{"id":2430,"date":"2020-06-07T13:16:44","date_gmt":"2020-06-07T13:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/?p=2430"},"modified":"2020-06-07T13:23:28","modified_gmt":"2020-06-07T13:23:28","slug":"buying-a-house-in-italy-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/buying-a-house-in-italy-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Buying a House in Italy \u2013 Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

We file into the office to sign the Compromesso . There is \u2018Uncle\u2019 Francesca at the top of the table, and there are three middle aged cousins, Chiara and Paulo who are sister and brother and Marco who looks like he had a late night out on the town and just stopped by on his way home. <\/span><\/p>\n

Also in the room there are the estate agents, the geometra, Lizzy the notary at the top of the table, and on our side of the table Laura, Ronan, me and our friend Lucia who is there to be our interpreter.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So we are all ready. Lizzy begins to read the 20 page document. She gets half way through the first sentence and \u2018Uncle\u2019 Francesca pipes up with a protest. I catch Paulo looking at the ceiling and muttering \u2018Mama Mia\u2019. Lizzy\u2019s lips are getting tighter, Uncle Francesca has a bunch of papers in her hand from her ever growing large file, she\u2019s quite irate, Lizzy waits till Francesca burns out everything that she has to say and then calmly says something back. But it sets Francesca off ranting again. Marco\u2019s phone is ringing, he takes the call.<\/span><\/p>\n

All of a sudden Lucia, who is supposed to be here just to translate, is shouting at ‘Uncle’ Francesca. The estate agent is nodding in agreement. <\/span><\/p>\n

I whisper loudly, \u201cLucia what the frock is going on?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s crazy, she thinks she knows better than the notary about getting the court document changed. No one knows more than the notary. That is why she studied for years, you don\u2019t argue with the notary, it is like arguing with a judge you just do what they tell you to do. And that is what I told her.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The notary continues to read, Marco continues his call. If Francesca is going to object to every sentence I can\u2019t imagine how long this will take.<\/span><\/p>\n

Twelve pages in and we have had no further interruptions just a few fact checks back and forth between the geometer and the notary. It was all going well until the part we came to about the buildings that need to be destroyed. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a heated discussion, everyone except our side of the table is ranting. Sure I might as well join in. \u201cScusi\u201d I shout, the room quietens, \u201cMomento\u201d, I\u2019m quickly running out of all the Italian words I know.\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cI need to know what is being said, so can you kindly wait until Lucia has time to translate for me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey must agree to destroy the buildings before you can buy it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhich buildings need to go?\u201d I know the one at the end of the garden has to go but which of the two others, the garage or the side building? I point to the plans where both are called \u2018Fondo\u2019. \u201cIt is not these, these are okay they have the permissions. It is the attachment to the back.\u201d She\u2019s talking about the small ugly perspex porch at the back door.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat?! \u2026 That\u2019s brutto,(ugly) I\u2019d have that down by myself in an hour, we were getting rid of it anyway. We\u2019ll take care of it. We\u2019ll look after the destroying.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The notary and geometer are looking at me a bit bewildered. \u201cSi?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Ronan\u2019s birthday next week, I\u2019ll buy him a sledge hammer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lucia translates. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s a lot of work.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are good at destroying things. If it speeds things up here, we\u2019ll take the responsibility.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOkay then, if you are sure,\u201d Lizzy scribbles notes in the margin. <\/span><\/p>\n

By the time she is finished going through the document two hours have passed. Just as she is finished I say, \u201cCan we note that it is sold as furnished?\u201d I have done my research, I know that if you don\u2019t state furnished in Italy then they can remove everything that is not screwed to the wall such as kitchens, light fittings, bulbs, sometimes bathroom suites and it\u2019s important you note everything you want included in the sale. I\u2019m thinking of the wrought iron bed, the marble table and the sofas I now want to upholster. There are also some nice light fittings.<\/span><\/p>\n

