Eviction for Unpaid Rent in Italy (Sfratto per Morosita): Procedure and Grace Period

Sfratto per morosità is the court procedure an Italian landlord must use to recover a residential property when the tenant has stopped paying rent. It is a court process from the first step: a landlord cannot change the locks, cut utilities, or remove a tenant's belongings without going through it, whatever the lease itself might say.

This page sets out the procedure itself, the termine di grazia that lets a tenant stop the eviction by paying what is owed at, or shortly after, the first hearing, and what actually happens once a court orders the tenant out. For the lease itself, see our companion page on rental contracts; for the tax side of collecting rent in the first place, see cedolare secca.

Information verified on 21 July 2026. This page provides general legal information and does not constitute legal advice for an individual situation.

What counts as morosità

Not every late payment lets a landlord start this proceeding. Art. 5, L. 27 luglio 1978, n. 392 sets the specific thresholds that make non-payment a resolutione ground under the general standard of art. 1455, c.c. (which bars ending a contract for a breach of scarce importance): rent unpaid twenty days past its due date, or unpaid oneri accessori, the service charges that ride alongside rent, once they exceed two months' worth of rent. Below those thresholds, the landlord has a debt claim but not yet grounds for eviction on that basis alone.

The procedure step by step

Sfratto per morosità begins with a single document: an atto di intimazione di sfratto per morosità served together with a citazione, a summons to appear before the tribunale for the property's location on a set date (artt. 657 and 658, c.p.c.). The same document can also ask the court to order payment of the rent already owed, so the landlord does not need a second proceeding to recover the arrears themselves.

At the hearing, three things can happen. The tenant may pay everything owed there and then, which ends the case. The tenant may not appear, or may appear without formally opposing the intimazione, in which case the judge confirms the eviction immediately, the convalida, provided the landlord states in court that the arrears are still unpaid. Or the tenant may appear and oppose the claim, in which case the matter moves into the ordinary phase of the proceeding under the labor-style procedural rules that govern lease disputes (art. 447-bis, c.p.c.), rather than being resolved at that first hearing.

The termine di grazia: how a tenant can stop the case

Art. 55, L. 392/1978 gives a residential tenant a real, but limited, chance to stop the eviction by paying rather than by disputing the debt. Paying everything owed at the hearing itself, the rent, any accessory charges, legal interest, and the costs the judge sets there, ends the case outright. This route is capped at three uses within any four-year period.

Where the tenant cannot pay on the day but the judge is satisfied there is a genuine difficulty, the judge can set a further term of up to ninety days to pay, and moves the hearing to no later than ten days after that deadline runs. Paying within the term stops the eviction in the same way paying at the hearing would have.

The hardship variant: up to four times, one hundred twenty days

The statute treats one situation more generously. Where the arrears have lasted no more than two months and follow precarie condizioni economiche that arose after the lease was signed, specifically unemployment, illness, or another serious and documented difficulty, the cure can be used up to four times in a four-year period rather than three, and the term the judge can grant rises from ninety to one hundred twenty days. This is the detail readers researching this procedure most often get wrong: quoting only the ninety-day figure understates what is actually available to a tenant who can document genuine hardship and whose arrears have not grown beyond two months' rent.

If the tenant does not appear or does not oppose: convalida

Where the tenant does not show up, or shows up but raises no formal opposition, the judge issues an ordinanza di convalida, confirming the eviction, as long as the landlord, or the landlord's lawyer, states in court that the morosità is still unresolved (art. 663, c.p.c.). The judge can instead order the summons re-served if it looks like the tenant genuinely never received it or could not appear through no fault of their own. A convalida order is immediately enforceable; it does not wait for a further judgment.

After convalida: enforcement through the ufficiale giudiziario

A convalida order does not itself put the tenant out on the street. Enforcement is a separate, later step carried out by an ufficiale giudiziario, a court enforcement officer, who must give at least ten days' written notice of the exact day and time before physically carrying it out, then attends in person to hand over the keys to the landlord or whoever the landlord designates (art. 608, c.p.c.). If the tenant is still there and refuses to leave, the ufficiale giudiziario can use the powers the code gives for enforcing possession, but the notice itself is not optional and cannot be skipped even where the order has already been confirmed for some time.

