Hi everyone I have been

Calculating the council rates is quite complicated.  I had been told by my real estate agent, who went on to the website that calculates the rates and told me that I would be up for Euro 220 pa for my property.  When I went to the comune (council) to speak to the dept which handles rates she calculated it for me and it turned out to be twice that.  Being married it is paid by both spouses.  We were due to pay Euro 220 each but because I am in the process of renovating my place and it does not have water and is being renovated, they consider that to be non abitabile and so we were given a 50% discount on that amount.

It is difficult to say what I will pay for electricity because although I have had the electricity connected, I have not used any electricity.  As a secondo casa (foreign owned houses where the owner is not a resident are classed as owning a second house) you pay more for your access fee (I think it is around Euro 23 per month as opposed to a resident who pays about Euro 11 per month) and then I think the usage might be more expensive as well.  Electricity is expensive in Italy.

I elected to have everything electric including my stove and oven because I couldn't be bothered also paying a monthly access fee for the gas.

You also need to pay water (which I haven't had connected yet) and rubbish collection which I was told was about Euro 145 per year.

Be careful that you check with the notaio if you are paying a reasonable price for your house.  I paid only Euro 9500 for my house, which on the cadastal value is valued at Euro 36000.  The tax department will come after you a number of years later if they think that you have dodged any taxes by paying a very low price.  I paid Euro 750 for a geometra to go through my house and do an inspection report which included numerous photos to demonstrate that the state of the house was such that it was only worth the price I paid.  This report also allowed me to demonstrate to the council that the house was not liveable and so gaining that 50% rates discount. So I had to pay money to gain money because I also paid less taxes when I purchased the house.

The woman at the commune is correct. 

The house tax (IMU) is easily calculated (see stevemonkseatons reply below on where to do it)

If the house is jointly owned then the cost is split between the two people - so technically your agent was also correct.

So IMU is E440, and your share is E220

(Luckily, I insisted that only I bought my holiday place in Italy- the Notary was gobsmacked, as my wife was present at the purchase signing, and he made her counter sign to confirm she wasn't buying)

God luck.