Visura Catastale
The “visura catastale” (Land Registry Extract) is a document issued by the Italian Tax Agency of the Italian Republic containing information recorded at the Land Registry in relation to real estate – buildings or land – located in Italian national territory.
The Visura varies depending on whether it covers a plot of land or a building. It is possible to search the land registry to find all real estate owned by a individual or a legal entity, or to a single property.
The information shown on an ordinary visura is:
- Classification data: census area and any micro-area, cadastral category, class and cadastral area, property type, and yield
- Other information: personal data and tax code of the owner or owners
The historical cadastral Visura instead reports information (in chronological order) on the history of the property, including previous owners or holders of expired rights (such as any “usufruct”or right to occupy the property), mergers with other properties, extensions or changes of use.
From the Visura, it is therefore possible to check for any changes over the years in the “consistenza” (ie. how the property is made up – number of rooms and area) and any updates relating to the cadastral income.
The visura reports land and buildings differently
Qualitative info: type of crop (113 categories) and class for the land, cadastral category (from A to F and 58 subcategories) and class (level of quality of the building) for buildings.
Quantity: the land area in hectares (1 ha = 10,000 m²) or in ares (1 are = 100 m²), while the buildings are catalogued according to how they are made up.
Tax info: for land, income from the domain (income attributed to the owner, whether the land is the subject of agricultural activity or not) and income from agriculture (deemed income from agricultural activity). For buildings the deemed cadastral income (income yielding capacity of the structure) is reported.
In addition, income tax and local taxes, such as municipal property tax, can be calculated with the cadastral income. The name of the owner, the legal owner (bare owner) or a holder of the usufruct can also be found in the Visura.
Do not overlook this document
If you want to actively assert any real right on a property, land, or building, you must get hold of the title documents. You can do this by contacting the public official (e.g. the notary) who stipulated the latest transfer or update, or, in the event that the notary no longer practices the profession, by going to the local notarial archive.