Penny's activity

Was it Mike Wye who came over by any chance My AbruzzoHome? My husband (he's a plasterer) is going to one of his courses next year.

Atessa your NI EEC health card does not cover you for medical cover in Europe only emergency treatment (ie A&E). As I explained you need the form S2 not your NI EEC health card. If you had this the you would not have needed the private policy. This is regardless of the commune. The S2 I believe is in multiple languages.

I just want to point out that if you are under 65, have paid UK NI for the last 2 years then you DO NOT require a private health insurance policy to get residency in Italy. You just need to request form S2 from the DWP in the UK and present this with your request for residency. If you are over 65 and in receipt of a state pension then there is a different form (sorry don't know the number). Once you are registered with the SSN (Italian NHS), the UK will reimburse Italy for your healthcare for the next 2 1/2 years after which you will have to either contribute to the Italian INPS system or buy a private policy for the next 2 1/2 years. Once you have lived here for 5 years you can get your permanent health inscription to the Italian NHS and no more documents are necessary after this for health care.

We had clients who booked a train from Rome to Amendola. I had to tell them just before they boarded it that they had the wrong town, region etc. I had told them there are no trains to Amandola..... My now show house viewers used they sat-nav to get here from Rome via Terni (for some reason) and then get lost from Terni and arrive at the agent's 2 hours late. It is now renamed Dumb Dumb in our house. Wish they'd just use a map or ask.

Yup - slow and getting slower......

I read this today too. Not sure the shaming thing will work here. I'd love an Italian's opinion on whether they think it would work. I also read they still haven't agreed the austerity budget as 600 amendments were put forward and they haven't agreed what will be changed.

Be nice if they did curtsey ;-) The longer I'm here the worse my English spelling gets....

Thanks both of you. Alan - I'm surprised you managed to find 6 agents who communicated by email in 2001!!! An agent can't know if you've seen the house before though can they? The thing is I've been on the other end when I worked for an estate agency and I know how fickle viewers are. In my experience, 80% of people who buy here, end up with something very different to what they asked for. I could describe exactly what almost everyone asks for: A house in the country but near to a village. No other houses nearby but not isolated. To restore but not too much work. With land but not too much land. A view of the mountains but not too near the mountains. etc. etc. Oh and I'd rather not say my budget in case you try to rip me off (obviously they don't actually say that bit - just are reluctant with the info). As this paragon of virtue can rarely be found, people have to compromise and therefore end up with something very different. A lot of the time they rely on the dreaded Tom Tom to navigate and arrive very late to viewings as they've been sent on a ridiculous route (yesterday's problem) or just try to view too much in too short a time (also yesterday's problem) and are exhausted. They don't appreciate that it might look like 100km on the map from Umbria to Amandola but guess what - there's a flippin' great mountain range in the middle and that slows you down!!! Maybe I've just been here too long and I've 'gone native'. I never have problems with estate agents.

Yuck!!!!! I remember seeing a house once where the owners were still in bed when we knocked and showed us round in pyjamas. Yes - we did have an appointment!

No Flip, no-one from this forum as far as I know but as there are plenty of house-hunters that post here it might just make them think a little before they waste an owner's time. Not much the agents can do unless you're an advocate of forced viewings ;-) Thanks Angie. I think 6 times in a row must be some kind of record!! Certainly is for me. "Nothing more weird than the potential buyer." Never a truer word spoken! When we were selling our house in the UK, we actually had someone make us an offer in the garden and ask us there and then to take it off the market only to never hear from them ever again - never answered the agent's calls! We also had some other numpty come to see our thatched cottage to say "Oh, it's lovely - do you think they'd let us change the thatch for tiles?". Why come and see a thatched cottage then????? Aaaargggh!