Ciao, I have spent three months in

That should be avvocato! an indication of flat rate fees would help as well. Thanks... James

Well I'm sure a lot of people will say you don't need one and Italians rarely, if ever, use such a thing. We did for our peace of mind and in the scheme of things it was not a lot (€1800) for the work done. Things are different here when buying and certainly not as done in the UK. I would be a little more relaxed second time around, but will never have to be....  One great bit of advice ours give us was that you should never rely on being legally covered as, if it comes to it, you will likely never get your money back in court or the cost of doing so will make it worthless... says a lot from a solicitor...

Well, in Australia I certainly engaged a lawyer to help draw up a contract when I sold each of my places over the years and one certainly for the last purchase I made in Australia. Thanks for your response, stevegwmonkseaton. Yes €1800 is within the ballpark the lawyer I've engaged in Italy gave me at €120 an hour, and roughly what I expected. But, I've been told that is very high. It's the ballpark it would be in if we were looking at Australian dollars back home ie $AUD1500-2000. And my lawyer speaks pretty good English so he can also translate for me at meetings and looking at documents [but don't expect never to have to make sure they understand what you mean!]. My Italian isn't good enough.... Yet! Thanks again, James

I am one of those who says a lawyer isnt necessary unless you have a complicated purchase and want to use offshore money and all that stuff.   Use a good agent - thats more important - as they have legal obligations towards you - preferably FIAIP as they are also insured.    You will need a translator (an a witness) which also has costs.  Dont sign anything you dont understand.  In my experience lawyers often complicate the process in order to earn more money.  A good notary and agent will do what a lawyer should do, and probably better.  However, if you want a lawyer, go for a flat fee if you can, otherwise the hours will mysteriously pile up. 

I would go with what Modi has said not that I know a lot more about how things work here and he deals with lots of sales (hopefully). The difficult bit is finding the right agent and notary, we were lucky with both and reckon we could have easily managed without the solicitor as nice and helpful as she was. Fortunately our notary spoke really good English and provided a witness and translator. A lot of the costs we had will be possibly out of date by now, but we found many a web site with details of what you need to pay for and aa idea of the cost, all told they were very accurate. Barclays UK bank  was one of the sites if I recall correctly that had such a list. A figure of 20% on top of the cost of the house was quoted on a number of sites, that did turn out quite accurate, perhaps a little less. Getting the right exchange rate timing was one of the main problems as the limits on moving money vary so much from banks and FX companies. I do believe Modicasa used to do a book on buying? In the scheme of thing the book we had paid for itself over and over again, wel worth looking into. Good luck!

I’m a Geometra and I can tell you that besides and good lawyer, you must find a good geometra who helps you in the process of buying your new house.In my 20 years experience I saw many people buying houses and finding many problems after the purchase.The most important thing to be done is to go the the Comune offices and control all the permissions of the house (drawings….plans, sections, etc.). In Italy it’s quite common to modify houses without asking permissions. Remember that the day after the deed you’re responsible for all the problems created by the previous owners of the house.It’s very common to find out problems not just after the deed, but when you want to renovate the house or make any change. At that point you’ll have to ask for an amnesty, but it means spending thousands of Euros.So my advice is : don’t regret spending a few thousand euros before the purchase, because it could mean saving a lot of money afterwards.