The notary asks the three cousins, they are saying \u2018si, si’ and shoulder shrugging, but I notice \u2018Uncle\u2019 Francesca looking flustered out the corner of my eye. \u201cOkay?\u201d asks the notary directly to Uncle. \u2018Si\u2019 she says, her hands lift off the table a little. <\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re now going to take a break, while the notary\u2019s secretary makes the amendments to the deed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Uncle is up on her feet, she takes her phone and explains she needs to go to the pharmacy. She\u2019s gone out the door before we notice she has left her purse behind. Chiara runs after her with it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Uncle Francesca is back quickly, the notary is still busy preparing the final document and Mario, Ronan and the geometer have gone outside for a cigarette. <\/span><\/p>\n

Uncle sits and shuffles through her papers. Marco is looking at her, waiting for her to make eye contact, it\u2019s not working so he says something to her. Silence falls in the room, I don\u2019t know what he said but the atmosphere has shifted.\u00a0 <\/span>Within seconds their voices are raised at each other. I don\u2019t know where to look, embarrassed for them having a full blown row here in front of strangers. <\/span><\/p>\n

Paulo is on his laptop and his sister is scrolling through Facebook. She laughs and then shows Paulo a short video of a cat falling off a shelf, I know because she pushes it across the table to show me too, leaning under and avoiding Marco\u2019s pointed finger at Francesca, \u201cI have a cat like this!\u201d she says loudly in Italian so that I can hear her above the shouting. Neither of them seem at all bothered that their cousin is shouting at their 78-year-old aunt and that she is alone in her fight back. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is happening?\u201d I ask Laura. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe cat missed the shelf.\u201d she says laughing at the video.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI mean with this.\u201d I nod towards the war going on in the room that only I seem to be noticing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAh, okay, they are arguing about a previous inheritance. He believes Uncle Francesca took more than she should have. It was in 1978 and their families have been arguing about this since then.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I want to break into the theme tune of Frozen \u2018Let it go\u2019. <\/span><\/p>\n

Chiara and Paulo are complaining of being starving. This quietens Marco and Uncle Francesca. If it is one thing Italians can mutually agree on is food, nothing interferes with their three hour lunch breaks. They are all agreeing that they are starving.<\/span><\/p>\n

At last we get to sign the document and everyone leaves.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two days later we stop by the house, I want to measure the shutters. Ronan tries the back door and it\u2019s open, so we go in and walk around. Something doesn\u2019t feel right, something has changed and I can\u2019t put my finger on it. The house looks sadder, more derelict and I don\u2019t know what it is. I notice a broken tile on the ground in the doorway of the kitchen and then I figure it out. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWas there a door here before?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re both standing staring at an empty doorway, wondering if there was a door there before. We walk through to the next room the door is off it\u2019s hinges and lying against the wall. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s odd\u2026 I think I would have remembered noticing that before.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Ronan goes down the hallway. \u201cThere\u2019s no door here either\u2026 There were doors, weren\u2019t there?\u201d We\u2019re both doubting ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I remember that I took a walk through video on my phone, the last time we were here. I\u2019m scrolling and eventually find it. I\u2019m looking and looking and yes there it is, a door. There were definitely doors here and now they are gone!<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m already running up the stairs. Three empty doorways, not just the doors gone but the frames also. And two more doors lie waiting against the wall waiting to be collected. The lock on the apartment has been busted open. We go to the next level, more doors and frames gone, plaster splattered on the floor from the walls where the frames have been prised from. All together there are nine doors gone and three more lined up to be taken. <\/span><\/p>\n

Then I notice, the marble table and chairs and the wrought iron bed are also gone. \u201cWhat the frock? No!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m raging. I use Google translate and leave a scrawled note for Uncle Francesca. \u2018Francesca, Return the doors and furniture or the deal is off.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Come back next Monday for more \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

If you missed Part 3 of Buying a House In Italy Click here to read it<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Signing the Compromesso is the next step which we do with the notary and owners present. There is \u2018Uncle\u2019 Francesca at the top of the table, and there are three middle aged cousins, Chiara and Paulo who I figure out are sister and brother. He speaks a bit of English, the other guy, Marco looks like he had a late night out on the town and just stopped by on his way home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-house-in-italy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2430"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2435,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2430\/revisions\/2435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosiemeleady.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}