12169 warning for anyone buying a house

Hi just a warning for anyone buying a house beware of a particular agent as we bought from them october 2006 and when the house was sold the vendor gave this individual who works for them 10000 euros to do the job of restoring the roof , well we have just found out it has not been done and there is water leaking in all upstairs and making a real mess, we had a solicitor who had a written agreeement drawn up, The solicitor is apparantly chasing this individual for to get the job done but he is refusing so we are having to foot the bill of around 7000 euros which we do not have, we thought by having a solicitor we were okay with everything but it seems not, i now want to sell the property because of all this.

Category
Legal

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 13:16

Maureen...............

Deary deary me!!

What a scandal...................your solicitor is the VERY person who you should put your trust in..................hopefully there is somewhere that you can officially complain to about his/her (lack of) action...............

Good luck

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 13:30

Very sorry to hear about your problem, Maureen and I do hope that your solicitor will be able to find a solution. Generally, it is better not to rely on others to do jobs unless you have total control of what goes on. Our roof needed some repairs and the previous owner offered to fix it; however, our agent and the geometra advised us against it and said it was better to get a discount over the the final price of the house and to do it ourselves. This is what we did, the geometra got the contractor and checked the work to our entire satisfaction.
In your case one thing is a bit puzzling. Apparently, you bought the house in October 2006. Why has it taken so long to reach this situation when the roof should have been fixed immediately? Why wasn't it done before the final settlement took place?
It is sad to see that this is pushing you to sell the property.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 13:33

Hi Maureen

If this property is in Italy then you will probably be liable for 20% (?) capital gains tax if you sell the property less than five years after purchase.
Something you may need to think about.

I would suggest you get in touch with another solicitor - Charlotte Oliver, she is on the forum but you could for a more speedy response email her first
[email]C.Oliver@studiopaoletti.com[/email]
She is an english solicitor and also an Italian trained lawyer, she's also lovely!

Good Luck

Just wondered if you had seen this thread
[url]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/general-chat-about-italy/12137-make-me-pay.html[/url]

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 13:59

[quote=maureen;116849]Hi just a warning for anyone buying a house beware of a particular agent as we bought from them october 2006 and when the house was sold the vendor gave this individual who works for them 10000 euros to do the job of restoring the roof , well we have just found out it has not been done and there is water leaking in all upstairs and making a real mess, we had a solicitor who had a written agreeement drawn up, The solicitor is apparantly chasing this individual for to get the job done but he is refusing so we are having to foot the bill of around 7000 euros which we do not have, we thought by having a solicitor we were okay with everything but it seems not, i now want to sell the property because of all this.[/quote]
Who is the agent? People will need to know who to avoid.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 14:13

Noma, we are not allowed to openly "name and shame" on the forum. Perhaps people could PM Maureen for the info.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 14:40

Well reading poor Maureen's past posts I see it took 2 years of aggro to buy the house in Civitaquana Abruzzo. Back in 2007 she asked ..." anyone heard anything about earthquakes there, and how do we check to see if the house was built earthquake safe? " I hope her roof problem isn't palmed off as an earthquake problem?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 10:30

having written to everyone warning them about a particular estate agent and individual if anyone wants information about this please contact me as i would hate to think of anyone being caught out from these people like we were. My husband has been over replacing all the tiles himself as we had no choice in the matter as you probably know there has been a lot of heavy rain, shame we hired a lawyer with our house purchase that did not protect us either so beware if anyone wants information on house buying just contact me rather than make an expensive mistake, glad to help.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/27/2009 - 11:03

[quote=juliancoll;116881]Noma, we are not allowed to openly "name and shame" on the forum. Perhaps people could PM Maureen for the info.[/quote]

I am sure you have a sense of humour JC....this post of yours had me laughing out loud...........:laughs:

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 05/02/2009 - 07:23

what an oddball you must be to think other peoples misery is funny, do you think this is a joke, the biggest joke on this forum has to be without any doubt YOU!. As I said before if any normal person read what i wrote and do not want to be conned by a particular estate agent who apparantly con people for a living just ask and i will let you know, shame there are a few weirdos who are members of this forum.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 05/02/2009 - 08:03

