½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

Ìýlowering the tone even further... if you ever watch the channel four news in the evening... my favourite news person emilio (with the wonderful hair and wholes in the knees of his impeccable suits) due to kneeling infront of the status of mr b as he makes up the news... manages to employ the strangest and often most inept weather girls ever...however yes... i did notice... Ìýand it could be because before the summer really got going seaside towns here were furious with the airforce weather people that generally do the meteo on the RAI channels because every weekend that was a long weekend they predicted bad weather...and each time it was sunny and warm...costing tourist resorts millions...having lived in France for a fair time they resolved this problem by having a map of france just before any spring autumn long weekend plastered with sun symbols ... always predicting wonderful weather and thus saved themselves any unified complaints fro tourist operators....Ìýmuch better to employ a person with no brain and unable to read the cue cards .... Ìýhowever i am learning a lot from her meteo terminology definitions... Ìý "clouds.... those little white things in the sky... or wind..... the air that moves past you"ÌýÌýÌýÌý

ÌýAbruzzo being a sizeable place its difficult to suggest banks and such...i would always go for something local... pescara as mentioned by myabruzzo home unless you live within a bus ride would be a nightmare in my opinion because of traffic and parking...the post office option is one i would agree with... but your local town should have a bank... generally at leat one coop type bank which are safe and secure and often very helpful in a local sense...insurance is no problem ...all general italian house insurance is cheap...the post office runs its own... and the reasonable priced insurance in the above suggestions are what i would call in line with normal prices here...Ìýif you have an apertment maybe you need to worry more...cause of condominium risks and claims from neighbours... even an attached house in a village can carry somewhat more risk as you can have neighbours which might end up one day making claims against you ...especialley if its major restoration works...Ìýalthough all projects here that are carried out by ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs will include insurance to cover you against claims from other parties and or accidents occuring during the works...dont be totally put off by fear creating posts you read on how terrible ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs are and that ex pats do a better job... Ìýsome are true... Ìýbut take your time ...get to know people and then work out whos telling you what and why and then make your choices... good luck with it all....

Ìýdo you mean a private messageÌýif so that is on the left side of your screen... and if you click on all messages it should show those you have both sent and received open the one you received and there should be a reply option at the bottom... just click that and at the end you can click the send buttonif it isnt that ...then not sure what you mean and you will have to explain furtherÌýÌý

Ìýbut requires more expansion if its to be regarded as useful for non formally married couplesunder the present government Renata Brunetta (the very short minister)has this proposal because there have been serious problems in modern times over people that have lived together not even being allowed into hospitals to visit their co-habitees...let alone signing release forms for operationsas of today in many regions of Italy there are already registers where couples can make a formal decleration of the state of Ìýcoppia/famiglia di fattoÌýÌýthese include regions such as Abruzzo,Marche ,Lazio...and also various municipal areas... although not nationally recognised they have some force in making the rights of cohabitees fixed ...say in at least the right if one member of a couple dies to continue living in the family home...the new proposed legislation will formalise this even more... but there is very vocal oposition from the Vatican and the CEI... who say this will destroy the family...sort of ignoring the fact that there are as many families living here as most other european countries without either a formal civil or religous contract...in fact the last Prodi government was trying to force through legislation on this but although it did not bring it down it helped fuel major arguements within and was a major contribution .... the other major party as a whole that opposes this is Cassinis UDC ... strongly aligned with the Vatican and the sanctity of the family he is a strange preacher in this respect as his now family is not his first ...and before his cange to the catholic right he was the head of a family that had not been formalisedanyway search on coppia di fatto... and you will get much more ... am sure there will be legal advice following which will help clear up some questions...sorry as formalised couple the problem has held slight interest other than the fact that i regard it as against human rights to discriminate in this sense against peoples choices so have watched the fights and tears as the vatican tries to retain its hold on italian civil law with its usual tenacity and propaganda of the apocolypse if human rights are accepted over religous dictates....i would also say that if you live in Italy have any extra family problems and you live in one of the italian regions that allow a regsitration it would be well worth not only making the will ...as Ram says... but go along and see if it can be formalised ... i know defeats the point of your free thinking... but maybe better to think of your home and retaining it above your principles... and its just a bit of paper...ÌýTuscany,Umbria,emilia romagna,campania,veneto,puglia,liguria..plus as mentioned abruzzo,marche and lazio.... they are the regions already registering co habitation (.registro delle unioni civili) ... much of this is aimed at same sex couples... obviously they campaign harder because their rights are even more limited ... but it it open to all

