Now that we are looking for a house to buy in England, Hubby is getting a lot of surprises about how English people do it.
“Are you SURE they’ll leave the kitchen behind?” he asked me in the first house we viewed.
“Yep, the whole lot,” I reassured him, “even the kitchen sink.”
We went upstairs.
“Don’t be silly, why would they leave the wardrobe behind?” he asked me, laughing.
“Because it is completely stuck to the wall, floor and ceiling, so they have no choice,” I explained.
“That wouldn’t stop an Italian,” he muttered under his breath, as we proceeded towards the bathroom.
***
This has started me reflecting on how Italians buy houses. Rather a lot of people I know dream of buying a house in Italy, so I have decided to write a few posts about it.
The house will be gutted
When you view and buy a house in Italy, it will usually be empty.
Italians don’t have “chains” when selling houses. (Just think about their general organisation skills. Of COURSE they don’t have chains. They could last decades.) If you view the house with people living in it, be ready to find it empty when you take possession.
When I say empty, I mean:
- The kitchen will be an empty room, with a wall of dirty tiles with wires dangling out of certain points, and some blocked off pipe ends where the kitchen sink once was
- All the light fittings will just be wires dangling out of the ceiling
- The curtain poles and any other items you thought were “fitted” will have been “unfitted”
- Don’t expect to find a shower door
- The bath tub may have mysteriously vanished
- In some cases the internal doors and the electric sockets and light switches may have gone away too
- If there was a pergola against one of the external walls, there is no guarantee you will still find it
- I have heard of cases where the bannisters were also taken with the rest of the decor
- Basically, if you can take it away without making the house actually fall down, they will take it.
If the sellers tell you they will leave something, assume they are joking unless it is actually written in the contract.
You have to pay a third of the money right away
When you decide to buy a house in Italy, you have to pay around a third of the agreed price right away for the sale to be agreed upon. This is called the “compromessa” and it signals the start of a nerve-wracking period of time. If the sale falls through for any reason, you will not get any of this money back.
At this point you agree on the dates for the further payments and completion, which may be in two instalments or may all be in one lump sum at completion date.
The estate agent takes 7%
Yes, really. This is why most house sales in Italy these days are organised online and the estate agents are bypassed. Estate agents have more legal burdens than they do in England to protect both buyer and seller from getting ripped off, but it is cheaper, and more protective, to save on their massive fee and hire a proper lawyer instead.
Next, get the survey done by a geometra
In Italy, you must never forget that you are an outsider, whereas THEY are all related to each other, and probably having lunch together tomorrow.
As soon as you decide to buy a house, you need a report from a structural surveyor. In Italy this person is called a geometra and the report is a perizia giurata. (That is a generic term meaning a report written by professional, and stamped and signed before a government official so that the person who wrote it now has legal responsibility for its accuracy).
Italians are a bunch of scofflaws and this legal mumbo jumbo is a joke to them. If you choose a local geometra, you need to remember that the bloke selling you the house is his cousin, or was the best man at his wedding, or has been selling him cigarettes and lottery tickets since they got out of high school, or most likely all of the above. He is going to portray that house in the best possible light in order to help his cousin/best man/Marlboro Man to sell it.
My advice is CAVEAT EMPTOR, and to choose a geometra from a different town somewhere far away.
You DO need a lawyer
Italians often buy houses without involving a lawyer at all.
One of the main reasons they do this is because they are mad. Actually, I cannot think of any other reasons.
There are many ways in which a house in Italy could land you with a shocking amount of bills and paperwork.
For example, it may have been built without planning permission and you might suddenly get a legal order to knock it down, at your own expense. (I could tell you about the friend this happened to and how many sangrias I had to buy her afterwards, but it was a trying period for us both so I shall scim over it).
For example, you could find out that it was not legally a human dwelling but listed on the land registry as, say, a slaughterhouse. Just to take a random example, I don’t know anyone this happened to. Ahem!
For example, you could find out that it didn’t have any of the legally required anti-seismic reinforcements put in. These are steel girders and so on. If this happened, you would have to pay upwards of 40,000 to retro-fit them. (In older houses this is very likely.)
For example, you could find that the previous owner of the house mortgaged it. In Italy, mortgages belong to the HOUSE not to the owner. If you buy it, that debt – possibly equal to the amount you paid to buy the house – is now YOURS.
I could go on, but, just get a lawyer.
Italians don’t specifically have conveyancing lawyers, as all their lawyers are jack-of-all-trade ones who do a bit of everything. So you may need to give your lawyer that list I have just written out, to remind them of all the things they need to check. I would also double check them yourself, too, just in case.
Completion
You the buyer have to go to a Notaio (notary) with the seller to complete. These people are responsible for making updates to the land registry, which they write in a big fat book and then transfer to online records as well.
They will suggest writing down on the land registry a sum of money that is a little fraction of what you actually paid for the house. This is so that you will pay less stamp duty. It is up to you if you decide to go along with this or not, as it is your money. As far as I know, virtually everyone does do it.
Moving in
Moving into Italian houses is the fun part. They have mobile escalators to raise and shove your sofa through the upstairs windows. They use those little firemen’s crane things to carry your wardrobe up to the roof terrace.
And then, when you offer them all spaghetti for lunch, they actually wire up your new oven AND intervene in the cooking to make sure the food tastes decent.
Result!
