La Dolcevita's activity

Thanks Ram - The company is definitely an azienda agricola.  We have the title search.  There are 2 owners of the azienda and we are fairly sure they are their as directors but not as land workers themselves - one is 75 and lives 150 miles away away the other is in her mid 40's and lives about 15 miles away.  Both are from very wealthy familys.  So if they individually earn money from another source/have another job does that mean they can't exercise their right?  If that is the case how would we find that out - is that something we could ask the notaio to do through a search on their codice fiscale? I'll double check to see if the land has been rezoned If they do exercise the right - from what you're saying we get all the money we paid and they have to buy everything - do we get all our taxes back/notaio fees etc then as the sale would be null and void?  So I'm guessing the archiects fees/geometra fees etc would be lost. Also is it us that they take to court or the seller (or both) and do you have any idea how long the process takes as in - is it over quickly?

Thanks Fillide - and our Dolcevita will come true - maybe not this time but it will..............we were expecting many challenges along the way but not this one that's why we had a lawyer!!!  If we end up losing this land and it truly is an amazing plot with a sea view (in the far distance!!) views of the medieval town and the alps, and a stunning olive grove, I've already reconciled in my mind its because there will be something even better down the line!!!  And this time we'll do it ourselves.  We're not going to roll over on this one by any stretch of the imagination we're just aware that a lengthy court battle could wipe us out/tie us up for years - so if necessary we'll cut our losses and move on

Thanks for the suggestions - it doesn't help that the people we are dealing with are an ex mayor of one of italys biggest cities and a consortiuum of his pals!!!  David and Goliath keep springing to mind! We're still trying to establish the facts at the moment - is the CAA or CIA the same as the local agricultural office - that sounds like a good place for us to go next.  One of the owners of the sub company is in her 70's and I'm sure I read somewhere that 50% of the owners must be cultivatore diretti and under the age of 70 - so that rules her out if that's the case - (plus she lives a couple of hundred miles away) so it's just the other one.  We'll get that checked out next week I'm not sure that we could go down the route of suing the original owner even though I know that's what happens in Italy- he had to sell due to ill health as he could no longer farm (we know many people that know him and we found this out through them not him) - he has no grasp of the real world and I'm not sure if I could live with myself if he had a heart attack. I think it will depend on what our costs are in terms of architect fees etc

Beautifully chilled Prosecco is top of the list for me followed very closely by Moghito; red wine, champagne and or a G & T with ice and a slice - Hic.......

I have similair circumstances to you Karen - my husband and I will be moving over to Italy in 12 to 18 months.  I own a UK business and will continue to run it when we move - I will return to the UK every other week or so - my husband isn't sure what he'll be doing but will be in Italy full time.  Where does Michael live - at the moment my accountant isn't local he's 300 miles away but 10 minutes form my business partner - we're going to be in Liguria

Slowest site I have ever been on.......

A couple of things that I learnt during our purchase that might be useful:- It doesn't matter what the price the agent has the house on the market for - whatever offer price you put in (no matter how ridiculous) they are obliged to inform the seller And advice from people who have been severely burnt (not us thankfully we we followed their advice) never seek legal advice from a solicitor recommended by an agent (unless others can vouch for them) Seek independant advice from people you know.  We paid extra to have an english speaking italian solicitor sort our purchase for us but it was sooooo worth the piece of mind.  I felt guilty as it felt that we were sending out a message that we didn't trust people - however others that we know that put their trust in others have been left many many thousands out of pocket - so for us a couple of k was worth it Good luck - we're a little ahead of you - we bought in May and had a great buying experience with a fab party after

The last I heard, they were being investigated by the Law Society - I think that speaks for itself!

We used Smart Currency Exchange - we shopped around and they at the time provided the best rate

Our notaio did the translation in english for us as he went along - he lived in London for 3 years and made sure we understood everything that was going on - we didn't have to pay anything extra for him to do this - our italian lawyer recommended him for this reason as did some friends who regularly use him whenever they need a notaio.   And as others have already mentioned you pay everything in front of the notaio at the rogito (final signing) - we did bankers draft for the vendor and ordinary cheque for the notaio. Our notaio had a team of assistants who were fantastic at communicating with us - they emailed us in english and were really helpful - all the nitty gritty stuff they dealt with - we asked the exact questions that you did - the notaio assistants even helped us complete the writing of our first ever italian cheque as it's very different from the UK ones...........