How long this realistically takes

An uncontested case, where the tenant simply does not appear, is one of the fastest paths through the Italian civil courts, but fast here still means months rather than weeks: time to serve the intimazione, the interval before the first hearing set by the citing party, and then, after convalida, the wait for an enforcement date from the ufficiale giudiziario, who works through a shared queue of every eviction pending in that court's district rather than on a landlord's own schedule. A case the tenant opposes moves into the ordinary phase of the proceeding and can run considerably longer. Anyone budgeting on this procedure should plan for a process measured in months from the first filing, not days.

Three scenarios

A tenant is two months behind on rent and has never used the grace period before. At the first hearing, the tenant pays the full arrears, the accrued interest, and the costs the judge sets. The case ends there; no eviction follows, and this counts as the first of the three ordinary uses available in the current four-year period.

A tenant has already used the ordinary cure three times in the past four years, and now falls behind again after losing a job. The ordinary three-use cap is reached, but the arrears are within two months and the job loss is a documented hardship the statute names. The judge can still allow the cure a fourth time, on the hardship term of up to one hundred twenty days rather than ninety, because the hardship track carries its own combined limit of four uses rather than adding to the ordinary three.

A tenant does not appear at the hearing at all and never contacts the landlord. The judge convalida the eviction on the spot, provided the landlord confirms the arrears remain unpaid. Months later, the ufficiale giudiziario schedules the physical release, gives the required ten days' notice, and attends to hand the keys back to the landlord; the tenant's silence throughout does not speed the process up, since the enforcement stage runs on the court officer's own queue regardless.

What a landlord cannot do

Nothing in Italian law lets a landlord retake a property outside this procedure, whatever a lease clause might say. Changing the locks, shutting off utilities, or removing a tenant's belongings without a convalida order and a proper enforcement by the ufficiale giudiziario exposes the landlord to civil liability and, depending on the conduct, potential criminal exposure of its own; the arrears themselves do not authorize any form of self-help.

Related pages

For the underlying lease terms this procedure applies to, see rental contracts in Italy. For the tax side of collecting rent under either regime, see cedolare secca. For the wider landscape of Italian law this site covers, see our Italy hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a landlord change the locks if the tenant stops paying rent?

No. Only a court-ordered eviction, confirmed by convalida and carried out by an ufficiale giudiziario, can retake the property; self-help of any kind exposes the landlord to liability regardless of how much rent is owed.

How many times can a tenant use the grace period to stop an eviction?

Up to three times in a four-year period under the ordinary rule, or up to four times in the same period, with a longer term to pay, where the arrears follow documented hardship such as job loss or illness and do not exceed two months' rent.

Is the grace period ninety days or one hundred twenty days?

It depends on the reason. The ordinary term a judge can grant is up to ninety days. Where the arrears are no more than two months and follow documented hardship, the term extends to up to one hundred twenty days, and the case can be used a fourth time within the four-year period.

What happens if the tenant does not show up to the hearing?

The judge confirms the eviction (convalida) at that hearing, as long as the landlord states in court that the arrears remain unpaid, and the order becomes immediately enforceable.

Once the eviction is confirmed, how quickly does the tenant have to leave?

There is no fixed statutory number of days for the tenant to vacate on their own. Enforcement is scheduled separately by the ufficiale giudiziario, who must give at least ten days' notice of the actual date before carrying it out, and that date is set from the officer's own queue of pending cases.

Does paying the arrears in full always stop the eviction?

Paying everything owed, rent, charges, interest and costs, at the hearing or within whichever grace term the judge grants, stops that instance of the case, but only within the three-use (or four-use, hardship) limit in any four-year period.

Can arrears of more than two months still qualify for the longer hardship term?

No. The longer, one hundred twenty day hardship term is available only where the arrears have not exceeded two months, in addition to the documented hardship requirement itself.