Firstly hello everyone, I am a new member of this forum and hope that I am doing this right !I need advice from you regarding my recent and hopefully future viewing trips to Abruzzo.
I am back to trawling the net searching for the right ones but this time checking out every company, the sad thing is there are less legal ones than the illegal ones !!!!! At least I feel safer now, I must say after looking at some of the sites that are not agents they tend to always harp on about how you can get ripped off when in actual fact it is them doing the ripping, you do not need to check for licence numbers just check out the sites that say how bad the others are and how hard buying in Italy is and you can bet they are bad ones. I do enjoy the searching though although my wife is tired of me shouting her to come to the computer and look at another one !!!!
Thanks again for the advice and welcomes ! I have actually approached the 4th agent again and they have given me a list of people who have bought with them and who live in Abruzzo, this has really helped as I have made contact with a couple of people already and getting good advice. It really has all been a mad situation but now we are back on track, the agent we are dealing with is also putting a piece on their website about the problems of buying so hopefully others will follow suit and it will be safer for people like us. A story that did make me laugh is that one of the so called agents who does this type of illegal work actually used to work for the inland revenue in the UK !!!!!!!!!! I am so looking forward to buying in Abruzzo and changing our lives, I guess I should get used to having a bit of stress as we have a lot to do. Thanks for the advice regarding FIAPP however I understand not all agents register with them, is there a site where you can check everyone ??
It is good to hear that what you are saying is pretty much what the solicitor and the 4th agent said, I now feel a little guilty I asked them not to contact me for a while as I can see why they would be upset, to be fair they were very good and said pretty much what you have said so at least there appears to be good amongst the bad. The problem I feel is that many people can be put off including my wife because we are not talking small amounts of money, we have worked and are working very hard to make this happen and I guess it could be easy to run into serious problems and risk some of that money, another problem for me is that the websites of these people are all over and are very convincing, not only this I have found many of them advertising on some of the sites linked to this website including the one I have had a problem with !! I know they are not to know who is legal and who is not but we need to be protected against things like this and if more people know what to look for hopefully they will go away. If someone is reading this from Italy mag and other Italy magazines I would suggest they look closely at who advertisers as now I am looking into this problem I am finding it on every corner. Ram do you work in Abruzzo ?
Thankyou for your comments so far, today I have spoken to the solicitor I spoke about and have found out a lot of information regarding Estate agents in Italy not just Abruzzo, this problem is a widespread one and has opened my eyes to what is right and wrong, I suppose the answer is simple ask if they are estate agents and ask for their registration details, apparently most of the property finder businesses are not even registered as businesses which I find a little strange and worrying, I have been told that they should advertise their IVA numbers (like our VAT) and registration numbers even on their websites. I suppose I just need to be a little more careful, I am scouring the web trying to find out more information and hope to return to Abruzzo soon, but this time more prepared. I am really sad about the house we found as we both really liked it but I suppose there will be more. I will try and find the other forums thanks for the tip.
Comments posted
I am back to trawling the net searching for the right ones but this time checking out every company, the sad thing is there are less legal ones than the illegal ones !!!!! At least I feel safer now, I must say after looking at some of the sites that are not agents they tend to always harp on about how you can get ripped off when in actual fact it is them doing the ripping, you do not need to check for licence numbers just check out the sites that say how bad the others are and how hard buying in Italy is and you can bet they are bad ones. I do enjoy the searching though although my wife is tired of me shouting her to come to the computer and look at another one !!!!
Thanks again for the advice and welcomes ! I have actually approached the 4th agent again and they have given me a list of people who have bought with them and who live in Abruzzo, this has really helped as I have made contact with a couple of people already and getting good advice. It really has all been a mad situation but now we are back on track, the agent we are dealing with is also putting a piece on their website about the problems of buying so hopefully others will follow suit and it will be safer for people like us. A story that did make me laugh is that one of the so called agents who does this type of illegal work actually used to work for the inland revenue in the UK !!!!!!!!!! I am so looking forward to buying in Abruzzo and changing our lives, I guess I should get used to having a bit of stress as we have a lot to do. Thanks for the advice regarding FIAPP however I understand not all agents register with them, is there a site where you can check everyone ??
It is good to hear that what you are saying is pretty much what the solicitor and the 4th agent said, I now feel a little guilty I asked them not to contact me for a while as I can see why they would be upset, to be fair they were very good and said pretty much what you have said so at least there appears to be good amongst the bad. The problem I feel is that many people can be put off including my wife because we are not talking small amounts of money, we have worked and are working very hard to make this happen and I guess it could be easy to run into serious problems and risk some of that money, another problem for me is that the websites of these people are all over and are very convincing, not only this I have found many of them advertising on some of the sites linked to this website including the one I have had a problem with !! I know they are not to know who is legal and who is not but we need to be protected against things like this and if more people know what to look for hopefully they will go away. If someone is reading this from Italy mag and other Italy magazines I would suggest they look closely at who advertisers as now I am looking into this problem I am finding it on every corner. Ram do you work in Abruzzo ?
Thankyou for your comments so far, today I have spoken to the solicitor I spoke about and have found out a lot of information regarding Estate agents in Italy not just Abruzzo, this problem is a widespread one and has opened my eyes to what is right and wrong, I suppose the answer is simple ask if they are estate agents and ask for their registration details, apparently most of the property finder businesses are not even registered as businesses which I find a little strange and worrying, I have been told that they should advertise their IVA numbers (like our VAT) and registration numbers even on their websites. I suppose I just need to be a little more careful, I am scouring the web trying to find out more information and hope to return to Abruzzo soon, but this time more prepared. I am really sad about the house we found as we both really liked it but I suppose there will be more. I will try and find the other forums thanks for the tip.