Letting to a foreign tenant in Trieste: Questura, permit, lease

If you let your home to a citizen of a country outside the European Union, you have one extra duty: within 48 hours you must tell the Questura that you have given them a home, even if the lease will be registered. Failing to do so can cost a fine of €500 to €3,500. For a tenant from the Union, Slovenians and Croatians included, registering the lease is enough; the lease, the cedolare and regulated rent work exactly as usual.

Who has to be reported to the Questura, and when?

Article 7 of the consolidated immigration law (testo unico sull'immigrazione) requires anyone who houses a foreign national, or grants them the use of a property, to notify the public security authority in writing within 48 hours.

• A "foreign national" here is a citizen of a non-EU state, or a stateless person: the law does not apply to EU citizens.
• Registration is not enough: Decree-Law 79/2012 lets registration absorb the old "cessione di fabbricato" notice, but expressly excludes this one.
• The fine has been €500 to €3,500 since 15 November 2023 (Decree-Law 123/2023). Before that it was €160 to €1,100.

With an Italian or EU tenant, registering the lease is all you need.

How do you do it with the Questura di Trieste?

The Questura publishes the forms on its website, on the "cessione fabbricati" page. For a non-EU tenant you use Form B, "Dichiarazione di ospitalità extracomunitari", with both parties' details, the passport and the address of the home.

Attach a copy of both parties' identity documents and of the lease, and send everything by PEC to the address printed on the form, as a single PDF. Without PEC, the Questura also accepts an ordinary email; otherwise, registered post with return receipt.

The law says "within forty-eight hours"; the Questura di Trieste counts them from the signing of the lease. If you sign and hand over the keys on the same day, the doubt disappears.

Why check the residence permit at signing?

Because that is the moment the law looks at. Article 12, paragraph 5-bis, of the same law punishes anyone who, for payment and "in order to obtain an unjust profit", lets a property to a foreign national without a residence title at the time the lease is signed or renewed: six months to three years' imprisonment and, with a final conviction or a plea bargain (patteggiamento), confiscation of the property, unless it belongs to someone not involved in the offence.

What to check, keeping a copy:

• a valid permit (permesso di soggiorno), with its expiry date;
• the receipt for a renewal application: according to the Polizia di Stato it gives the same rights as the permit. Since 2026, renewal must be requested at least 90 days before expiry, no longer 60;
• for someone who has just arrived, the visa and the receipt for the first permit, to be applied for within 8 working days: while waiting for it, the law allows them to stay;
• for someone staying up to three months for scientific research, study, an assignment or business, no permit: a declaration of presence (dichiarazione di presenza) is enough (Law 68/2007).

The tenant's tax code: how do they get one?

To register with the RLI form you need the tax code of both parties.

• With a permit: the Questura assigns it when issuing or renewing the permit, or the Sportello unico per l'immigrazione does for people entering for employment.
• Still without one: it can be requested at an Agenzia delle Entrate office, Trieste included, by appointment, with form AA4/8 and the passport with its visa, where one is required.
• Non-resident and without a code: resolution 5/E of 2023 allows registration at the counter with form 69 (modello 69), giving name, date and place of birth and address abroad. The cedolare can still be chosen.

Can the lease be in English?

Yes, but to register it, a deed written in a foreign language must be accompanied by a sworn Italian translation by an expert listed with the court (DPR 131/1986, art. 11).

Under regulated rent the lease follows the standard form (Allegato B for a temporary lease).

Cedolare, regulated rent, temporary lease: does anything change?

No. The conditions of the cedolare concern the landlord and residential use; among tenants, the Agenzia delle Entrate excludes only those acting as a business or self-employed. Nationality is not mentioned.

For someone coming to Trieste on a fixed-term contract there is the temporary lease: among the tenant's needs, the territorial agreement of 15/12/2025 lists fixed-term work, a transfer or a posting in a municipality other than the one of residence. The rent stays within the agreement bands, with the 10% cedolare.

An example: a non-EU postdoc for 12 months

Assumptions: a non-EU researcher hired by a Trieste institute on a 12-month fixed-term contract; permit valid until 1 November 2027; furnished one-bedroom flat; temporary regulated rent lease at €750 a month, which we assume is within the agreement range, with the cedolare.

• WhenBefore signing

  copies of passport, permit and employment contract; tax code; Form B already filled in

• WhenMonday 2 November 2026

  signing of the bilingual standard lease, with the need written in and the employment contract attached; keys

• WhenBy Wednesday 4 November

  Form B to the Questura by PEC

• WhenBy Wednesday 2 December

  registration with the cedolare (30 days from signing); then the certificate (attestazione)

• WhenBy Tuesday 3 August 2027

  the tenant applies to renew the permit; if you renew the lease, ask for the receipt

The numbers: with the cedolare, registration costs neither registration tax nor stamp duty, and on €9,000 of annual rent the 10% cedolare comes to €900, as with an Italian tenant. The only difference is Form B.

EU or non-EU: what changes

• nothing: registration is enough

  : Questura

  Non-EU or stateless: Form B within 48 hours

• identity card or passport

  : Document

  Non-EU or stateless: passport and permit, or renewal receipt

• Agenzia delle Entrate

  : Tax code

  Non-EU or stateless: Questura or Sportello unico; or the Agenzia

• registry office (anagrafe) after three months' stay

  : Residence

  Non-EU or stateless: registry office on the same terms as Italians, if lawfully staying

• the same

  : Cedolare and regulated rent

  Non-EU or stateless: the same