Site meeting

ESSENTIAL BUILDERS' SUPPLIES (Italian style - don't let the water bottles fool you; they may not all be water and there's a huge jug of vino cotto behind them)

Today was supposed to be the day we finally take ownership of the house but we have had a message that the notary has to go to a funeral so instead of being in Comunanza this afternoon, it will be at the notary’s main office down on the coast at San Benedetto del Tronto tomorrow morning (Good Friday) and we have to meet outside our lawyer, Luca’s office at 8:15AM (which is 7:15 according to our bodies) so means another early start for the kids. On the bright side, this is the only day we have a translator available as she is going to Rome with her family and it means we can talk to some suppliers more easily.

When we wake up we look out to see everything is covered with snow and, as we set off for the house it starts snowing again and getting heavier till we can hardly see. When we get down to the level of our house in the valley (about 200m compared to 600 at La Conca) it’s still heavy but is not settling. We arrive a bit late (no snow tyres on the car) to find the man from the gas company is waiting to sign us up. They have found a good site for the tank behind an outbuilding and it will be buried so should not be visible although, unfortunately, Italian regulations mean that it still has to have a high fence all around it and, apparently, you aren’t even allowed to grow creepers up it to disguise the thing. (We tend to think of southern Europeans as being very lax on safety and it’s certainly true if you look at the way they drive. However on things like this they are the opposite. My neighbour’s gas tank at home sits completely unprotected by anything except a hedge. Perhaps they are more dangerous because of the heat – I was told the European regs. on LPG tanks in cars are due to the temperatures in Italy.)

The main thing about the house is that we have now confirmed that most of the internal walls are not structural and so we can reorganise the layout which we originally thought was constrained by the location of the original walls (even though most of them need replacing.) So, especially on the top floor, we have almost a blank canvas and need to start again - quickly. Because of this, we can’t decide with the plumber and electrician where everything will go and so will have to meet them again on Tuesday.

We still have quite a few decisions to make. (Like do we want to line up the two French windows at opposite ends of the house exactly, which means losing another window. Or do we live with them not being quite aligned. We opt for the latter.) Then it’s time for the obligatory, and warming, glass of Mariano’s vino cotto. (See the picture at the top of today's blog) We could have had mistrà instead which is, I think, a spirit made from distilling vino cotto and is absolute firewater. Gianluigi tells us that he was hospitalised as a baby when his nonna mistook a bottle of mistrà for water and made up his formula with it!

We then go off to look at windows and agree details like whether and where we will have shutters (we opt for traditional ones inside the windows) and how they will open (some will just tilt, most will tilt and also open normally).

In the evening we have a very enjoyable dinner with friends at the Hotel Paradiso which is at the top of the old town in Amandola. So we don’t get home till gone 11 with that early start tomorrow and the very steep drive from La Conca looking like it will ice up.

To Rome and on to the Marche

Although Ryanair’s cancellation of the Liverpool to Ancona route is a real nuisance more than doubling the driving time after landing in Italy, it does have its compensations. The first of these is the view of Rome as you come into Ciampino – remember to get a window seat on the right hand side and you get to see all the sights (Colliseum, Vatican, Circus Maximus, sinuously winding Tiber and, Dominic is always keen to spot, the Stadio Olimpico). Landing at Rome we were very pleasantly surprised to find it was sunny and 18°.

Apart from the extra distance, the drive isn’t bad either as you pass through the Apennines with spectacular viaducts and long tunnels. The motorway route past L’Aquila all the way to the Adriatic is simply stunning with amazing views and a tunnel that cuts through more than 10 kilometres below the Corno Grande (and has, on the westbound carriageway, an entrance into the National Institue of Nuclear Physics buried deep beneath the mountain) the highest peak in the entire range. This time, however, I decided to take the SS4, the Roman Via Salaria, which skirts Rieti and follows he valley of the Tronto towards Ascoli Piceno. The journey is much shorter, almost toll-free and, even with the odd slow wagon, usually a bit quicker than Mussolini’s Autostrada. It also gives you the chance to stop at a proper restaurant for lunch instead of an Autogrill service area. We kept going till we saw one which, judging from the number of cars outside was OK but not full. It was called La Valle and was at Km128 just before Amatricia so we had, of course, spaghetti amatriciana. It was wonderfully rich with a hint of spice which built up the more you eat, leaving you with as tingling mouth at the end. This was followed by perfectly fine meat alla bracia and accompanied by a half litre of house red which was better than usual – we only had a glass each with being tired and me driving.

