Hello All. Having spent a number of wonderful holidays in Italy we returned a couple of weeks ago with the intention of purchasing ourselves a holiday home.
Hi Chris I did this around 18 months ago and spoke with ENEL directly at the time. Their system will not accept a non italian mobile phone number and you cannot proceed without one. I looked into purchasing a pay as you go SIM and visited about half a dozen phone shops only to be told that pay as you go doesnt exist in the same way as it does in the UK and that it is necessary to top it up every month for a minimum period of 12 months which made it quite an expensive proposition for a one off text (once you included the initial fee). We asked an Italian friend if we could use their mobile for the code to be sent to which they agreed to and they promptly forwarded the code we needed. It was all very easy from that point and we now receive our bills monthly (somethimes bimonthly) by email and I then log on and pay using their app (which is really quite useful and easy to use) via a paypal account.
We bought our property in Molise two years ago. We didn't have an agent as we found the property ourselves and eveything we have heard about the tactics of some agents ever since has made us very glad we didn't. Our friends ended up paying all sort of spurious fees and even ended up handing over cash in envelopes on completion day. At the time we were buying, being super cautious with our hard earned savings, we had decided only an avvocato would do and sought recomendations through this group. LargeLewis very kindly suggested we seek the assistance of Cristina Mattei who is an Italian/ Amercian avvocato based in Pescara. Her fees were very reasonable and her help and support throughout the process has been truely remarkable - she has dealt with scores of emails from a pair of neurotic Englishman buying abroad for the first time in a very quick and professional manner. She helped us negotiate the purcahse price with the vendor, organised a survey with a local geometra, translated all our documents (no additional fees), dealt with the Comune, arranged the preliminary and sales contracts, bankers drafts and attended the notaio's office with us on the purchase day too. Since then she has successfully assisted us in a two year ordeal to have mains electricity connected to the house by ENEL (she drew up the contracts with the vendor to have the work done much more cheaply than we every could as non residents) and is now helping us with a broken mains water supply which comes through a neighour's field. Personally I would not even dream of buying a house in Italy without an Avvocato and could not recomend anyone more highly. Her email address is avvocato_mattei@hotmail.com Good luck with your purchase!
HI melanieclark. Would you be willing to share the details of the agency you use to calculate your taxes? We currently pay 40 Euro each twice a year for our taxes to be calculated and paid which adds up to nearly half the costs of the taxes again.
Grazie Mille Ugo - not sure what you mean about North Italy... https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/86029+Trivento+Province+of+Campobasso,+Italy/@41.7767587,14.5494684,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x13309a097ae7f5e1:0xe706a337e1c324ca?hl=en
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Hi Chris. I used the online chat facility via their website rather than the telephone. It’s very good and bought me some time with my Italian.
Hi Chris I did this around 18 months ago and spoke with ENEL directly at the time. Their system will not accept a non italian mobile phone number and you cannot proceed without one. I looked into purchasing a pay as you go SIM and visited about half a dozen phone shops only to be told that pay as you go doesnt exist in the same way as it does in the UK and that it is necessary to top it up every month for a minimum period of 12 months which made it quite an expensive proposition for a one off text (once you included the initial fee). We asked an Italian friend if we could use their mobile for the code to be sent to which they agreed to and they promptly forwarded the code we needed. It was all very easy from that point and we now receive our bills monthly (somethimes bimonthly) by email and I then log on and pay using their app (which is really quite useful and easy to use) via a paypal account.
We also used Cristina and couldn’t be happier with the service and support we received, and continue to receive, from her.
We bought our property in Molise two years ago. We didn't have an agent as we found the property ourselves and eveything we have heard about the tactics of some agents ever since has made us very glad we didn't. Our friends ended up paying all sort of spurious fees and even ended up handing over cash in envelopes on completion day. At the time we were buying, being super cautious with our hard earned savings, we had decided only an avvocato would do and sought recomendations through this group. LargeLewis very kindly suggested we seek the assistance of Cristina Mattei who is an Italian/ Amercian avvocato based in Pescara. Her fees were very reasonable and her help and support throughout the process has been truely remarkable - she has dealt with scores of emails from a pair of neurotic Englishman buying abroad for the first time in a very quick and professional manner. She helped us negotiate the purcahse price with the vendor, organised a survey with a local geometra, translated all our documents (no additional fees), dealt with the Comune, arranged the preliminary and sales contracts, bankers drafts and attended the notaio's office with us on the purchase day too. Since then she has successfully assisted us in a two year ordeal to have mains electricity connected to the house by ENEL (she drew up the contracts with the vendor to have the work done much more cheaply than we every could as non residents) and is now helping us with a broken mains water supply which comes through a neighour's field. Personally I would not even dream of buying a house in Italy without an Avvocato and could not recomend anyone more highly. Her email address is avvocato_mattei@hotmail.com Good luck with your purchase!
HI melanieclark. Would you be willing to share the details of the agency you use to calculate your taxes? We currently pay 40 Euro each twice a year for our taxes to be calculated and paid which adds up to nearly half the costs of the taxes again.
Grazie Mille Ugo - not sure what you mean about North Italy... https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/86029+Trivento+Province+of+Campobasso,+Italy/@41.7767587,14.5494684,12z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x13309a097ae7f5e1:0xe706a337e1c324ca?hl=en
Ciao Ugo. We are in a small village just outside Trivento.
Thank you very much indeed, LargeLewis - really appreciate the recommendation and have emailed Cristina.