How to Verify a Guarantor or Surety Before Signing

In short: the surety guarantees the performance of someone else's obligation by binding themselves personally towards the creditor (art. 1936 c.c. [Italian Civil Code]): if the principal debtor does not pay, the surety answers for it with their own assets. Before accepting a surety — from a customer, a shareholder, a tenant — the guarantor's protests, proceedings and other public exposures are verifiable data, not just their word.

What it really means to act as guarantor

A surety (fideiussione, art. 1936 c.c.) is a personal guarantee: the surety does not make a specific asset available, as in a pledge or a mortgage, but their entire present and future assets, to the extent of the guaranteed obligation. It is valid even if the principal debtor is unaware of it. For the person receiving it, this means something concrete: the guarantee is worth what the guarantor's real assets are worth, not their willingness to sign.

When it is typically requested

Recurring situations for an SME: a supplier asks for the personal guarantee of the owner before granting an instalment plan to a newly formed company; a commercial landlord asks for a guarantor in addition to the tenant for a non-residential lease; a bank or a leasing company asks for a shareholder's personal guarantee to cover a loan to the company.

What to check on the guarantor before accepting the guarantee

• Protests and insolvency proceedings against them: public events on record, with source and date. A personal guarantee is worth less if the person giving it already has signs of difficulty of their own.
• Offices and stakes in other companies (extended tier): useful for understanding whether the guarantor has other activities that could absorb resources in case of difficulty, or whether they are already a guarantor elsewhere.
• Registered properties (extended tier, Catasto, the land registry): an asset-related fact, never a certainty that it can be seized, which depends on encumbrances and mortgages not verified by this search.

The limit of this check

You may use this service only by declaring the purpose "checking a guarantor or surety" — not for any other person with whom you have a personal relationship. It does not say whether the guarantor will honour the guarantee if called upon, nor does it replace a lawyer's assessment of the structure of the guarantee itself (maximum guaranteed amount, duration, any agreed limitations): it shows only the public facts available at the time of the check, with source and date. See the privacy notice for the legal basis, the sources and the rights of the data subject.