On the way to the properties, always look or ask about shops, garages and other amenities in the local village.
Look at the condition of the road leading to the property and ask who the owner is. Some of the roads to properties can be owned by the property, which means that you could be responsible for the upkeep. If the road is in a bad state of repair then investigate how much this may cost to put right (we read on the net that its about ?10000 per 100 Meters, how true this is we don't know).
Is there electricity, gas, water and telephone connections close by. Some of these facilities are difficult to get connected, especially the phone line and if you are in a rural area, there is a good possibility that you will have to have bottled gas or have a large tank installed underground (it is possible to get the large tank installed for free, subject to a contract with a supplier). Mains water is connected to most properties or maybe a well on the land (remember that its not a good idea to drink the water either from the mains or wells, so the water will be mainly for washing etc). You are not allowed to use mains water for watering plants or gardens so it's a good idea to have water butts fitted to the down pipes on your guttering. Swimming pools also have restrictions so make sure you investigate this before you install one or if one is already installed it may have to have a fence around it or if it is a large pool you may even have to be in attendance while anyone is using it. Internet connection can be via dial-up on your phone line or if you are in a larger town its possible to get broadband, other than this you would either have to connect through mobile or get a satellite system installed.
Are there farms or factories in the vicinity of the property as these may cause hassle or grief at a later stage.
If you are buying land with your property then be aware that hunters are aloud to hunt on any land except if it is fenced off, which can be costly especially if it's a large area. Taxes on land are also very high at 18%, where as 3% is charged on houses if you relocate and its not a second home, otherwise its 12%. There is one thing we should mention is that currently you pay taxes on the price listed on the land registry and not on the price you pay for the property or land. A compromise is agreed with either the land registry or local comune if the house price on the deeds and the amount you purchase the house or land for is massive, so don't pay tax on the full amount of the purchase price. (THIS IS GOING TO CHANGE).
There is a law in Italy that allows your neighbours to purchase your land and house up to one or two year(s) later if the property is not offered to them at the time you purchase the property (at the price you purchased, so if you spend money on the land or house you could loose this). So make sure your estate agent or solicitor has offered the property to your neighbours and that they have signed a waiver so you don't loose your house or land.
There are other costs to look out for such as notary, agents fees, mortgage fees, solicitor or lawyer, translation, surveys, money transfers. This is the spreadsheet that I put together during our search so that you can estimate how much you will have to pay for all the above fees so you at least have some idea of your outlay for the purchase, but please check all costs with your lawyer, solicitor or estate agent (created and estimated in 2006).
( SPREADSHEET LINK )
Make sure you search the Internet for current prices by using our Links page and also look for others that may have started-up that we haven't found (if you do find and good links then e-mail them to me and I will post them here for other people).
When you get to the property make sure you take pictures as its easy to forget what properties you have looked at because you are normally looking at the stunning views. Ask if any sheds or outbuildings are included in the sale and where any land boundaries are. If the property was built before 1967 then make sure that any extensions or outbuildings are on the plans as you may have to knock these down if planning permission was not sort before erecting them, plus if the property is pre 1967, there is a possibility that any additions to the house or outbuildings could be included as part of the footprint for the house, which means you could have the possibility to extend the property without to much hassle from the local commune when submitting plans. And above all be prepared to compromise on your ideal property as we found that every property that we looked at was completely different in one way or another. One other thing we noticed while viewing properties was that Marche is made up of hundreds of hills so whatever property you see normally has a beautiful view, so don't just look at the view and purchase it on this alone.
If you intend to buy a property that needs to be demolished then you should take into consideration that all new builds have to be earthquake proof and can be costly.
If you need to open a bank account you will probably need your Codice Fiscale (equivalent to our national insurance number in the UK), you can apply for this in the UK from the Italian Embassy in London and find information on there website ( www.conslondra.esteri.it - click on English - service to Italian nationals - welfare - other information).
(The Italian Consulate General (38 Eaton Place, London SW1X 8AN), with full details (surname, name, place and date of birth, address in the UK and address in Italy), and a copy of the passport where such details, as well as the signature, are shown, plus don't forget to include a SAE.)
You can also apply in larger towns in Italy using UK address or if you have a property or holiday home then use that address, watch what address you use as your Codice Fiscale is made up in part of the address given.
If you decide to purchase a property we would recommend that you have a survey done as there are quite often things that you may not notice during visits to the property. If you have someone draw-up plans for you, then think very carefully about what you wish to change or remodel as this could be costly and frustrating waiting for the outcome from your local comune (council) who all have there own way of doing things and different views on what a property should look like when finished. One small thing about the plans, is that once submitted you cannot start any work on the outside of the property until the plans have been passed, with the exception of groundwork, but you should ask you architect or lawyer about this. Once the plans are passed you will have to pay tax on the estimate of the total building project and this can be quite a large sum depending on what work you are doing and who is carrying out the work for you.
For anyone that is going to carry out building work or D.I.Y on their own house in Italy should be very careful when doing this work as I have found out that all water, electrics and just building materials in general are completely different to the UK but seem to be obsessed with channeling out all the walls and floors to hide the pipes, this can be a pain depending on what type of concrete or brick you have to channel out and if this is not done and you wish to run pipes etc above the surface then you will get major headaches when you come to the point of connections to taps & sockets etc. A word on bricks, most of the bricks produced in Italy have holes of some description through them, basically for inserting steel rods through them for added strength. I also found some problems with picking up some items like the plastic edging when tiling and the door separators which are commonplace in the UK but in Italy they have to be ordered and this can take up to 4 weeks!
A word on health cover. If you start work over here and are classed as resident then you should get the health service that is given to all Italians, if however you do not intend to work for a company in Italy and are about to become self employed then you could run into some problems as we did. We stopped working in the UK around 18 months before we moved here and we found out after being asked by our local council to supply a E120 card from the UK health service before they would let us become resident in Italy, but after talking with the health services in the UK we found out that the E120 only lasts for around 18 months in total so we have now taken out private healthcare to enable us to become residents in Italy. This is only what happened to us and there are so many variations to the health cover that the UK health service will give you so please check this out before moving here!
More to follow:-
Introduction
