½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

once again it seems advice here is often aimed at finding ways around.. if someone actually suggests following laws.. anyone that owns property here has to fill in a tax return form and on that there are spaces for income of any sort which needs to be declared.. ie by filling out the tax form you have written documentation that you sign as being true and if they investigate and find different its a fraudulent decleration.. fine if you have friens in high places but csostly if not.. and its not that they have to prove anything they will just fine you and if you do not pay add to the fine for every days delay.. contest a fine and they will then maybe allow you to pay less and in smaller payments.. providing this is done with a certain amount of days of the notification.. so the best advice is the one thats least palatable above maybe.. but to be honest you do not want to get on the wrong side of the tax people here.. the tightening up process is already underway.. and for rentals it has been law for a while.. all rental contracts have to be registered .. but for those renting out places that for sure as you said did it without paying any tax there are suprises on the horizon.. in a fiscal sense with the approved fedreal laws taxation and payments/declerations are now for the first time to be previewed within your local comune.. as they pretty well know..ok not if you live in a big city who is who, what they drive, how long the live in a place.. and strange visitors to the house.. on a regular basis.. even worse a cleaning person or company for transitions..Ìý it makes whats going on very obvious.. so if its any satisfaction if you start within the law..then you will not have that dreaded fear of the psotperson turning up with mail that they refuse to leave unless its signed for by the person its addressed to and a estimate of tax owed plus fines that will make it seem like you are entering a nightmare ...Ìý which will be hitting a lot of your aquaintances soon if thats any consolation.. but in there cases the estimate will go back most probably over the years they have owned the property as the agenzia del entrata assumes once they have been made aware of things by the comune that you have been defrauding the tax system ever since you owned a property here.. and will estimate it all on estimated incomes that they will have a set of figures for.. and their figures generally are very high compared to real earnings.. Ìý

i did attempt a reply to this yesterday but got busy.. in fact lucky.. the reply above is depending on the circumstances and if it follows what has been said then there is no better advice.. i would try and get all the required habitable areas finished as cheaply as poss.. to achieve the signing off of the project.. and unless the present geometra has fallen out with you or vica versa then he/she has to be kept for the sake of costs.. until you do get the project signed off and all accounts in.. you are stuck..with your original decisions and there will be more to pay on top as regards registering the house as habitable.. i would get an estimate on that as well the costs of the comune.. and any other costs the geomatra can think of to reach a state where you have a property that is called habitable and that you can then do work on as you wish..

i would not worry too much.. its a law and there are rules..Ìý its aimed not at one specific EU country but is a protection against mass population transfers and is aimed specifically at less well of people within the EUwith the requirement for residenceÌý application at the comune to be listed on the anagrafe showing that you have sufficient funds and insurance cover to be able to stay here .. so the problem is if you are caught without the document.. then you have to spend a lot of time... has anyone tried opening a bank account..it takes ages ... arranged private health insurance.. almost as long.. visted the comune to apply to be registered.. another half day ..all of them requiring i would say a decent level of ½ûÂþÌìÌà to understand what you are signing.. so in a sense its a shortcut to being able to stay in Italy for periods up to 3 months with an easy form to fill in.. but i would not suggest anyone spends their time doing so if they believe it would be better to be forced to make an application for residency in the comune.. Ìý the problem with the EU to my mind is that by allowing so called free travel between states it also means that they now share all our info.. and each nation can call up all our details very easily so that applications can be checked with an integrated networkÌý that each of out national countries hold.. things like using friends addresses or for instance when you leave the UK with no intention of returning and you loose your right to NHS cover as its a terriory based systemm.. ie as a uk national you only have rights to it if you live there.. so you are supposed to remove yourself from the register when you leave.. what it means is that when you register here the UK then has proof that you then no longer are a burden on their health system and instead you in the caes of Italy are a cost to that countrys health system..Ìý so by making laws to force people to register presences everyone saves paying for people that would like to have advantages of being nationals whilst not actually being a national any longer.. its a bit like the car insurance/owenership/ regsitration debate... it can all be got away with.. because people see certain advantages of keeping one part of their life in one country and accepting all the rules that suit them best in the country they move to.. i doubt very much than any control law here will be repealed and in fact it seems to me that there will be more in more places.. as has been mentioned this is from 2008.. not long ago.. and with the thought of further expansion no one is going to get rid of laws which are esential to their minds in reducing health system costs.. and social security payments.. so there will always be laws to do with a persons ability to pay and or contribute.. and now with very open and shared info between member states they have a very good idea if they want you to settle in their country or not...

under three month you just go to the state police.. circulating free in europe is a myth.. and each country has its very own rules..Ìý you will find as an ½ûÂþÌìÌà citizen here that you have to conform to these rules and that EU rules do not surpass national laws.. so if italian nationals have to then obviously its a national rule that applies to all..Ìý

for once its a joy to read an english language article on italian polotics which has a reasoned and well researched base..thanks.. federalism is now here in the fiscal sense.. its also not just the north there are southern areas that want to be seperateÌý so an interesting time to come..

funnny thing is you cannot get onto their website now.. has it changed..

