Property Italy

Before buying your property Italy and committing financially, it is essential you give some thought to the following key practical issues surrounding the property purchase:

• Who will look after the property in your absence?

• If you rent out the property, how will it be managed?

• If the property comes with land, how will it be maintained?

• Are there any ongoing disputes involving the property?

... And most importantly, make sure you have allowed for the resulting costs in your budget.

Property Italy: Who will look after the property in your absence?

Irrelevant of the kind of property you purchase, it will require some kind of maintenance at one time or another. It is, therefore a good idea to put a bit of forethought and some planning and research to save yourself a lot of nasty shocks later.

Obviously, some types of properties will require more upkeeping than others. For example, if you buy a house with a swimming pool which you will be renting out, then your property will need weekly if not even daily attention.

On the other hand, maintenance will be minimal for a relatively newly built property that you do not intend to rent out and can therefore close up when you are not using it. But even then, you will need someone to keep an eye on things.

Often you can ask your neighbours to do this on an informal basis. But at other times only a professionally managed arrangement will do. Certainly, if peace of mind is something you value, a paying arrangement with a management company or an experienced individual will probably should be considered instead.

Monitoring is one thing, of course, but you still have to find people to actually carry out tasks, such as keeping your land in good order or repairing the leak in the roof. It is worth thinking about this aspect of your property so you can avoid nasty surprises when you purchase the property at the end.

Property Italy: If you rent out the property, how will it be managed?

If you are planning on renting out your property, you need to figure out who will be managing your property, how much will the service cost and what they will do for the money.

Property Italy: If the property comes with land, how will it be maintained?

Whether your property comes with a small garden or a vast olive grove, one thing you can be sure of is that it will require constant attention in order not to get out of hand.

Often you will not have problems entering in an informal agreement with a neighbour Allowing them to exploit all or part of your crop in exchange for them looking after the plants you have there. If this kind of arrangement is not possible or you are not very keen on, then your option will be to ask your estate agent to recommend a company that offers a full management service.

Property Italy: Are there any ongoing disputes involving the property?

It is always a good idea to check the unofficial history of the property by talking to the local neighbours. Pay particular attention to disputes related to car parking rights and rights of way. If your Italian is not up to scratch for the job, find someone to take along who can do the translation.

Of course, get the official story from your estate agent but never underestimate the power of talking as much as possible to the locals.