Italian legislature has recently reformed the regulations, with regard to gifts, on actions for reduction and restitution, with the aim of promoting the circulation of assets from gifts and inheritances and facilitating their use as collateral for access to credit.
The reform in question applies not only to real estate assets, but also to movable property, whether or not it is recorded in public registers, and has a significant impact on the protection of forced heirs and on the position of third-party purchasers.
With regard to assets from an estate, an action for restitution following the reduction of testamentary dispositions that infringe upon the reserved share of the estate can only be asserted against third parties for a period of three years from the opening of the succession. After this period, the principle of priority of registration prevails: the property of a third party that acquired and registered their right before the action for reduction is protected. The reform thus reduces the period within which a forced heir can make their action enforceable against third parties from ten to three years, thereby facilitating the circulation of succession assets.
The most important new feature, however, concerns the action for restitution against the donee.
Under the new regulations, a forced heir who obtains the reduction of a gift is entitled to the return of the property, but receives it subject to any encumbrances, liens and mortgages established by the donee. Since these encumbrances reduce the value of the property, the donee is obliged to compensate the forced heir in cash to the extent necessary to reinstate the reserved share. Consequently, the protection of the forced heir shifts from the recovery of the property “in kind” to the guarantee of economic value. This approach also applies to gifts of movable property, with the appropriate adjustments depending on their nature and on whether they are recorded in public registers.
The reform almost entirely eliminates the action for restitution against the donee’s successors in title. Anyone acquiring donated property, with or without consideration, is generally protected against actions for restitution, unless the acquisition occurred after the registration of the reduction claim. The forced heir can no longer recover the property from the third party but must
instead approach the donee to obtain compensation in cash. The voluntary purchaser may only be called upon to contribute if the donee is insolvent, and then only up to the amount of the benefit received.
The insolvency of the donee plays a central role in the new regulations. If the donee is unable to compensate the forced heir, the value of the gift is not taken into account in calculating the estate, which has the effect of proportionally reducing the reserved share. The financial loss resulting from the insolvency is thus distributed between the forced heir and the other parties concerned, without prejudice to the possibility of taking action against the donee should they become solvent again.
The new regulations presented so far came into effect on 18 December 2025.
The law also introduced transitional regulations that largely extend the new regulations to successions opened before it came into force.
If no reduction claim or objection to the gift is notified and recorded within six months, prior inheritances are also subject to the new regulations. In this way, the legislator significantly reduces the time available to the forced heir to maintain the old regime, which will rapidly standardise the system.
Overall, the reform completes the process begun in 2005 and marks a decisive change of direction: the action for reduction remains a tool for protecting the forced heir, but loses its traditional real impact on the donated or inherited property. The protection of third-party purchasers thus becomes the rule, while the right of the forced heir increasingly resembles a claim for a sum of money. This choice meets the needs of a dynamic property market and an economic system based on the significant use of credit, by reducing the legal uncertainty that previously surrounded property received by way of a gift.
15 January 2026
By Francesca Ferrari, Tassinari & Damascelli Notary Firm, Bologna – Member of Insignum (Italy)
