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I work in Puglia helping foreigners purchase homes here in Italy. For legal needs I always use a local ½ûÂþÌìÌà lawyer, Nick Metta, and all my clients have been very satisfied with his work. Nick is bilingual, he specializes in real estate and tax law and is based in Bari, but works all over Italy. I definitely recommend contacting him for any/all advice.

Nick's email: [email]nicola.m.metta@studiolegalemetta.it[/email]

Many thanks Adrienne, I hope it works out with this house if not I might contact you for help in Puglia.

Sparky

Where in Puglia are you buying, Sparky. We're doing the same

Paula Hampson

We are looking right in the tip of the heel around santa Maria di Leuca.

great beaches for the kids and fantastic food as you probably know !
Where are you looking ?

San Vito dei Normanni. We went accross in March, looked at about 8 villa's, put an offer in for one. We came home, had the offer accepted, waited for the checks to be carried out and signed the Proposta d'acquisto. We then sent the deposit and have a completion date of 27th June. Straight forward, no hastle, much easier than UK we thought.

I then logged on to this forum and started to read all the horror stories of dodge dealing, asking price rises, unlicenced brokers and thought yes we did do that rather easy.

When your message popped onto the forum my heart sank, our villa has a large basement/garage and after reading all the unpleasant stories on this forum suddenly thought - no it can't be. Thankfully no its not. I'll be able to sleep after all tonight.

Good luck with your project and I hope everything works out ok for you. Let us all know how your getting on.

Paula Hampson

[QUOTE=Sparky]Can anyone recommend a english speaking lawer that I can ask some advice from. I have found a great house that I want to buy in Puglia but I have just dicovered that the basement / garage was built illegally. I want to know if it is possible to make it legal before parting with any money.
Can anyone help please.

Sparky[/QUOTE]
Please do not buy this house unless you can sort the problem out beforehand as we have learnt that there is NO retrospective way of making it legal, unless someone out there knows differently. We know all about the condone but that was last Autumn and who knows when next one will be!

We are in the same situation as Sparky, thinking of buying directly from the builder, off plan in Puglia near Torre Suda, we really need an English speaking Lawyer, and some advice on how to proceed.

Marie

[QUOTE=Sparky]Can anyone recommend a english speaking lawer that I can ask some advice from. I have found a great house that I want to buy in Puglia but I have just dicovered that the basement / garage was built illegally. I want to know if it is possible to make it legal before parting with any money.
Can anyone help please.

Sparky[/QUOTE]

I'm afraid you better look for another house, since the last "condono" is over.
I remind you that a notary won't draft a contract related to an illegal house.
Of course I'm talking in general.
You should talk with a local geometra, or engineer or architect and try to understand how "illegal" the garage is.
It has been built with no permissions or it's larger then permitted ? When was it built ? Is it possible to get a "concessione in sanatoria" ?
Those are all thecnical questions that can be aswered more by a geometra than by a lawyer and only after you've got the answers you should talk with a lawyer or with a notary.

I'm an engineer. I agree with the notaio.
ditano