Ìýi have always gone with the figure of 1500 per sq m for new builds... its realisticyour build will be outside the average plus there are various new rules in Italy which most probably are making my figure of1500 slightly out of date... as new regs on the efficiency of the building as regards insulation and efficiency come more and more into play...outside the avergae because its obviously been allowed as long as its constructed to fit in with local landscape...Ìýaside from all that and back to your question you will need to add on unless you have been quoted in a diferent way ...the VAT or IVA... which can run upto 20% unless you are getting discounts... used to be 4 % in some cases but i think and i satnd to be corrected on this a build on your only home here should now be 10% ...all this needs to be sorted with the geometra to make certain...next the geometra fee will be on top usually another ten per cent and one that catches most people out is their profesional body fee...around 3 % so work on 13 % plus VAT/IVA this time at 20 %Ìýthese quotes in general will not even include light fittings.... let alone the rest you mention...ÌýÌýcomune planning costs not included...Ìýlandscaping ... not included...indeed often requiring bigger work as builders tend to destroy the surrounds...Ìýanyway thats the norm...its up to you before going further forward to negotiate whats included and or not within the price per sq m... and the fees...estimates on comune planning costs and a firm geometra fee in writing costs are fixed...posted links before to the building trades regional guide books... cannot remeber the website ...but if you search on my user name on the old forum you will find somewhere a posting re building costs and various links to regional sites... got to go out or i would get back to you with it later...finally add at least a 15% for sure contingency fee... that will be eaten up whatever...and maybe a bit more for any problems...and one last point get it sorted all on paper before hand... agreed and worked out with all of you involved in the project totally commited to the paper plan otherwise changes will cost you dear...get the contracts checked by a solicitor to make sure your covered in all aspects over costs and allowed overuns in time or money

Ìý

Ìýsorry your answer Ìý"the simple answer" does not appear simple...you do not say which succession law applies ... it to me reads like your saying ½ûÂþÌìÌà laws apply Ìýwhich to me conflicts with the initial opening staments to this thread which says the owners national laws applyÌýalso the last bit... do you mean someone can inherit as a result of having an italian relative leaving them a property... which would have little to do with problems regarding non italians because the inheritance laws and legal rights of italian families are guaranteed under the law here ... Ìýso would make little diference where relatives lived... Ìýeither within italy or not...Ìýsorry just do not understand the points made

Ìýslightly off subject to your question and we all have our own way of dealing with things so no crticism meant but the quake site will only show you what has been..... Ìýwhat is more importat is to see before you buy in Italy where your property is located in terms of earthquake risk... ie the purple/red areas on the italy map... these have a pretty equal spread from north to south all along the appenines but in general to the westen side with few exceptions... heading towards venice being one and sicily being the other...the most marked area for quakes is most probably the southern half of Italy... not central... however those areas marked as being in zones red and above are situated along that part of the country where the two plates meet...hence the appenines ... and in reallity despite the fact that most tremors during the last months have centred on the central abruzzo/lazio areas as the earth settles back into place you will find that once this happens the quakes will brake out anywhere and everywhere along that line ... the sure thing here is that it would be very rare... to have a quake within the next fifty years or so Ìýas the earth has released its energy via L'Aquila and it usually takes a while for the same sorts of pressures to build up again... thats a statistic not a guarantee..therefore a major quake outside the central lazio/abruzzo region that border the appenines to the west Ìýis now almost a certainty ... Ìýwithin ten years... as pent up pressures build in some new spot... however major quakes can be preceeded by several small tremors or not... Ìýoften the most violent ones being where there has been an intense build up with no smaller releases before Ìýand it all letting go at once...in reallity the size f the quake in L'Aquila in terms of major world quakes even by italian standarsds was quite small... it was where it was centred upon and the buildings that were not built to or restored to seismic 1 regulations that caused the extensive damage and loss of life... in fact since the L'Aquila quake they have run several hospital building inspections and it will be no suprise to hear that many of the new hospital in sesimic one areas especially in sicily and calabria and campania would not be safe places to be even if there was a small tremor...as the sand ratio is so high within the wals they have trouble finding any cement or steel at all... what they do ... cannot close them all ... and they generally like the L'Aquila one cost double the normal price to build as local provincial regional governments plus their mates in the building trade skim most of the money before a single brick gets laid...so check the map and your building...and you will be safe...second guessing where the next quake will be might kill you.....

Ìýfrancescaithe activity button at the top of the screen has all those facilities in a drop down list nowÌýmy PM system seems to be there and fine...so that i cannot answerÌýjust seen ronalds reply

Ìýif you have a project already going through the comune with the useless geometra this will have to be signed off ... and done again...if you change your geometra... the person that has to sign it off and do the final accounting is your first geometra...its rare that this doesnt cost.... and make sure if you choose this that you do not pay the final account until you have the release papers from the comune regarding your present geometra..