Luxury estates for sale in Tuscany, pre-emption on agricultural land
The discipline of the right of pre-emption on agricultural land
What to do in the event that a person owns a luxury property, inserted in a land made up of land for agricultural use, of any extension and surface.
In Italy, the right of first refusal on agricultural land obliges the owner to fulfill certain obligations in the event of a sale, the omission of which can have serious consequences.
The objective of the right of first refusal on agricultural land is to favor the meeting in the same person of the owner of the land and the land worker, with a view to improving the productive structures of agriculture, in order to expand the property, in the hope of greater economic and structural efficiency, increasing land profitability and creating larger companies.
In particular, in the hypothesis of pre-emption granted to the tenant, we want to encourage the continuation of ownership of the fund by the same subject.
The right of agricultural pre-emption consists in the right to be preferred to others for the purchase of an agricultural land, at the same price, when the owner decides to sell it.
The right of pre-emption is recognized only in the presence of certain conditions, subjective and objective.
The definition of agrarian pre-emption includes two distinct rights of pre-emption:
- on the one hand there is the pre-emption granted to the tenant of the fund offered for sale;
- on the other hand, that of the owner of the land bordering the one offered for sale.
In both cases the right of agricultural pre-emption rests exclusively with the direct farmer.
The right of pre-emption belongs solely and exclusively to the direct farmer (or agricultural company in which at least half of the members are direct farmers) who has rented the land being sold for at least two years.
Only if the land is not rented to a direct farmer (or agricultural company), only direct farmers (or agricultural companies in which at least half of the members are direct farmers) have the right of first refusal, owners of land adjacent to the land. object of sale.
The object of the agrarian pre-emption is always and only a "rustic land" or fund, commonly understood as land intended for agriculture, which can also include one or more rural buildings, that is buildings intended exclusively for the service of the agricultural activity carried out on the land itself.
The right of first refusal is expressly excluded by the law when the land is located in a building area or is intended for building, residential, industrial or tourist use, and also when the agricultural land is subject to exchange, forced sale, forced liquidation, bankruptcy and expropriation. for public utility, as well as in case of donation.
Normally the right of first refusal on agricultural land must be exercised on the entire fund offered for sale. However, an exception to this scenario is the hypothesis in which a part of the land has a different urban use, which will be verified by requesting a Certificate of Urban Design (CDU) from the Municipal Administration.
To allow the exercise of the right of pre-emption, the owner who intends to sell the land is required to notify the sale proposal, by registered letter, to the tenant or neighbors, attaching the preliminary sale contract containing the name of the buyer, the price and the other conditions established for the sale. The recipient of the notification has thirty days to exercise the right of first refusal. If he communicates his intention to exercise the right, the contract is concluded, and the price must be paid within three months.
If the land is sold without notification, or when the price indicated in the notification is higher than that resulting from the sale contract, the person entitled to pre-emption can redeem the land from the buyer within one year from the registration of the sale in the real estate registers. .
Notification can be avoided if a written waiver is obtained from any entitled parties, who must, however, have been informed in advance of the sale price and all the conditions of the transfer. The renunciation of the exercise of the right of first refusal by the tenant or the neighbor is often used in practice as the fastest and most efficient way to solve the problem, in all cases in which there is no interest in buying the property. by the person entitled to agriculture.
But now let's move on to the role of the real estate agency in the event that it is negotiating the sale of a property with agricultural land, which is required to inform the parties about the risks of a non-activated pre-emption and provide all the advice intended to give maximum certainty. and regularity of the deed of sale, despite the fact that the law expressly attributes to the owner of the agricultural land the task of informing any purchaser of the existence of a right of first refusal and of making the required notifications.
The real estate agency must contemplate within a purchase proposal, a declaration by the owner highlighting the existence or not, of those entitled to exercise the agrarian pre-emption, whether they are tenants of the land or direct farmers bordering the property subject to sale, subjecting the successful outcome of the negotiation to the verification of all the cases envisaged for the exercise of a possible agrarian pre-emption.
The notary is also required to inform the parties about the rules relating to agricultural pre-emptions, but is not required to investigate the veracity of the declarations provided by the parties on the existence or otherwise of those entitled to pre-emption and cannot oppose the receipt of the deed if requested. .
Exclusive Real Estate Broker Real Estate, thanks to the great experience in the sale of luxury estates developed in recent years, can support the customer in every single phase of the purchase and also manage complex negotiations related to the regulation of the right of first refusal on agricultural land.
