Company lets (uso foresteria) in Trieste: how they work for companies and landlords

What a company let is

It is the letting of a home in which the tenant, the party taking the lease, is a business, an organisation or a professional, and the home is used to house its employees, collaborators or guests. The company signs and pays; someone else lives there.

The uses are the ones you would expect: a technician in town for a few months on a contract, a collaborator on a work trip, a home kept available for people who come and go. No rule defines the company let: its rules come from the Civil Code and from court rulings.

Which rules apply

Law 431/1998 governs the letting of homes to live in: the 4+4, the 3+2 at regulated rent (canone concordato), transitional leases, student leases. In art. 1 it expressly removes four cases from its main rules: listed buildings or homes registered as A/1, A/8 or A/9 in the cadastre if let outside the local rent agreements, public housing, homes let solely for tourism (paragraph 2), and homes rented by a local authority for temporary housing needs (paragraph 3). The company let is not one of them.

That it nevertheless falls outside the law, and follows only the Civil Code (arts. 1571 and following), has been held by several trial and appeal courts, according to the rulings reported in legal journals: it is the judges’ reading, not a rule of law. As far as we have searched, there is no ruling of the Court of Cassation in civil matters confirming it. The practical rules come from this reading:

• Free term: no 4+4 or 3+2 minimums, no 18-month cap. The Civil Code only sets a maximum of thirty years.
• Free rent: no bands from the local rent agreement.
• Renewal, early termination, charges: whatever you write applies. That is why the contract must be drafted with care.

Registration and taxes

The contract is registered within thirty days with the Agenzia delle Entrate, the Italian Revenue Agency, like other home leases. Without the flat-rate tax, the registration tax is 2% of the annual rent, with a minimum of €67 for the first year, plus stamp duty; landlord and company are jointly liable for it.

A landlord who is a private individual and does not opt for the flat-rate tax declares the rent for income tax (IRPEF) less 5%, or the revalued cadastral income if that is higher. The regulated-rent benefits, that is 30% less taxable income and the registration tax on 70% of the rent, do not apply. If the landlord is a business, things change (VAT, business income): we do not cover that here.

The flat-rate tax: an open question

The flat-rate tax (cedolare secca) is a tax at a fixed rate on rents: 21%, or 10% for regulated-rent leases in Trieste, in place of income tax, registration tax and stamp duty. On company lets there are two answers today.

• The Revenue Agency says no. Under circular 26/E of 2011, repeated on its page on the flat-rate tax updated on 29 May 2026, the flat-rate tax is excluded if the tenant acts in the course of a business or a profession, even if the home goes to employees.
• The Court of Cassation said yes. With judgment no. 12395 of 7 May 2024 the tax section ruled that the exclusion concerns only a landlord letting as a business or a professional: who the tenant is does not matter.
• Now the Joint Sections decide. With interlocutory order no. 30016 of 13 November 2025 the same section asked the First President of the Court to assign the question to the Joint Sections (Sezioni Unite), the panel that settles conflicting case law. The hearing was set for 7 July 2026, according to specialist journals. As of 26 October 2026 we have not found the decision.

From 1 January 2027 the rule is carried over, in the same words, to the new Consolidated Income Tax Act (art. 204): the legislator has not resolved the doubt.

The employee’s registered residence

We have not found a written rule on registering residence in a company let. The law prohibits it for anyone occupying a property unlawfully, without title (art. 5 of Decree-Law 47/2014): as we read it, the employee is not in that position, because they do have a title to be there, through the company’s contract. Which documents the City’s registry office (Anagrafe) asks for when the contract is in a company’s name we have not checked: ask beforehand.

The contract should state who will live in the home, whether the occupants can change, and whether the landlord agrees to them registering their residence there. One more consequence: the employee is not a party to the contract, and the law grants income-tax (IRPEF) deductions for rent to “holders of lease contracts” (art. 16 of the TUIR, the Consolidated Income Tax Act; from 2027 the same art. 16 of the new Consolidated Act).

Company let or transitional lease in the employee’s name?

The same need can be met in two ways: the company signs a company let, or the employee signs a transitional lease in their own name, even if the company then helps with the rent. It is a difference of form, with different consequences. We set them side by side; which suits better is for the parties to decide with their advisers.

If you choose the transitional lease, the rent must be calculated under the local rent agreement: the calculator does it with Trieste’s two agreements side by side.

What to check before signing

1. Who signs for the company and with what powers: company name, registered office, VAT number, legal representative.
2. Who will live in the home: names, the maximum number of people, whether they can change and whether they can register their residence there.
3. Term, renewal and early termination, with the notice periods.
4. Rent and guarantees: amount, due dates, annual update, deposit or bank guarantee.
5. Charges and utilities: who pays building charges, heating, electricity, gas and water, and in whose name the utilities are.
6. Use: residential only, for the people named.
7. Condition of the home: handover report with photos, inventory, and the APE (energy performance certificate), which the landlord must make available for every new lease from the start of negotiations.
8. Registration and taxes: who registers the contract, how registration tax and stamp duty are split, which tax regime the landlord chooses.

Our contract generator also prepares a sample company let, to be reviewed before signing. The other leases are explained in leases.

For companies and for landlords

If you are a company or an organisation looking for a home for someone who works with you in Trieste, we can suggest suitable homes and the right formula, company let or transitional lease. If you are a landlord and a company asks you for a company let, we can go through the contract with you.