We had been told that Mariano,the builder, had some questions and would like us to come to the house. We were already scheduled to meet there with Gianluigi, the geometra, at 10 the next morning and, as it turned out they were little things (like whether to reuse certain old tiles for the window sills) which could easily have waited but it’s no bad thing to be accommodating to your builder. I made the mistake of trying to take the short cut via the ford across the river (which had been passable on my visit earlier in the winter) but the river was now in spate following the recent snows and subsequent thaw and there was no way I was going to drive through that torrent.

It was the first time Chris had seen the place since work started and, after a spectacular rate of work in the first few weeks up to my initial visit, progress seemed to have been disappointingly slow. When we looked closer, it was obvious that a lot had been done but, in contrast to the earlier part of the job, much of it was painstaking (cleaning out the mortar on the walls ready for re-pointing) or not very visible (ducting for utilities).

We had passed La Conca at Ceresola, where we would be staying and now returned. The owner, Mirella gave us the warmest of welcomes, including a wonderful home made apple tart made from their own apples. La Conca is an organic apple farm with some 2000 trees. The apartment in a cantina below the main house with beautiful, vaulted ceilings, was basic but perfectly adequate apart from the heating which was really far too low.

TV Show on buying in Le Marche

I've just found out that there was a programme about buying a house in the Marche on BBC this morning. I've missed it but am downloading from BBC iPlayer and will post a report once I've seen it. Apparently the basic idea of the show is to take daytime TV "experts" and get them to invest their own money in antiques, property, art or whatever they purport to know about. In this case it's a property expert who wants a property hotspot outside the UK with good potential for making gains and he has identified the Marche as the best place to do that. I'll write more when I know more.

Update: I've watched the film. A bit cheesy but says lots of good things about the area (not sure exactly where he has bought but it isn't far from us. I'll try to grab a couple of clips to post.

Meanwhile it's back to preparing for our trip to Italy on Wednesday. Really looking forward to seeing how the house is doing - but a bit nervous as well.

More money stuff

Luca is back from holiday and Domenico has resurfaced full of apologies. Apparently, I have to pay all the building costs by transfer from my Italian bank account (so the bank can tell the tax office). Now I just need to check with Gianluigi exactly how much I need to pay.

Parting with the money

I've just sent the final part of the purchase price of the house over to Luca, my Italian lawyer and next Thursday we shall sign the final contract and take ownership of the house. barring any further hiccups of course!

I should also have sent the money for the interim payment to Gianlugi, the geometra, and Mariano the builder but I am still waiting for Domenico the commercialista (sort of accountant / tax adviser) to tell me how to do it so as to avoid paying more tax than I need to. I've been chasing him and Luca for weeks (but I think Luca is on holiday).

Some good news though: another Barclays call centre guy has phoned to say the mortgage has been approved after all and there's be a letter in the post.

Banks

I got a phone call yesterday that nearly gave me a heart attack. On Monday the surveyor came round to value our house in England as we are using that as security to borrow the money for doing up I Noci. When he left he told me that there would be no problem. [The house is worth several times what we need to borrow.)

Then out of the blue I get a phone call from a guy with a very thick Indian accent. "Mr Grant, you applied for a mortgage with the Woolwich but the surveyor's report says the property does not meet the Woolwich's lending criteria." That's it, no explanation, nothing. WTF????? When I manage to drag my thumping heart out of my boots, I say: "so what does that mean?". "Mr Grant, it means that the property does not meet the Woolwich's lending criteria." FFS! I know that but what does that mean? "So", I say, "does that mean you are not prepared to lend the money?" "That's right." So, big pause, I ask: "So why does it not meet the criteria?" Reply: "I'm sorry Mr Grant but you will have to speak to the surveyor" and gives me the company name and a phone number in Newcastle. Hang on, I've applied for a, not inconsiderable, mortgage with Barclays [who own the Woolwich] with whom I have been a customer for over 40 years. And I get some halfwit in a call centre in Chennai [or wherever] telling me I've been turned down and he can't tell me why or what I should do about it except to pass me on to the surveyor.