a simple and rel;atively cheap blocks which looks good is tufo..its from volcanic areas and is very easy to work with.. benefits are that if you want you can lay it without cement if you lay it flat.. and angle it into the soil..it actually binds together over the years.. it of course can be laid upright with cement.. and would suggest you sink in metal rods behind to stabilise the soil and face off with these blocks..Ìý although be sure to build an enforced cement base below.. even a wall of this height if it collapses would result in injury to anyone below..Ìý so be sure about the staus of the subsoil .. if laid without cement the other benefit is that being quite porous it allows mositure from behind to escape.. if you are building with cement joints leave gaps for water to escape.. from the bottom levels up.. they can be cut with a saw or chisel.. very easily..they are a really easy block to use and are commonly available in any buildesr yard.. light and strong..Ìý anyway that would be my thought

i know its italy but there will be some forms of compensation if the regional government manages to get the state of emergency declared officially.. so suggest that it will be worth it for a while to keep an eye on posters outside the local comune .. at least and if you have serious problems and losses talk to a technical officer and get it all recorded photos ..etc.. and invoices.. i know not much help now.. but a few weeks down the road might help a bit.. re gpl generatoprs.. i would think they are far cheaper to run than petrol.. diesel is almost impossible to start by hand unless you are in very good shape..Ìý only knowing anything about gpl from a car system and maybe they are improved in some way.. the engine is basically a petrol engine so no real change in sound.. but exhaust is clean.. however my undrestanding is or was to start the engine at least on the car it fires up on petrol.. then switches automatically to gas.... so it would still reult in problems re old fuel..Ìý we always run the tank vurtually dry and for sure the carb to empty that.. then add in fresh petrol which mixes with the bit thats left.. we always ..touch wood have it around because all the machines we have run on it..Ìý so if you have gardens or land its pretty nromal to keep a 30-40 litre supply and if you have major amounts of land i would think getting a generator for the pto on the tractor might be aÌý good option.. however to me a simple cheap solution that gives you a 3 kw supply for rare emergencies ..and they are pretty rare is simple and really apart from making sure your house only has one input supply at a time is easy , cheap, whatever system you chooseÌý and whatever the constraints of exhaust..running costs and noise will be far bettr than even a day without hotwater and heating in the midst of winter... saying all that glad to hear no stories of anyone injured so at least there is something to be thankful for and bright blue skys for the last two days here have made it all seem a bit of a distant nightmare.. with all the other big news stories these days its already off the headlines.. although they are still mentioning the amount of business properties destroyed along the coast of the marche.. to be honest we are located in an area that had no problems.. although a couple of trees were down that morning of the worst rain..but it had been cleared by the time of the school bus.. but the news and pictures were scarey and the deaths of the dogs was something that makes you feel so bad..Ìý the survivors of that will be even more skittish than the normal rescue animal here..Ìý

its a petrol generator and runs for i think about 3 hours on load .. do not ask me how much that is because we have a big can for lawnmowers and things always full.. and you know what i always buy things like petrol and diesel by euro not lts.. sorry to be so useless in that respect.. i think essential when planning is a location that is away from the house..they are noisey.. covered ..you dont want it to get wet.. and opensided..fumes...Ìý we run it via an extension cable to an outside socket that then goes through the switch i was talking about before.. have only ever used it once.. for a long time..about 3 years ago.. and a couple of other times but short spells..this time no power outage.. but is such a simple cheap solution that gives you back normal life in seconds that it was money well spent to my mind..

i guess its a bit worrying the lack of input from many of the Marche people.. .. had not though about lectricty being off or phone lines down.. plus all the other issues.. hope all are ok looking at forecastes ahead to next week it seems like we are all due snow.. so more grief to come .. roll on spring ..and warmer days.. have heard from some people that they have had water cut off too.. mud slides in some areas have cut pipes.. so its another problem.. mainly around the more susceptible areas to erosion problems.. have heard that to the north of Bisenti a lot of damage has occured with fields slipping down hills and the projected snow is not going to make life any easier as resources will be stretched .. contaminated water supplies are also a problem.. water companies here rely heavily on sourcing water from local springs .. which is fine but it also means that floods bring contaminants via ground water into undreground local sorces of clean water so its important to be aware that local supplies might well be a bit iffy until they get around all the outlying areas to test and add in filters.. its more relevant outside of main towns as they get supplied via the main reservoirs in the mountains so are less susceptible to changes or contaminants my other comment would be and i know its late now.. but we bought a 3 kw generator for our house.. and when renewing the lectrics made a provision to have an input point to the house so that when there are pwoer cuts we turn the generator on and it just supplies as a mains..Ìý its a very simple and cheap solution.. well compared to many other costs here.. you can pick up a generator for a few hundred euros.. if you get a rated one of 3 kws it will most probaly manage 2.5 which is pretty well close to a normal mains input.. meaning that all essentials will keep running .. ie boilers and circulation pumps for hot water and heating.. fridges and freezers and most probably computers and TVs.. skip ironing and microwaves ... electric ovens..maybe..Ìý i know candlelight is suggested as a romantic break from modern living but when its wet and cold and maybe tou have to work and come home .. or clear snow form outside the joys of returning to a dark cold house are limited in my opinion.. i guess it cost us 400 euro to set it all up.. and we have used it maybe 4 times since we had it.. in three years.. basically you have to have an input to the house between the mains supply box and the trip / fuse protection box... its a two way switch so that you can never make the mistake of having two inputs at the same time.. ie if switched to mains it cuts off the generator input.. so when power comes back on you flip the switch.. and you get back to normal without any interuption.. allowing you to leave the generator on to run dry of fuel... worst problem is making sure you remeber where you keep everything and how to start it all..because you use it rarely on the dog front people have been very responsive and blankets and food is arriving.. and volunteers to help.. in general these are people that already do a lot in that sense anyway.. hard to believe but there is a huge community that do get involved in animal rights and care here.. and am sure if anyone wanted they could easily find a local place to them that will always be happy for help .. like i say thats why i like facebook.. it gives good access to whats happening localy and keep you up to fdate with things.. lots of which you dont get to see or hear about via local news..