heir can still challenge the gift, but normally can no longer take the house back from someone who bought it lawfully.

This is the decisive change.

Previously, in some situations, the problem could physically follow the property and reach the buyer. Today, the dispute remains mainly between the aggrieved forced heir and the person who received the gift.

Property purchased by a third party for consideration is therefore protected, except where the action for reduction had already been registered before the purchase.

That is why you should not stop at the phrase:

“There’s the new law, so we’re fine.”

A check in the Property Registers must still be carried out.

The reform protects those who buy before the court action is registered; it does not protect those who buy while ignoring a lawsuit already formally registered against the donee.

THE DATE OF THE SUCCESSION IS DECISIVE

One of the easiest mistakes to make is to look only at the date of the deed of gift.

In reality, to understand which rules apply, you need to check above all when the donor’s succession was opened, i.e. the date of their death.

If the donor is still alive, their succession has not yet opened and, when it does, it will be subject to the new rules.

If, on the other hand, the donor died after 18 December 2025, the new rules apply directly.

For successions opened before 18 December 2025, the law provided for a six-month transitional period. Forced heirs could preserve the application of the old regime by serving and registering an action for reduction or a deed of opposition by 18 June 2026. In the absence of these formalities, once the deadline has passed, the new rules also apply to successions opened before the reform came into force.

Since 18 June 2026, therefore, when selling a home received as a gift, you need to check in practice whether, by that date, any of the following was registered:

• a court action for reduction;
• or an opposition to the gift capable of preserving the old regime.

It is not enough to ask the owner:

“Are there any problems with the other heirs?”

They might answer no in perfect good faith, but what counts in property transfers is not just family relationships as described verbally.

What counts are the deeds and the registrations.

HAVE THE HEIRS LOST THEIR RIGHTS?

No.

The new law does not abolish the reserved share and does not allow a person to freely distribute all their assets while ignoring their spouse or children.

Forced heirs retain the right to take action against the donee when a gift has infringed the portion of the estate reserved to them by law.

What changes is the form of protection.

A third party who acquired for consideration, and who bought and registered their purchase before the action for reduction, should no longer lose the house. It will be the donee who has to compensate the forced heir financially.

If, on the other hand, the donee has transferred the asset free of charge to someone else, that further gratuitous beneficiary may be called upon to compensate the forced heir, if the donee is insolvent, up to the value of the benefit received.

This distinction is important because selling a home to a buyer who pays the price is not the same as gifting it again to another person.

AND WHAT CHANGES FOR MORTGAGES?

For years, gift provenance also created difficulties in accessing credit.

The bank financing the buyer registers a mortgage on the property. Under the old system, it feared that, if the house were returned to the forced heir, the mortgage security could also be compromised.

The new rules establish that mortgages and other encumbrances created by the donee generally remain effective. This is one of the reasons why the reform was also introduced with the aim of making it easier to grant loans secured on properties received as gifts.

This does not mean, however, that mortgages are now granted automatically.

Each bank maintains its own internal procedures and will assess:

the buyer’s income situation, the value of the home, the property’s compliance, the content of the deed of gift and whether any court actions or oppositions have been registered.

The reform has removed one of the most important risks, but it has not turned an incomplete file into one that can be financed.

That is why, if the potential buyer will need a mortgage, it is advisable to provide the bank and the notary with all the documentation relating to the provenance in advance.

Waiting for the bank’s valuation to discover that a document is missing or that there is an encumbrance to be looked into means losing precious weeks and risking jeopardising the offer.

WHAT SHOULD YOU CHECK BEFORE PUBLISHING THE LISTING?

Before putting a gifted home on the market, the first thing to obtain is the complete deed.

A land registry search showing the owner’s name is not enough. You need to read the deed of gift and check:

who the donor was, who received the asset, whether a usufruct was reserved, and whether there are any conditions, charges, reversion clauses or other restrictions.

You then need to know whether the donor is still alive or, if not, when they died.

Next, searches must be carried out in the Property Registers to establish whether there are any mortgages, attachments, court actions, oppositions to the gift or other encumbrances that could affect the sale.

Of course, gift provenance does not replace the other necessary checks.

The home must still be checked from a planning, land registry, condominium and documentation point of view, exactly like any other property.

The new law has solved an important legal problem, but it does not automatically make everything else compliant.

ARE INSURANCE POLICIES OR THE REVOCATION OF THE GIFT STILL NEEDED?

Under the old system, to make the sale safer, solutions such as taking out an insurance policy or terminating the gift by mutual consent were often considered, when the donor was still alive and the conditions for doing so were met.

With the new rules, these tools should no longer be necessary in most sales that are fully subject to the new regime.

They may, however, remain relevant in transitional situations where an action for reduction or an opposition was registered in time, or when examination of the deed reveals other specific issues.

There is therefore no standard solution that works for every gift.

First you reconstruct the situation. Only then do you decide whether an additional guarantee is really needed.

PREPARING THE SALE BEFORE FINDING THE BUYER

The reform represents a major simplification for the property market.

A home received as a gift should no longer automatically be perceived as unsellable, unmortgageable or destined to remain stuck for years.

But precisely because the main risk has been reduced, it is now even less justifiable to reach the offer stage without having already clarified the provenance.

When we are entrusted with a home received as a gift, the first step is not taking the photos.

We start with the deed, the date of the succession and the searches in the Property Registers, coordinating with the notary and other relevant professionals when the situation requires specific investigation.

The aim is very simple: not to let the buyer, their bank or their notary be the first to discover something the seller should have known beforehand.

Because when a potential buyer hears the word “gift”, they may still have the risks of the past in mind.

It is not enough to tell them: “The law has changed.”

You need to be able to show them why, in that specific transaction, their purchase is protected.

IN CONCLUSION

Selling a home received as a gift is much simpler and safer today than it was in the past.

Law no. 182 of 2025 has protected the third-party buyer, normally turning the aggrieved forced heir’s right into a financial claim against the donee and preventing the family dispute from automatically falling on the house that has already been sold.

But simpler does not mean superficial.

You need to check when the succession was opened, whether any actions for reduction or oppositions were registered by 18 June 2026, what the deed of gift provides and what encumbrances appear in the Property Registers.

Only then can the home be presented on the market with clear information, answering the questions of buyers, banks and notaries without hesitation.

Because today the problem is no longer the gift itself.

The real problem would be knowing that the rules have changed and still starting the sale without having checked how they apply to your property.