jd_durkin

Hi everyone,

My Wife, myself and Dog will be relocating in June from Copenhagen to Milan due to work committments - oil industry. We are no strangers to moving house as we have lived in Germany, Norway, Dubai and Denmark all in the space of 7 years. I am Scottish and my Wife is German.

I've read on other expat sites that info regarding rental houses is sparse at best when leafing through realty sites.

Do any of you know of any good property sites that we may find useful? We'll be living just south of Milan - within 30Km or so.

Also, we were thinking of buying a car in Germany before relocating, but I've read that we may be liable for extra tax?

One last thing - internet connectivity; is it on a par with the UK or is it back to the stone age? We rely heavily on it due to work.

Any other useful hints and gems of wisdom will be duly appreciated!

John, Angela and Doggie.

MarkRD

Hi John . The only thing I can help you with is the internet question - things run fairly well here although it'll depend on your provider. No worse than UK.
Personally I'd avoid Alice/Telecom Italia.
Vodafone do some good deals combining home / mobile numbers and internet connection, as do Fastweb (TV also included).
I've got Infostrada/Libero although I wouldn't really recommend it.
A lot will depend on whether the house/flat you get already has a contract with someone.

I'm not sure about the car thing. Many years ago I was 'obliged' by law to convert my UK driving licence to an Italian one but I don't think that's the case anymore.

Midsomer_Peter

Regarding the internet, it depends whether tha area of the house you rent is served by ADSL - it's easy to find out by typing the telephone number ito a ADSL provider's website.
Otherwise you'll be limited to ISDN or phone line.

Regarding car:
You can't buy one in Italy because you would need to be resident.
So it would be a good idea to bring a new one from Germany as long as:
1) you have an address in Germany to tax and insure it
2) the insurance will let you have it outside Germany for extended periods (for example in UK, most policies cover you for 30 days max outside UK, you need to check the wording on German policies).
3) you check there isn't another good reason that I'm not aware of

If you keep it on German plates, there would be no extra tax to pay (technically I think you would have to pay the tax after 6 months, because that would count as exporting it from Germany to Italy - but if that worries you, you can always nip back to Germany once every 6 months.

If you want to buy it in Germany, then put it on Italian plates, then you would need to be resident in Italy - and it sounds like you won't be here that long.... but if you did, then yes you would have to pay the difference in tax, plus a registration fee, plus a fee to someone to do it for you, unless you want to battle with Italian red tape.
As well as you italian insurance you have to pay a bollo (tax), and you would potentially waste the money you spent on German road tax and insurance to drive it from the dealer in Germany.

I had a colleague who bought a car in Germany where he was working and brought it back to Italy, but he kept it for a period of time in Germany so he didn't have to pay the extra tax, plus he was Italian, so he could register it in Italy.

Sorry, that's not much help...