After 5 years: renewal, notice and ISTAT updating of a 3+2 at regulated rent

The calendar of a 3+2

After 3 years: the two-year extension

At the first expiry the 3+2 is extended by two years even if nobody does anything. The landlord can prevent this only by giving notice for one of the reasons in art. 3 of Law 431/1998, with at least six months’ notice. Here they are, in summary:

1. using the home for themselves, their spouse, parents, children or relatives up to the second degree, as a home or for a commercial, craft or professional activity;
2. if the landlord is a company, a public body or in any case a body with public, social, mutual, cooperative, welfare, cultural or religious purposes: using it for those activities, while offering the tenant another suitable home that is fully at the landlord’s disposal;
3. the tenant has another vacant, suitable home available in the same municipality;
4. the building is seriously damaged and must be rebuilt or made safe, and the tenant’s presence prevents the works;
5. the building must be entirely renovated, demolished or transformed or, for a top-floor home, raised by a storey, and the home must be empty to do so;
6. the tenant does not live in the home continuously, without a justified reason;
7. the landlord wants to sell and owns no other homes besides the one they live in. In this case the tenant has a right of first refusal: they can buy first, on the same terms offered to others.

Three rules protect the tenant:

• the notice must state the reason, or it is void; for works (reasons 4 and 5) a building permit is also needed before asking a court to order the tenant to leave;
• if the landlord takes the home back and does not use it within twelve months for the reason stated, the tenant can move back in on the same terms or claim compensation;
• if the landlord got the home back with an unlawful notice, the compensation cannot be less than 36 times the last monthly rent.

And the tenant: when can they leave?

The law and the ministerial standard lease, compulsory for regulated rent, give the tenant withdrawal for serious reasons: at any time, by registered letter, with six months’ notice. Free withdrawal, without reasons, is not in that model.

At the end of the five years the tenant can decline the renewal, like the landlord. At the first expiry, after three years, the law only mentions notice from the landlord: if you want to leave at three years without serious reasons, ask a tenants’ association first how to proceed.

After 5 years: new terms, declining or tacit renewal

At the end of the extension either party can ask for renewal on new terms, for example a different rent, or decline the renewal, by registered letter at least six months before expiry (art. 2, paragraph 5). Here the law does not require a reason.

If nobody writes in time, the lease renews on the same terms for another two years, at each expiry (art. 19-bis of Decree-Law 34/2019).

The extension must be notified to the Agenzia delle Entrate (the Italian Revenue Agency); under ordinary taxation its registration tax is paid within 30 days of expiry. With the cedolare secca no registration tax or stamp duty is paid on extensions, and if you forget the notification you do not lose the cedolare, as long as you have paid and declared it (art. 3, paragraphs 2 and 3, of Legislative Decree 23/2011; from 2027 art. 203, paragraphs 2 and 3, of the new Consolidated Income Tax Act, the Testo unico delle imposte sui redditi).

The ISTAT update of the rent

During the lease the rent can rise with prices, on the terms of the 2025 agreement (art. 14):

• it can be updated once a year, from the second year;
• only if the landlord asks for it, by registered letter with return receipt or by PEC, certified email: it is not automatic;
• by at most 75% of the change in the ISTAT consumer price index for blue- and white-collar households (the FOI index) in the previous year, at the rate written in the lease;
• it is not due and cannot be requested if the landlord has chosen the cedolare secca.

The 2022 agreement also sets the cap at 75%, and the standard lease has a line for the agreed percentage.

An invented example: if the FOI index rose by 2%, the rent can rise by at most 1.5% (75% of 2%). On €800 a month, the rent can reach at most €812.

Do not mix up two things: this ISTAT update applies to the rent of your lease. The tables of the 2022 agreement can be revalued every year for new leases; those of 2025 cannot. See the tables.

If the agreement changes in the meantime

Your lease stays on the agreement it was signed under. The 2025 agreement says so in art. 1: the 2022 one still applies to leases signed while it was in force, including those tacitly renewed or extended, until they expire. A 3+2 from 2024 stays on the 2022 agreement through the extension and the tacit renewals: no recalculation.

A new lease, even between the same people, is another matter: the agreement is chosen afresh (in Trieste there are two today, see 2022 or 2025) and the calculation is redone.

One case sits in between: a renewal on new terms signed on or after 16 December 2025. The 2025 agreement keeps leases renewed “tacitly” on the old agreement, and this one is not; no text says so clearly. We read it as a new lease: the agreement is chosen, the calculation is redone, and the rule for new leases, below, applies to the certificate. Have the association that issues the certificate confirm this.

And the certificate?

In the extension and the tacit renewal the lease is the same, on the same terms: the sources we have read do not require the certificate of compliance (attestazione di rispondenza) to be issued again.

For a new lease the law allows the earlier certificate to be used if the content is the same and neither the home nor the agreement has changed (art. 7 of Decree-Law 73/2022). If the new lease follows another agreement, for example 2025 instead of 2022, the old certificate is not enough. Details in the article on the certificate.

Transitional and student leases

The transitional lease, which lasts up to 18 months, ends at expiry without notice; but if the rules for signing it were not followed, such as the documented need, it is converted to the term of a 4+4 (art. 2, paragraph 6, of the ministerial decree of 16 January 2017). The university student lease, from 6 months to 3 years, renews at the first expiry unless the student gives notice one to three months before (art. 3, paragraph 1, of the same decree). See transitional lease and students.