So I phone the surveyor and, guess what, the number is unobtainable. So I phone my Relationship Manager at Barclays who, guess what again, is not answering but I leave a message for him to call me urgently. Then I remember the surveyors wrote to me with the appointment details so I dig out the letter and find their number which is completely different and in Manchester. The office gives me the surveyor's mobile and as soon as I speak to him, I realise what the problem is. Their lending criteria include one that they don't lend on properties with more than 10 acres of land and we have got 20 acres of grazing land (worth bugger all of course). They mentioned this in their report but said that, in view of the fact that we already had a mortgage with them on this property there was no reason not to lend and they could go ahead - the valuation itself was fine. How dumb can these people be? Not only do they already lend on the property but they have the deeds which clearly show that actually there are three properties: the house and garden and two fields so as it's the house that is worth the money it isn't even over 10 acres anyway.

How stupid are these people and how bad is their customer service that, when they [incorrectly] turn down a very longstanding customer they do it with a phone call from somebody who knows absolutely nothing except what's in his script?

Then my relationship manager, Tim, calls back and gets a right earful. He apologises profusely and says he'll sort it out. I'd have been off to another bank ages ago except that it's just so hard to change banks and anyway my experience with NatWest (hopeless) and my wife's with the Abbey (forgot to stop the cheques when she reported her cheque book stolen and then bounced her direct debits and charged her for an unauthorised overdraft when they paid out on the cheques) tells me that they are all as bad.

In other news, we have found another pool company who looks pretty good - we are meeting them in a couple of weeks at the house. If you are going for the high end rental market a good pool is a necessity and, based on our experience in Spain, you really need some way of making / keeping it warm if it's to be usable before July (i.e. for clients with no kinds or very young ones.)

House hunting in Le Marche - what we learnt [Updated]

Some of this is pretty obvious stuff that we worked out in advance but some of it we learnt by experience. I hope it will help you if you are looking for a place to buy somewhere in Italy.

• Just because it's on the web, it doesn't mean it's for sale (or for sale through that agent). This is probably the biggest single thing we learnt. We trawled diligently through loads of websites, carefully selecting the properties that we thought would meet our needs. And in the end, I don't think we saw one of them. Why? Because as far as I can tell, loads of agents will have the same house (it's not clear whether they have a contract with the owner) and when one sells it (or it comes off the market) nobody tells the other agents. Some 9 months after we agreed to buy it, a quick Google search shows that our house is still on at least three websites. In our experience, all the websites are good for is to give you an idea of the sort of places the agent might have available.


• Choose an agent that will help you to find what you want. How do you know which these are? Well, I think the best thing to do is to tell them what you want and get them to send you details of properties that they have available for you to view. You will soon get a feel of whether they are listening or not (and whether they do have anything suitable). If any of them say they can't tell you in advance (maybe only a few days, but in advance nevertheless), don't waste your time - find somebody else.


• The quality of service provided by an agent is not proportional to the amount they spend on advertising.


• Negotiate on price and other things that matter to you. Make sure you know which things are vital to you and which you are prepared to give away in the negotiation.


• Don't buy a ruin if you want an old house. What you'll get is a pile of stones and a plot on which to build a new house from them. Which is absolutely fine, and probably a lot easier than a restoration, but you won't be buying a piece of history or somewhere with "soul". It's your choice; make it with your eyes open.


• Try and build a rapport with the seller. Chances are if you're buying a ruin or a restoration project that the owner will be local and can help (or hinder) you building successful relationships with the local authorities and community. Remember many of the Comuni where people are buying houses are really small (maybe 1000 people or less)and everybody knows everybody else. If you hack off your vendor, be sure the neighbours and everybody up to the mayor will know about it. In our case, our vendor has proved to be a real gent but that isn't always the case and if it looks like they are going to be a pain to deal with you need to ask yourself if it's worth the hassle (which of course it may be, but at least think about it.)


• Learn some Italian; it really will help relationships with your vendor and many other things and if you have any aptitude for languages it is definitely worth the effort - especially since very few people, even professional people, have more than a few words of English. Learning some Italian will give the practical benefit of not having to go through a translator for every little thing but will also help you build up the personal relationships and trust that are so important to doing business here.[Language will be the subject of a future post]


• Know what you can afford and what your budget is (not necessarily the same thing.) Think about how flexible you can be if something comes up that isn't exactly what you were looking for.


• Take your time. We got lucky (touch wood!) but we were definitely prepared to go home empty handed if we didn't find the right house. It's one of the biggest decisions (at least in financial terms) that most of us will make, so getting it right is more important than getting it done quickly.

There are lots more things but they relate to the subsequent stages and will be covered in later postings.