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Is opening non resident bank account necessary?

Is opening non resident bank account necessary?

Old Jan 28th 2017, 3:59 am
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Default Is opening non resident bank account necessary?

Hi,

I have read through quite a few threads and seem to be coming up with conflicting answers. My situation is that I am buying a house (near Lucca), I am British but live and work in Asia. I have been told that I need to open an Italian bank account before the house purchase can go through - is this correct? Or can I transfer the money directly from the UK, via a currency exchange company? Some threads on here say that you need an Italian bank account, others say not necessary but will need one eventually to pay for bills etc. We will not be resident in Italy for a couple of years yet.

The issue that we have is that we will not be able to travel to Italy until a few days before the sale goes through. So if we need an Italian bank account (non-resident) we would preferably need to open it from abroad (the alternative would be having to open it a few days before the sale). Has anyone experience of this and which bank did you go with? Does it have to be local to where you are buying? I have also read that different banks have different rates - is it possible to set up with any old bank (that has links in Italy, although may not be the best rates) purely for the sale to go through, and then when we have time after the sale to open up an account (more local to the house) with better rates for the bills.

Lots of questions! Look forward to hearing your responses. Many thanks in advance.
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Old Jan 28th 2017, 5:14 am
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Default Re: Is opening non resident bank account necessary?

You must open an account in person according to thea anti money laundering laws. Whether you can complete the purchase using a bank transfer: certainly if you pay the transfer before the date of the atto, or afterwards if the vendor is agreeable. Or if you have a good bank manager you can authorise the transfer at the moment of the sale and have an email of confirmation. However the notary will need all the TRN and CROs to insert into the atto, so you need to check with the notary what is acceptable. Ultimately the notary will decide, and the vendor. You need to play along. What does your agent say?
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Old Jan 28th 2017, 8:05 am
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Default Re: Is opening non resident bank account necessary?

Obviously the alternative with the vendor accepting payment by bank/fx transfer at or after the sale would be best or you could risk an advance transfer, I would not do so personnaly. Else I would look into using a bankers draft to see if; the vendor is happy to accept such in Euro and you can get one whilst in Asia. If it can be done, then ask if it can be made out against an Italian bank (we did this with Lloyds). If it is possible then you have the money (cheque/draft) in your hand when you arrive in Italy. Note it took an awful lot longer to get the draft than we expected, so if you go that way get an idea from them how long it will be. Best of luck!
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Old Jan 29th 2017, 4:54 pm
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Default Re: Is opening non resident bank account necessary?

Hi. When we recently completed our notary insisted throughout the processes that we had to have an Italian bank account, however due to coming over to Italy 3 times just to try and open an account, this was not possible, so we advised our notary and he was then happy for us to pay by international bank transfer, but needed to have proof via pdf that the payment was organised for the completion date. When the bank finally agreed that they were not too busy to see us to open a non resident account it took only 1 hour.
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Old Jan 30th 2017, 12:32 am
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Default Re: Is opening non resident bank account necessary?

Thank you for all your replies. It seems that it is up to the Notary. Will need to have a bit more of a chat with the agent.
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Old Jan 30th 2017, 8:26 am
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Default Re: Is opening non resident bank account necessary?

Modicasa can probably confirm this, but we read or heard you as a buyer can pick your own notaio? In any case that is exactly what we did, but on reflection it probably was down to the seller not objecting to the one we picked. Our choice was more down to the fact ours was recommended by several people, he replied to our initial email (only one that did) and he spoke really good English. We missed the detail that he would require evidence of both the deposit and final transaction (transaction reference number as Modicasa points out), one for people to bear in mind when buying. Personally if we were buying or selling again here in Italy we would want to have this sorted and agreed for the compromesso.
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Old Jan 30th 2017, 9:00 am
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Default Re: Is opening non resident bank account necessary?

The buyer chooses the notary and noone can object.
The traceability of money requires cheque numbers, banks, bank transfer details etc etc - so the notary will need everything to write it into the act of sale - and thats why some notaios dont like the bonifico idea as it means there is a delay between atto and sale - it's just not neat and tidy - but its legally possible. As I said, it will up to your notaio ultimately as to the path to take.
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Old Jan 30th 2017, 2:44 pm
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Default Re: Is opening non resident bank account necessary?

What does the notaio actually do. I know in the UK you normally have a solicitor, surveyor and the estate agent, and the bank transfers money, where does the notaio come in here ?


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Old Jan 30th 2017, 3:05 pm
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Default Re: Is opening non resident bank account necessary?

The notary is a public official whose job it is to transfer property (amongst other things) ensuring that all the necessary steps have been taken - which is a safeguard for the buyer. He stipulates the act of sale, which becomes the title deed once the act has been registered and transcribed.
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Old Jan 31st 2017, 10:57 am
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Default Re: Is opening non resident bank account necessary?

We opened a non resident bank account as soon as we had the offer on the house accepted. We had to transfer the deposit to the lady we bought the house off from our UK account via a foreign exchange company as we weren't able to start internet banking until we had an Italian phone number! We have a great estate agent so all this was fairly straightforward. The bank are also arranging payment of our IMU from our account and we're slowly finding our way round our online account and what everything means.
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