Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

Hi folks i have been looking into the possibility
of buying a home in the Basilicata area and hope to glean
some experience from you all:o

The place i am currently smitten with has been reduced in price
and is a fixer upper however 90% of the work
i can do myself.

The house is split in 2 floors with the main living area on the upper floor
and 2 large rooms below my outline plan is to live semi perminatly
on the upper level and let the lower rooms as holiday lets
Maybe do a bit of BnB to offset costs.

The price i have been offered the place for is 15K euro
i need to know roughly how much more in tax's its likely to cost me
on top of that so i can see if my budget will allow the project
to run i would be buying outright no mortgage or loans.

Am i nutts or could i make this work your experiences and advice
would be most welcome as this would be my first foray
into living outside the uk and i don't want to muck it up:)

cheers shayne

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

Hello Shayne and welcome to the forum.

I can't really give you much advice on the legal side of things but I will say one thing :

whatever you have budgeted for planning permission, building materials, electrics and plumbing ...... triple it - and get a van and drive as much stuff over from the UK as possible.

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

:D pretty much a given that :rofl:

Still its seriously tempting and looks to be cheaper than doing the same thing
here in the UK like for like.

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

It's great that you can do 90% of the work yourself, good advice from Lorna, don't forget to bring lots of paint over in that van, non drip quality paints don't exist here.

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

:rofl: i'll keep that in mind

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

Hi Shayne,

Have sent you a PM.

Mrs Teapot.

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

Replyed:)

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

One pitfall I can think of is if the property is bought through an agent (or even a private sale) you must, must, MUST find an independent solicitor that has NO connection to the owner/agent. Too many horror stories have cropped up over the years with that problem. (All seemed lovely and friendly and rosy at the time but later down the line........)

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

Hi, I'm an Italian Lawyer based in London specialized in buying and selling property between Italy and Uk, procedure in Italy requires a Notary public to verify the history of the house you're interested and to do the exchange (buyng and selling agreement).

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

Hi Alessandro yes i have that the estate agent is offering to arrange
all the formality's the thing i find odd is they cannot put a fixed figure
on anything its all a bit vague.
its making setting a budget a right PATA:confused:

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

quite strange, the notary is your choice and must work in your best interest, it would be better to instruct a lawyer who has a relationship with Italy. the agent's fee is 3% of the property price

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

Ah i see sorry i was not as clear as i could have been.
well the agency is L & G based in Basilicata and the will do all the
paperwork on my behalf
the Notarys fee is quoted to me at 1500 euro (is this good or bad ?)

the bit thats vague is the stamp duty they tell me
for this property its (about) 3500 euro +- 500

so is it 3000 or 4000 i would think if they know the selling price
they could tell me a solid figure?

or do they expect me to haggle and then fix the tax on the final figure.

ETA buget will cover it but it would be nice to be able to go over there with an exact figure in my head
and not worry about variables eating in to the funds

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

The fees are:

• Agents fees - Usually 3% but negotiable. (Subject to IVA - VAT at 20%)
• Notary costs - Variable. What's €1500 for? The first promisery contract or the final contract of sale? Or both?
• "Stamp duty" - based on Land Registry value (called Catastral value - like old UK ratable values) of house and not price paid. NB. This value is usually considerably less than the actual price paid. It's paid at 3% if you intend to be resident in the property & 10% if non-resident.
• Land - If there is land associated with the property this is also subject to a tax on it's ACTUAL value. The actual value can be decided by the notary and usually they can be swayed to keep it low. This tax is 18% - which is why you need the declared contractual value kept as low as credible!!

All in all with my purchase the fees in total added up to 6% of what I paid. My notary fee was 1500 for first contract & 3000 for the contract of sale. 4.5k in total.

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

very handy thanks
ill query the notary fee as he dident say and i dident know there
were 2 charges :scaredhair:

Re: Buying a home in Basilicata. Pitfalls/costs?
 

Just to correct a few points:

Notaios fees are set by law and fall within bands. They are related to the price paid for the property. They will not include translation which you must have if you are not fluent in Italian. 1500 is the about the minimum possible, for a house under 70,000 euros.

Tax is paid on the catastal value of the property - 3% for a prima casa and 7% for a second house. The other taxes are at 168x2 euros for a first house and 2% +1% of the catastal value for a second house
On top of that you will have to pay for the registration of the act - about 250 euros.

I have never heard of a notaio charging 1500 for a preliminary contract - mine does them free, they are carte private and can be done either between the buyer and seller, at the notaio or by the agent. They should be registered at the Tax office which will cost you 168 euros, plus tax stamps and a percentage of the deposit - which comes off the tax payable at the time of act.

It is normal to be vague about the amount of tax payable - the finer details often do not appear until near the date of the act.

If you have a good legal registered agent there is no need for a lawyer. It is the agents job to sort out your sale - that is why they earn their commission. However make sure your agent is legal and that they are written into the act with the amount of their commission. It is an offence not to do so.

Most agents charge 3% but with a minimum charge usually of 1000 or 1500 euros, otherwise on a cheap house they would earn nothing - and the amount of work is the same for a 15000 house or a 150000 house.

You should have: certificato of plat - water/electricity or a declaration that there is none, and it will be down to you in the future to supply it, a certificate of energy saving - same applies, a new planimetria signed off by a geometra to the state of the property, otherwise the notaio cannot stipulate the sale - the vendors responsibility. The notaio should make sure there is no debt on the property. The agent should at your request make sure that all bills are paid by the vendor and help you with the trasnfer of utiltiies into your name.

If you dont speak Italian you will need a translator - independent, who will either translate the act, or you can give a procura to a third party to buy on your behalf in Italian, but you will need a witness who also speaks English and must be domiciled in Italy.