Renewal and Lease takeover

If you have decided to break a contract ahead of time we suggest you, first of all, to take a copy of the contract and read carefully the sections relating to Takeover and Termination of a contract.

You can always do the takeover if you have a single contract (tenant and landlord) and if there are “serious reasons”; If you have a joint contract, whereas, (more than one tenant in a contract) you can do only the takeover unless the other tenants want to take on all the obligations, even for the outgoing tenant.

To withdraw from a contract it is necessary to check how much notice you have to give the landlord that is, according to law, between 1 and 6 months.

The tenant has to pay a fixed fee of € 67 for the withdrawal if the landlord uses normal tax arrangements.
So, this fixed fee should not be paid in case of flat rate tax.

To do the takeover instead, it is necessary to have the consent of the outgoing tenant, the new tenant and the landlord (and not of the other tenants as we generally think) and the original contract or the previous transfer of the contract must be regularly registered to the Italian Agenzia delle Entrate. For the takeover, contrary to withdrawal, you should always pay the fixed fee of € 67, both for normal tax arrangements and for flat rate tax.

What happens if in the contract there is no section relating to Takeover and Withdrawal of it?

Withdrawal

If there is no clause about it, only the tenant can break the contract in any moment availing itself of the right of withdrawal established by Art. 3,I. N. 431/1998, that has to be specified in the notice sent to the landlord 6 months before leaving the apartment.

The failure to comply the notice has two enormous consequences: for the landlord, the renewal of the lease Agreement at the same conditions than the previous one; for the tenant, the obligation to give the landlord an amount of six months rent, equivalent to failure to appropriate notice, even if he/she has already left the apartment.

Additional consequence for the tenant that breaks the contract for serious reasons, without giving the notice, is the payment of a compensation for damages caused by the restitution of the apartment in advance.

Takeover

If there is no clause about it, it is not possible to do the takeover in a lease contract.