Palmy

I am hoping to complete on my house purchase in Abruzzo by the end of this month and due to the Covid issues have arranged for a POA to be set up from the paperwork signing with the Notary. However I obviously then need to pay the balance of the purchase price and have funds already in my Italian bank account in readiness. I also have mobile app and online banking for the account so all good so far but of course a large sum cannot be set up from there so I need to work with the bank to arrange for either a bankers draft or a Bacs payment to be made to the Notary. when required.

I have emailed the bank twice over the past two weeks both in Italian and English to ensure how best to arrange this and have not as yet heard back from them (BPER bank). So I wondered if anyone else has organised their house completion from the UK previously and what the process generally is with an Italian bank and what difficulties I might come up against.

Any thoughts or experiences appreciated - many thanks!

Jake.White

I paid for my house with a bankers draft but that was many years ago. Why can't it be done by electronic transfer..?? We do after all live in the 21st century.

My experience with Italian banks is long and dismal. My account was with Unicredit. They don't answer communications of any kind and once, when I rang up to speak to a contact at the London branch they told me that she had relocated and the branch was closing. As far as I'm aware, the London branch is still there 15 years later and so I suspect, is the contact who simply couldn't be bothered to speak to me. If you have a non resident account they will charge you merrily for every little transaction and also charge you for the running of the account - mine cost 15 euros a month to run and I got so sick of it I eventually just closed the damned thing (and was charged for that too). Maybe it'll be different if you have a resident account... I hear the post office gives a slightly better service than the banks but that's second hand information which came from an Italian friend and I can't verify it. If you need your account just for paying bills as I did, you could try other options. ENEL or Servizio Elletrico Nazionale as they call themselves now accept payment by Paypal for example....

modicasa

You wont be able to do anything without going into the branch and signing the necessary forms. So your choices are limited, but if you are depositing the sum with the notary to be paid to the seller after transcription, then the only way is to really send various smaller bonifici from your unicredit account until you reach the sum needed.

C.2s

Is there some way that you could transfer the money to the bank account of the person who is acting with POA? Presumably you trust this person, given that they are completing the house purchase for you.

Palmy

I have now heard back from the bank and as Modicasa states I would have needed to have signed paperwork in the bank before leaving Italy to now ask them to do anything on my behalf.

However they confirmed that if I use Online banking with my mobile generating security codes I can send bacs of any amount to a payee! Certainly not the same as the UK where we have limits but if that’s correct I would be able to make the required payment either with one or as suggested with 2/3 smaller payments.

I may still try to drive over to attend the final signing but at least I now know I should be able to do what’s necessary! Covid is certainly testing our resolve and ingenuity I reckon......

Plan B

Assuming you trust your notary, as C.2s asks, then you should have no problem in transferring money if our own experience is anything to go by. We informed our UK bank that we would be sending a significant sum for a house purchase overseas: we arranged a good exchange rate (close to the wholesale market rate) with a reputable foreign exchange provider for the necessary amount: transferred the amount from our UK bank to the f.x. provider (immediate, no charge): the f.x. provider then transferred the amount (same day, no charge) to the recipient's bank account in Italy. All done from home in one day.

Not_So_Simple

Dont use the bank to send a large amount. It is slow, exchange rate is crap and the fees are high.

Use a service like Transfer Wise

I transferred 200k euros last week for £500 fee at 1.17 euro to the gbp.

Listen Very Carefully

Just transfer it to the notaios account that is what we did