8925 Puglians - to be

Early in 2007, we decided to buy a house in southern Europe and in a matter of days, we found that Puglia was our choice. Searched the net for properties and after making appointments with several estate agents, we "veni vidi vici" in January. Found a house that suited us really good between Martina Franca and Ceglie Messapica. The formalities was done in May and we have been able to use the house many weeks last year.
We are soon to be retired (hopefully this year) and then we will spend more time in our small villa. The house was ready to move in to, but still need some work to be done, some shopping for extra furniture, better heating et cetera. But this is a joyful task.
We have already found good friends in the neighbourhood and it gives us great pleasure to be met with such warmth and hospitality.
After a short time we saw that renting a car for every time we came to Puglia was expensive, but with the help of a good friend, we managed to buy a usable car. And even if the insurance is very expensive, it is possible to suspend the premium while we are away.
Oh how we long to be there.

Category
Introduce Yourself - Piacere Conoscerti

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 02/29/2008 - 14:15

Welcome, nice to hear from you. Please keep us informed about what you are doing.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 03/01/2008 - 01:42

More Puglians! Welcome.
We bought our house near Torchiarolo on Contrada Cipolla (Oninon Bay) in September 2005 and moved out here permanently in December 2005. Not all plain sailing but we love it and nothing would induce us to move back to UK!

I heard about the insurance premium suspension from another UK friend who has a holiday home here just last week; it certainly makes a difference to those considering buying a car here for use on frequent trips. As far as I understand it you insure for a year but each time you are out of the country and not using the car you advise the insurers and the insurance is suspended. Not sure if when renewal time comes around your premium for the next year is reduced for the suspended periods or your insurance period is extended by the suspended periods?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 03/01/2008 - 02:48

Hi Livarandsofie,

I'm not in Puglia, but visited Martina Franca last year and loved the change of scenery. We are further north in Tuscany.

You mention expensive car insurance, we used to insure our UK car with AXA Italy and it was cripplingly expensive for third party only but found a link on this blog to [url=http://italsure.co.uk/index2.html]Insurance for Italy[/url]
and I would strongly recommend them. The premium was less than half the italian quotes and was fully comprehensive!!!!

Others on the site also use them and speak well of them. I haven't had to make a claim, but Oliver in London was very helpful and the all the documents arrived and they were correct!

If you suspend your insurance when you are away does this mean your car is not covered against theft when you are out of the country. It might be worth checking them out.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 03/01/2008 - 04:15

We had to consider a lot of issues when we bought the car. First of all, we did not want an expensive car. All we needed was a car that was (sort of) reliable and we bought a Fiat Bravo. It was ten years old, and the price was negotiated down to € 900.- The insurance was € 1000,- road tax € 230,-. Total sum first year € 2130,- Next year we pay only road tax and MOT. The year after, only road tax and MOT. Insurance, we pay again when we have "used up" the twelve months that we have paid for. The cost of MOT, we do not know, but I guess that the amount will be reasonable, lets say € 200 annually.
The insurance company demands that we return all the cars papers to them each time we leave Italy. Not only the vignette, but also the documents that follows the vignette. This means that the car is not insured against theft when we are away. This is the main reason why we bought a cheap car.
In September 2007, we had theft on our property. The roof of our new garage was stolen! But the car was left unharmed. I guess that driving around in an old car with no insurance vignette is a sure way to be stopped by the police.
One drawback is that we don't have a car when we arrive in Brindisi. But we have a good friend that pick us up and drive us to our home. He also has been given a power of attorney with the insurance company so he returns and fetch the documents for the car each time we go to Puglia. Without him, the solution that we have chosen would be more difficult and expensive. He was also helping us finding a car that suited us, we sat in Norway and when he found a car, we just transferred the money.

Over all cost;
If we spend twelve weeks annually, the insurance last four years. Road tax, MOT, and buying the car, totals € 3620.-
Renting a car for the same time will set us back at least € 7500,-

We can have our car stolen 3 times and still save money. And parking in the towns is not such a scaring experience when we own the car ourselves and it is an old one. A new rented car is another matter.

What I have written here should probably have been in another tread, if so please let me know and I can copy it over, or maybe it is a job for the moderator.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 03/01/2008 - 04:21

My thoughts are that you really have a great friend looking after you. I wish we all had someone like this!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 03/02/2008 - 13:29

"moved to italiauncovered.co.uk"

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/03/2008 - 02:12

[quote=Technically Blonde;84153]Who's HOH???[/quote]
Her Other Half maybe - just guessing.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/03/2008 - 04:38

"moved to italiauncovered.co.uk"

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 03/03/2008 - 10:42

Glad to hear from Livar and Sofie that things are working out so well -- very close to our experience, having bought our farm in "move in" condition, there's always a little tweaking to do -- i.e., figuring out how to really get the termo-camino to work, and cleaning up a bit of Pugliese Plumbing (a category all its own!).

We can second the vote of confidence re: Italsure, and are using it for homeowners/landlord insurance as well as for auto & health (being non-EU residents, we are required to maintain private health insurance).

Benvenuti e in bocca al lupo for all your endeavors, Paola+Jim