3560 'Rogito Day' and Practical Fund Transfer

For the notaio, a cheque on your Italian bank account will suffice (assuming there are sufficient funds to cover it). The notaio only receives money for his services, and the taxes and disbursements. The notaio does not normally even see the money which is paid to the vendor.

For the payment to the vendor, you should ask the vendor (or the estate agent) how the vendor(s) wish to receive the money.

Depending on whether you are declaring the full purchase price in the atto, and depending on how many vendors there are, they may wish to receive at least a part of the payment in cash. It is important to know how they wish to be paid before the atto, because many Italian bank branches cannot produce more than about 2000 Euros cash without prior warning.

Normally cheques on your Italian bank account are perfectly acceptable, and there is rarely the need to go to the extent of bankers' drafts. (The penalties for writing a cheque on an Italian account which "bounces" are rather serious, so they tend to be accepted much more happily in Italy than in the UK!) But if the vendor asks for a bankers draft, "assegno circolare", your bank will be able to issue you one (or more) on demand.

The actual handing over of the money has always been in my experience "a bit of fun" - with the notaio entering into the spirit of things and enquiring of the vendor "you have got the money, haven't you", and the buyer handing over the proverbial envelope.

It is possible to do all this stuff by electronic transfers - notaio faxes bank when act is about to be signed, bank faxes back that transfer has been made etc. etc - but it doesn't have to be that complicated.

Good luck

Many thanks

From what i have heard notaries like part payments in cash and virtually no one in italy will accept a normal bank cheque, it generally has to be an assegno circoare, in a sense the equivalent of the old building society cheque, issued only by the banks to a specified name and guaranteeing that the funds are available or cash.
Because of money laundering laws these cheques sometimes have to be in denominations below a certain level.
In essence this point of view differs entirely from relaxeds posting and in reality only goes to show how unpredictable, different opinions on fairly straight forward transactions in Italy can be.
Be prepared also for a long and mind blowingly boring evening as in general the final act needs to be previewed,reviewed and re-written before all parties accept it is correct.
Above all apart from the money side be entirely confident that what you are paying for is as you have been informed, that there are no encumberances upon it and that you are totally sure of the whole process.

And don't forget the law has changed about under declaring. Search notaio posts it explains it there.

Ask the vendors how they do want to be payed.
Normally you must pay with "assegno circolare" and not with a common cheque, because otherwise the vendos have no warantee it is "covered".
You can use electronic payment too, but, as relaxed said, it's much easier the "assegno circolare" way.
About cash...
it is a "beloved" way of payment, choosen by the buyers, because it was connected with the underdeclaring system (a lot of threads about it).
Now the system is over and you'll pay your taxes on the cadastrial value only and not on the price (other threads on this), so declare the real price, pay with assegni circolari at the moment of the signature before the notary and enjoy your new house.
Moreover, from April 22th there's a new law (coming from Europe) against "laundering moneny" that forbids, much more than the past, cash payments and imposes the notary to inform the authorities about these illegal payments.
So DO NOT PAY CASH but only using the bank system.
A last word about how long it will take to sign the contract, normally it takes about 1/2 hour, but for your purchase, because of the language problem, it will probably take more.

Sorry, peterandann - notaio always gives the most up-to-date advice on these matters.

However, it is very important that you do discuss with the vendor how the payment it to be made, because if he is expecting a cash element (if he does not know about the recent money laundering legislation to which notaio refers), it may take him a little time to accept that he cannot have any cash!

In response to homer - I can only say I must have only made deals with very trusting people, because I have never had any problem with vendors (or with shops, hotels, notaois etc) being willing to accept ordinary cheques for any sort of amount!

I think you might find the reason for the problem many of us have with the cheques is due to the fact that most people buying property here have only opened what they call foreigners accounts. These are useful only as money holding areas until you can set up a residents accounts. They are expensive and although they do give you a book of cheques these cheques are useless and are unacceptable in virtually all transactions.

When i bought my place [3 years ago now] the estate agent sorted out with the sellers [husband and wife] how they wanted to be paid at the Notary's office when we signed all the paperwork. The net result was that I paid in the following format:-

One non-transferable Italian Bankers draft for the declared value

Several transferable Italian Bankers draft for the remainder - divided 50/50 between the sellers, and each was for less than Euros 10,000. [I understand this is because anything over Euros 10,000 going into a bank account triggers the taxman] Being transferable - they probably never went into the sellers bank account, but were used to purchase goods/services from others

Also paid Euros 200 for central heating oil by Italian cheque, with the name of the 'recipient' left blank , so the seller could use it to pay for something.

All the 'transfers' took place in front of the Notary [he was paid by cheque]

[QUOTE=notaio]
Moreover, from April 22th there's a new law (coming from Europe) against "laundering moneny" that forbids, much more than the past, cash payments and imposes the notary to inform the authorities about these illegal payments.
So DO NOT PAY CASH but only using the bank system.
[/QUOTE]

Notaio, can you give a link or explain more about this new law and what it entails? Many thanks

When we bought our house we paid the notary and the builder by cheque(biggest cheque I've ever written)!!

[quote=notaio;30194]Ask the vendors how they do want to be payed.
Normally you must pay with "assegno circolare" and not with a common cheque, because otherwise the vendos have no warantee it is "covered".
You can use electronic payment too, but, as relaxed said, it's much easier the "assegno circolare" way.

Sorry to ask about this subject again, however, at the last minute our vendor has become nervous about the validity and meaning of an"assegno circolare": Can the vendor cash the assegno at any bank of their choice? Our Vendor is Austrian and has no account in Italy (and seemingly no idea about anything Italian) and is anxious to know if he can deposit it in an Austrian account. Other worry seems to be for him, that once the deeds are signed, how does he know that the assegno will deliver. I have tried to find verification of this to no avail. I wish we could just make a bank transfer to his account in Austrian, but aparently this in Italy is not the norm and or complicated? Help!