Ram's activity

Technically, for electrical systems you require at least a DIA.  However, you must have it certified, otherwise you can't sell your house.  You can pay the original electricial if he is qualified to issue a certificate, though you will find another to certify the plant even though you will pay over the odds... 

Who knows? = Boh?  But = ma, Well, but well.... mah  Or is that just Sicily? 

It's all getting a bit fraught....  My two penn'orth is as follows, which is largely in line with Beeryspice, but with one important exception..... It has everything to do with residence, but whereas until your permanent residence is established you have to prove every year to the ASL that you have teh right to healthcare - showing income, insurance and/or INPS payments, after the 5 year limit that requirement is dropped and you are treated equally to an italian so dont have to jump through the 'residence' hoops from that point on.  Before the 5 years is up you must show that you have the prerequisites for residency, even though you will already have residency. How each comune, province and region interpret this is of course wildly different. Health care in Italy is not entirely free at the point of delivery.  You will pay for prescriptions, blood tests and scans etc, unless you are exempt - pensioner, registered disabled, or have an income below 7000 euros a year and produce the requisite form.  Emergency care is always free.  To have a doctor and be registered at teh ASL you must have residency.  Whether you get residency with your EHIC card, or private health insurance is again down to whether your comune reads the official circulars from the Ministry.   As to the 'my NHS is better than your NHS' argument - grow up all of you.   There are good hospitals and bad hospitals - the systems are virtually the same, the practise is wildly different.  Being ill and in need of hospital care in a metropolis of 10 million people is completey different from going down the local hospital in a town of 50,000 - whether its better or worse is down to the hospital in question, but lets stop the broad brush approach.. it helps nobody.  

Italy has 3 or 4 types of plugs.  The fat two pin are european, but now must have an earth - so are three pin.  The smaller three pin are the old style and there is a fat three pin that falls somewhere in the middle but the prongs are further apart than the modern two pin.... you get used to it..... 

Remember that in most of Italy what results at catasto is not legal proof of anything.  However, in the very north - Friuli, Bolsano the catasto is legally binding. Whether you are in that zone I dont know.  If the comune has the stato di fatto, I would side unconditionally with your geometra and agree with the others that the neighbours are out for some free building work. 

When you say redone - how? Did you just relay tiles or did you get the requisite permissions from teh comune and have the whole thing done?  Did you use a geometra? 

As it is your first house, you will not have CGT to pay if you had residency at that address for more than half the time you have had the house.  Eg - owned the house for nearly 3 years, residency in that property within one year of purchase = no CGT.  Owned the house nearly 3 years, residency taken 18 months after purchase - CGT to pay.  The follow on is that if you do not buy another Prima Casa within 12 months, you lose the right to the prima casa agevolazione, so you can never buy another house using the incentives. If the house is not your prima casa you have 20% CGT to pay if you sell within 5 years - minus costs and invoices for the betterment of the property.  You do not HAVE to pay CGT at 20% to the notaio, but can opt to pay any plusvalenza direct to the government via your IRPEF return, in which case it would fall into your normal tax bracket - 19, 23 or more % - Obviously the 20% is the option for most people unless you are selling something small and have no other income in ITaly.  For Sprostoni house if it were not prima casa - selling at 300.000 if you bought at 200,000 would make you liable for a capital gain on 100,000 - ie 20,000 euros minus the notaios fees, agents fees, and ay invoices used to restore or work on the property in the interim.    All of which goes to show, that you shouldnt underdeclare the sale price, that you should insist the agent is written into the act of sale, along with the amount of his commission, and dont pay big house bills in nero.... 

If the contract for usufrutto was stipulated at a notaio is should appear on the visure for the property.  Your mother will appear as usufruttaria 100% and the owner as proprietario 100% It will, if you are lucky, give the name of the notaio, the date and number of repertorio of the act as stipulated.

By submitting a DIA - denuncia di inizio attività - you have to wait for 30 days for the comune to object. If you hear nothing then you're fine.  Obviously you need the stamp on the project from the council, and the 30 days starts from then.  As the project for the DIA must be submitted by a professionista your Geometra/ingengnere/architect will have done it for you, so there is no need to worry, unless you want to check the comune stamp and count the days yourself. 

So the vendor says its public land, and not for parking.  How does he know? If its public land and their is no 'no parking' you can park there.  he presumably has a right to cross this land to reach his garage.  If it were the other way round I would see it as more of a problem, but as he says the land is not private, he cannot stop you parking there.. Should the agent have told you?  Well, if in the contract of sale the vendor says its communal parking, its his problem.  Technically he has missold you the property - and the act could be annulled (at great expense and time).  It wasnt the notaios job to check really.  The agent perhaps should have, but if the owner categorically stated it was so, and was happy to have in the act - the fault is with the vendor and no one else. Get the visura for the land, and see how public it really is.  Then you can make an informed decision.