Wills

[Jamcam]

Hi

If you have a will in the uk and take out residency in Italy do you need to lodge any notification of the uk will covering assets in Italy?

I read that uk opted out of eu agreement that states property abroad subject to local laws unless you state in your will you want uk law to apply

[GeordieBorn]

If you are only looking at the UK and Italy here, I think you will find that the fact Italy did sign up to the EU regulation on succession, it matters little the UK did not. You have a choice, but as the default is your normal resident country, you need to use that choice if you are resident in Italy, but want UK law to apply. This subject has been discussed here and on many other forums and one of the common comments made is that you should take legal advice. What I understand is that you need certain wording in your UK will to say you want UK law to apply, if that's what you wish.

[levissima]

I can only go on my personal experience and it’s some time ago, so things may have changed.

My English solicitor advised not to include property in Italy in our wills and we were still thinking about an Italian will when Dave got ill, so he hand wrote one on a bit of paper and we got it translated. As it was a very simple will it was accepted by the Italian authorities. I did mention the English will, which said the same things but the Italian Notaio didn’t want to know.

I think if you have abn English will, dealing with Italian property, you’ll need to find someone who knows more about international affairs than the provincial ( and cheaper) Notaio that I used to complete the sussesione.

Even though it was a simple will, was already translated and certified, it still cost over €2,000 to make the sussesione, took over a year to get the property reregistered and then there were the taxes!

Until I could prove that I inherited from Dave, the bank blocked the joint account.

The last thing you need if you are grieving is all the bureaucracy and sh1t, so I’d advise that if it’s at all complicated, get it sorted by an Italian solicitor/ Notaio, who knows the ramifications of Italian inheritance laws because if you get someone who doesn’t understand English law, you could have a heap of trouble when you are least able to cope.

[Rustychain]

We finally got round to sorting our Wills last year & after researching on here & speaking to solicitors, we did UK Wills for any UK assets & an Italian Will of the property & other bits out here. The Italian solicitor (Cristina Mattei in Pescara) was excellent & it was a relief to get it all sorted after years of procrastinating.

As Levi says, the real fun starts when you need to use the Wills & although I'm sure there is much to do, it's infinitely better to have Wills than not.

[Vignaverde]

We have had lots of experience with this and I would say do a will here for things here. It is so so easy to make a will here that it is not worth the hassle not to do it.

[Jamcam]

Many thanks all

Will probably do a separate Italian will

[Relaxed]

I think Levi's description of legal and taxation costs, the freezing of joint accounts, and the length of time an Italian successione takes, is absolutely accurate - even for an Italian will prepared well in advance, and with the aid of a solicitor or avvocato.

Something else which you might want to write into your Italian will are your wishes (cremation or burial, repatriation of ashes, funeral preferences etc.) if these considerations are important to you. If you do want to be cremated you need to formally express this wish (and the easiest way to do this is through the will).

[Vignaverde]

A very important thing to do when making your own will is to hand write it, DO NOT type it out on a computer and then sign it, you must write your wishes in your own hand writing and remember you cannot usually write your children out of your will here unless you have provided for them elsewhere.
If you have done this you must add this to your will otherwise it can be contested, in other words you can write that your children (name them) will receive no part of the Italian inheritance because they have been provided with other inheritance in the UK, then name all of this.
If your partner passes away the property unless written differently the surviving partner will only get half of the deceased part of a property and the other half will be split evenly between children. If you are not married and bought with a partner and they pass away, unless written you will get no part of the deceased persons half, this will be split evenly between any children or be passed to other members of their family.

This is only a rough guide and obviously it i best to seek proper advice but for now write out a hand written will and tell people where it is so it can later be translated and handed to a Notary to be processed. Something written is much better than nothing. 

[levissima]

One other thing to bear in mind, should a death occur in Italy, you have very little time to arrange things because the funeral/ cremation is often after just 24 hours.

[GeordieBorn]

A very important thing to do when making your own will is to hand write it, DO NOT type it out on a computer and then sign it, you must write your wishes in your own hand writing and remember you cannot usually write your children out of your will here unless you have provided for them elsewhere.
If you have done this you must add this to your will otherwise it can be contested, in other words you can write that your children (name them) will receive no part of the Italian inheritance because they have been provided with other inheritance in the UK, then name all of this.
If your partner passes away the property unless written differently the surviving partner will only get half of the deceased part of a property and the other half will be split evenly between children. If you are not married and bought with a partner and they pass away, unless written you will get no part of the deceased persons half, this will be split evenly between any children or be passed to other members of their family.

This is only a rough guide and obviously it i best to seek proper advice but for now write out a hand written will and tell people where it is so it can later be translated and handed to a Notary to be processed. Something written is much better than nothing.

These links would seem to indicate this is not correct and people may actually find the opposite applies.   Reading this first article then the link here  for the EU 2015 changes it indicates that hand written Wills may not be the safest, so certainly not complusary.
A search of “succession Italy” came up with this and a lot of other legal guys looking to make money – all in English. Ignoring they are trying to make a buck from it, they give a lot of good solid information on the subject which may be of some use.