[quote=maureen;119453]what an oddball you must be to think other peoples misery is funny, do you think this is a joke, the biggest joke on this forum has to be without any doubt YOU!. As I said before if any normal person read what i wrote and do not want to be conned by a particular estate agent who apparantly con people for a living just ask and i will let you know, shame there are a few weirdos who are members of this forum.[/quote]

So sorry to hear about the difficulties with your new house Maureen. I don't think the previous poster was referring to your situation at all though, but rather another thread where one of the posters had mentioned problems with another member who she had named publicly on the Forum. The member's name who was being discussed later had her name removed from the post by the moderators.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 05/02/2009 - 08:52

Yes Maureen, what Lisa C says above is correct. I didn't want you to "get into trouble" for "naming and shaming" someone as it is against forum rules (which I seem to break all the time and often get my bum smacked for it) - one of the reasons being the person may not be a member here and therefore, cannot defend themselves against your claims.

The person I named in another thread IS a member here and COULD easily defend herself against my claims if she wants to - she has chosen NOT to do so - make of that what you will - but Noble really was not making fun of you or your situation.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 05/02/2009 - 13:16

I did realise afterwards it was not meant towards me so I must apologise, anyway it is a very important issue buying a house abroad and I would hate for anyone to get caught out as I said before, I am happy to give some advice if needed, there are a few agents out there who I have spoken to and they have been great giving us advice with no charge, just extremely helpful and genuine, haven't met them and probably will never speak to them again but would happily pass on their details if they are in the same area.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/03/2009 - 05:33

[quote=maureen;116849]Hi just a warning for anyone buying a house beware of a particular agent as we bought from them october 2006 and when the house was sold the vendor gave this individual who works for them 10000 euros to do the job of restoring the roof , well we have just found out it has not been done and there is water leaking in all upstairs and making a real mess, we had a solicitor who had a written agreeement drawn up, The solicitor is apparantly chasing this individual for to get the job done but he is refusing so we are having to foot the bill of around 7000 euros which we do not have, we thought by having a solicitor we were okay with everything but it seems not, i now want to sell the property because of all this.[/quote]

[FONT=Century Gothic]That's awful Maureen [IMG]http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/midi/boese/a042.gif[/IMG] [/FONT]
[FONT=Century Gothic]Is there an organisation that you can report this agent to? A sort of governing body that regulates estate agents? Or pursue the matter through the small claims court? I’m sure your solicitor should be able to give you the answers on what your options are.[/FONT]

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/03/2009 - 08:11

Sadly in Italy it's easier said than done....Maureen has done what she can and that is offered to give out the agents name by PM, so that others are not caught. Standards do not compare to those practiced in the UK ...there are good agents and bad and so it continues. Unfortunately they can all get tarred with the same brush ...but good agents on this Forum ....we know who you are.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/04/2009 - 02:41

Maureen - its probably too little too late, but if you check with your local Camera di Commercio - any legaly registered estate agent should have indemnity insurance for cases of negligence or incompetence. A member of FIAIP automatically has this insurance, FIMAA I think the same, and any other legal agent SHOULD take out insurance via the CCIAA. However, restoring a roof is not part of an estate agents job - he was no doubt doing it as a 'favour' for the owner - but if the 10 thousand was signed for by the agent you could do him under antiriciclaggio as it should be in his registro - and accounted for. It might be worth asking the Guardia di Finanza to pay a visit...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/04/2009 - 03:45

[FONT=Century Gothic]Good advice ram [IMG]http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/midi/froehlich/a023.gif[/IMG][/FONT]

[quote=Noble;119564]Sadly in Italy it's easier said than done....Maureen has done what she can and that is offered to give out the agents name by PM, so that others are not caught. Standards do not compare to those practiced in the UK ...there are good agents and bad and so it continues. Unfortunately they can all get tarred with the same brush ...but good agents on this Forum ....we know who you are.[/quote]

[FONT=Century Gothic]No offence Noble but [I]‘’this is Italy’’[/I] is an excuse not a reason. I would certainly be doing everything in my power to not only name and shame but recover my money, including taking the matter to the European Court[/FONT][FONT=Century Gothic] if necessary. I think I read a post here of a man receiving an astronomical telephone bill, which the company refused to discuss with him never mind reducing it, but with his persistence he managed to get the whole amount waived [IMG]http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/midi/froehlich/a013.gif[/IMG][/FONT]