Tenant not paying rent in Trieste: eviction, timescales, prevention

If your tenant stops paying, 20 days after the due date the unpaid rent is, by law, grounds for terminating the lease, and eviction is sought before the Tribunale di Trieste. The tenant can still save the lease by paying everything at the first hearing, and the judge can grant a grace period of up to 90 days. In 2025, in the province of Trieste, there were 277 eviction orders.

What are the steps, and how long do they take by law?

Before the lawyer, a formal demand (diffida) by certified email (PEC) or recorded delivery is worthwhile, with the amount and a date to pay by. Then:

• StepEviction notice

  The lawyer serves it with the summons

  Legal term: at least 20 clear days before the hearing, which can be cut by up to half (art. 660 c.p.c.)

• StepHearing

  If the tenant does not appear or does not object, the judge validates, provided you confirm the arrears persist (art. 663)

• StepGrace period

  For a tenant in proven difficulty

  Legal term: up to 90 days; a new hearing within 10 days of its end (art. 55 Law 392/1978)

• StepEnforcement date

  Set by the judge

  Legal term: within 6 months, 12 in exceptional cases; no more than 60 days after the grace period ends, if the tenant does not pay (art. 56)

• StepPrecetto

  The formal demand to hand the home back

  Legal term: at least 10 days (art. 480 c.p.c.)

• StepNotice

  The court bailiff (ufficiale giudiziario) gives the day and time of access

  Legal term: at least 10 days before (art. 608 c.p.c.)

These are legal terms, not a forecast. The summons goes to the court where the home is (art. 661): for a home in Trieste, the Tribunale di Trieste. If you asked for the rent, the judge issues a payment order (decreto ingiuntivo), immediately enforceable, for the rent already due and falling due until the eviction is carried out (art. 664). If the tenant has already left, for the rent alone there is the payment order: issued within 30 days of the application, it gives 40 days to pay or object (art. 641).

Clearing the arrears (art. 55 of Law 392/1978): if at the first hearing the tenant pays rent, charges, statutory interest and costs, the lease is not terminated. This works at most three times in four years; four times, with 120 days' grace, if the delay is no more than two months and is due to unemployment, illness or serious difficulties that arose after signing.

How many evictions are there in Trieste?

In 2025, 277 eviction orders were issued in the province of Trieste (Ministry of the Interior, 2026 edition). There were 501 requests for enforcement to the court bailiff, and 154 evictions carried out with the bailiff's intervention.

Arrears weigh less here: 161 of the 277 orders, 58%, are for arrears or other causes (counted together), against 72% in Italy. The end of the lease (finita locazione) weighs more: 42% against 23%.

Is the eviction reform already law?

No. The Government's bill on recovering possession of property (A.S. 1896), presented to the Senate on 12/05/2026, was still under examination by the Justice Committee on 28/10/2026. The text as presented cuts the clearances of arrears from three to two, the grace period from 90 to 45 days and the enforcement date from 6 to 3 months; the rapporteur has proposed an amended text. Until it is law, today's rules apply.

Are there funds that pay the landlord?

Sometimes, if the tenant cannot pay because they have lost income (dismissal, short-time working, serious illness): this is "blameless arrears" (morosità incolpevole, ministerial decree of 30/03/2016). The decree requires the tenant to have received an eviction notice and to hold a duly registered lease.

In Trieste it is applied by the Comune's Social Services (Giunta resolution 540/2022): if you agree to postpone enforcement, they reimburse the rent for the months of postponement, up to 5 months. In one 2026 case: 5 × €380 = €1,900 to the landlord.

A word of caution on 2026: the 2025 budget law gave the national fund €20 million for 2026, but the Housing Plan (Piano Casa, Decree-Law 66/2026) cut it by €22 million for 2026, for a guarantee fund reserved for public housing (edilizia residenziale pubblica). Ask the Comune before counting on it.

Regional rent contributions go through the Comune's annual call: if the tenant who receives one is in arrears, the Comune pays it to you, up to clearing the arrears and within the amount of the contribution (Giunta resolution 90/2026).

Do I pay tax on rent I have not received?

Not if you can prove it: unpaid residential rent does not count as income if the non-payment is shown by an eviction notice for arrears or by a payment order (art. 26 of the TUIR, the income tax code). This applies to rent unpaid since 1 January 2020, with the document served by the tax return deadline; the cadastral income is still taxed (instructions for the 2026 730 return).

For tax already paid on unpaid rent, as established in the eviction validation, you are due a tax credit of the same amount. If you later collect the arrears, they go among income taxed separately (tassazione separata). From 1 January 2027 the rule moves to article 28 of the new consolidated act (Legislative Decree 117/2026).

How can you prevent it?

• Security deposit: no more than 3 months' rent (art. 11 of Law 392/1978).
• A guarantee: a bank or insurance guarantee (fideiussione), or one from a third party, as provided in the model contracts annexed to DM 16/01/2017. After the main obligation falls due, the guarantor stays bound only if within 6 months you have acted against the tenant and pursued it diligently (art. 1957 of the Civil Code).
• Selection within the GDPR: only the data needed to judge whether the rent is affordable ("limited to what is necessary", art. 5); no data on convictions and offences, which may be processed only under the control of a public authority or where a law allows it (art. 10).
• A registered lease: the blameless-arrears fund requires it, and so do the national fund's rent contributions (art. 11 of Law 431/1998).

An example: €700 a month unpaid from March

Assumptions: a registered 3+2 lease, €700 due on the 5th; the tenant stops paying in March and asks for time at the hearing. Dates are hypothetical.

1. 5 March: the payment does not arrive. On 25 March the 20 days run out: from the 26th the unpaid rent is grounds for termination.
2. 27 March: formal demand by PEC. On 5 April the second payment is missed too.
3. 20 April: the eviction notice is served, with the request for a payment order for 2 × €700 = €1,400. Hearing on 26 May.
4. 26 May: the judge grants the maximum, 90 days, until 24 August. If the tenant pays everything, the lease continues.
5. 2 September, adjourned hearing: no payment. Validation, with enforcement set for 23 October, the maximum: 60 days after 24 August.
6. 24 October: precetto; the 10 days end on 3 November. Notice on 4 November, access 10 days later: 14 November.

From 5 March to 14 November: more than 8 months and 9 unpaid rents, 9 × €700 = €6,300, covered by the payment order but still to be collected. If the tenant does not leave at the first access, more are needed.

The court fee (contributo unificato) is calculated on the rent unpaid at the time of service (€1,400, in the €98 band) and is halved for eviction validation: €49 (art. 13 of Presidential Decree 115/2002). For legal fees and service costs, ask for a written quote.