The Dangerously Truthful Diary of a Sicilian Housewife 
O my god I think I will just keep visiting!
LikeLike
Wow, this sounds like an exhausting process! I’ve seen shows where people are looking for homes in Italy and they don’t have kitchens. Seems like such a hassle to move your kitchen! Something so amazing though about living in a house that’s hundreds of years old! We have nothing so old in the US so I’m always so amazed.
LikeLike
They make it so easy. The whole wall is tiled all over. There are metal strips screwed on in the right position for standard kitchen units. Then the back of each hanging unit has a massive metal hook that slots down into it. So they can literally hook and unhook them in minutes!
LikeLike
The kitchen cabinets are considered ‘furniture’. That’s how I look at it. Wow, reading this makes me glad I bought my casa from my cousin. All we had to do was have the money ready and go to the notaio. Renovations were organized and done by my Mamma’s cousin’s son Michele so that wasn’t too bad, aside from not being present to make some of the decisions. If I didn’t have family, I would definitely just rent. It works out cheaper! Ciao, Cristina
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well I must say I bought a house prov. Agrigento and I can honestly say I didn’t experience anything like that – perhaps we were lucky. In Belgium, where I live, there is also a compromis de vente, just as in Italy, where you have to pay 10% immediately and the rest within 4 months. Estate agents also take 8.5% commission and on top of that the taxes are horrendous. They call it registration fees, similar to stamp duty, but here it can vary from 10-17%. Usually the sale goes very smoothly through a notary and I must say you will find everything in place such as the kitchen, wardrobes etc.
LikeLike
The “compromessa” part is amazing. You do not get it back? Is this the same in northern and southern Italy?
LikeLike
The “compromessa” part ist amazing. You do not get it back? And is it the same in southern and northern Italy to buy a house?
LikeLike
Yes, it is nation wide. I have heard stories where people did pay back the compromessa, or at least part of it, when the sale failure was not the buyer’s fault… But legally they don’t have to
LikeLike
Ha Ha love your photo captions
LikeLike
Sorry I forgot to mention that Belgium and most of the continent use mobile escalators which I find are fantastic and do the job very well.
LikeLike
Yes they are so much fun, aren’t they? I want a ride on one of them!
LikeLike
Thank you for a very informative and amusing article. I think I will abandon my dream of living in Venice!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Don’t let me put you off! Just go into it knowing what to expect….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Back in 1970 I lived in Venice for about 6 months. It’s a very special place. But having invested in a second home in Cornwall I couldn’t possibly afford to consider Venice!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha h!! Yes, you basically need a mortgage to buy dinner there!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
HAPPY ST VERONICA DAY
Sent from my iPhone
>
LikeLike
Oh, I had forgotten!!! Thank you! ❤
LikeLike
Good heavens, there go my romantic dreams of Italy. Hilarious post if you’re not looking for a property. 🙂
LikeLike
This is a great post (and cautionary tale) for anyone considering buying a house here! I learned all of this a few years ago when we bought our place in Milan. The only thing more stressful than buying. was later deciding to do some remodeling work, which was the worst experience ever. I would also advise checking the “solaio” attic space before buying and having the old owner clean it out beforehand. Otherwise you’ll be in for an annoying surprise when you find decades of their old junk and have to dispose of it yourself.
LikeLike
This is what happens when you go down an internet rabbit hole. My husband found your site weeks before I dragged him onto the plane to go on a vacation of a “Lifetime”. I will forego the whole story as to why it was only Sicily and suddenly shortened to barely two weeks.
Really long, crazy story made short, we bought two small houses side by side in a small town in the province of Agrigento. Apostalizing our documents in the United States was completely impossible. We decided to finalize everything a year later in person.
While we were viewing the house for the first time I asked about all of the stuff. The Auntienet said we could have it. My husband was not so sure, but over the following four days of going back, we fell in love with the whole thing.
The day after our final appointment with the notaio, we opened the door and found everything still there.
We were totally overwhelmed but could not have been happier. We feel like long lost cousins who inherited their long lost aunt’s Sicilian home. It really changed everything for us.
As for cleaning, we are positive the whole town knows that my sweeping abilities are hopeless. I broke down into a tantrum until the husband forked over the euros for an ash vacuum. I am honestly lost without a vacuum. I had another tantrum when he determined the electrical was totally unsafe. He decided it was worth his vacation time to find me one reasonably safe outlet and make me a hundred foot long extension cord.
We are learning all about Italian wiring! And plumbing! We have a blue Italian clothes dryer that holds 40 meters of wash. Our washing machine is the bathtub. Our garbage man found me the garbage schedule in English and dropped it off on his way to work. If we could figure out which alternating week it is the garbage man would be really impressed.
We have not had a bottle of wine since our worcation, because our cantina has a barrel! I would quit drinking that awful brown stuff American’s call coffee, but the caffeine withdrawal might kill me. On really, really bad days, two lemon jelly beans and a shot of vodka can keep your boss’s name from your Sicilian neighbor’s cousins in Tampa. Why can’t we find pistachio jelly beans?
Ciao
LikeLiked by 1 person
I absolutely love your story, and good for you taking the plunge.
I love imagining you with your 100 foot extension cord….. I have had to do so many crazy things like that myself!! 😂
I hope you keep on enjoying it, and please stay in touch as I would love to hear more.
LikeLike