Abstract

This article aims to investigate the reasons for the disappointing application of the «rent to buy» policy over the four years since the enactment of art. 23 of legislative decree September 12th 2014, n. 133 (known as «Sblocca Italia», i.e. Unlock Italy), converted into law on November 11th 2014, n. 164.According to the author there are several reasons, all related to the hastiness with which the legislator intervened to regulate the rent to buy policy, driven by the need to ensure the extention of the time limit for the transcription beyond the three-year term, as provided by comma 3, art. 2645 of the Civil Code. This was seen as contrary to the vested interests underlying the rent to buy policy. First of all, the overall costs of the entire procedure fell on the concessionaries. If the main purpose was to obviate the difficulties that some subjects were encountering, due to the only partial financing by the banks, achieving that objective was in no way aided by the onerous instalments required. However there many elements of ambiguity in the regulatory framework, some of which are particularly serious as they directly affect the feasibility of the new tool, making its scope uncertain and the consequences of its use unforeseeable.