½ûÂþÌìÌÃ

It would be worth looking into some of the long-term car rentals - generally sourced out of France. These schemes are backed by Renault and Citroen as far as I know, and they get a very good tax-break from the French, but they are only available to non EU visitors. Unless they have fallen foul of French government money saving cuts, various US friends swear by these deals.  

The railway station in Messina is very close to the ferry terminal.

To divide the land into the bit you want and the bit your neighbour wants, you do need to use a geometra before you get to the notaio. The geometra will survey the land, plot it and present the changes to the catastal office; at this point the newly divided two bits of land are still in the ownership of the original seller, of course. It would be reasonable for the seller to ask you and your neighbour to bear the costs of the geometra's fees and the costs to the catastal office, so you need an idea of how much the geometra will charge for the work. (You could buy the whole bit of land yourself, and do the frazionamento later. It would be worth enquiring from the notaio the imposte (stamp duty) payable on purchasing small bits of land - these taxes are huge - and enquire whether doing the purchase before or after the frazionamento would make any difference to the total payable.)

Good luck with it - it is clearly just a 'pied a terre'. It sounds to me as if you have 'habitable space', catastally, on the first and second floors - but a cantina isn't regarded as 'habitable'. That does not mean it cannot be made 'habitable' - (but you are going to have to make the ceiling height 2.7m, as a minimum requirement, which depending on the rock below could be a little bit costly). You will also have to pay a tax (commonly referred to as Bucalossi or Legge 11) to the comune to get it classified as 'habitable' - I'd guess at €2000. Drains - if you are (I'm speaking about my Provincia here, yours might differ) within 200m of a 'mains drain' then your septic tank is obliged to discharge into it. If you are further away then either you do your own dispersion, or share with your neighbours. You need a geometra!

Hmm - yes, I was misleading when I talked about 'take home pay' - for sure the iindividual is liable for IRPEF on his earnings, so he isn't 'taking home' as much as I suggested. But - (and I am sure this varies between regions in Italy, probably quite a lot) - the fact that the cost to an employer (as in a building firm: not the end user) of hiring out a labourer is about twice what the labourer earns (before tax). I completely agree (and actually so does the PdL if they could only admit it...) that it is crazy that you can't employ a guy who wants a job at a price he is willing to accept and you are willing to pay (like €10 per hour): but if you buy a house in a semi-Grecian economy what do you expect! It is much more about politics than about economics...but that is where we are at. Gezundheit!

The area of the market where I disagree is the 'lower end' - but as always it depends on the property. Face it, many Brits (exclusively Brits) bought pretty sub-par properties (I'm considering rustici or restored rustici here, I wouldn't apply this reasoning to new build) and because they were not very rich, they have been hit by the exchange rate etc. etc. and want to sell the property they paid too much for. Now, they are only going to flog it to another Brit - the Scandinavians are a bit more canny, the Americans want higher priced stuff, the ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs - by far the most important market if you have your head screwed on - can detect the bargain. The reason stuff was being flogged to Brits is because no ½ûÂþÌìÌà woud look at it. It isn't as if the local ½ûÂþÌìÌà buyers are terribly clever, it is simply that they understood 'location' in their terms - which is a completely different mindset. However - everything is fickle - and I have been very surprised by prices achieved by "special" houses. The "specialness" which these houses have is a feature which I would have advised clients 'against' (in the sense that I never saw it as a value for money investment in a house which hoped to be traded) - but rich focussed 'greens' are paying over the odds for houses with geothermal/solar etc installed, visible, and working. The ½ûÂþÌìÌÃs (and the not large Belgian contingent) seem to have a nervousness about being pioneers in the alternative market - but present them with an 'alternative' house 'key in hand' and they lap it up.

It is all very well saying that €12 - €16 sounds alright: that is what the workman will 'take home'. But spare a thought for his employer (the contractor) who has to pay another €10 approx for the workman's "NI" contributions etc. Even if you manage to find a 'registered' self employed labourer he is going to have to add something like €8 (per hour) to his price to pay his dues on his own behalf. And if he doesn't (and if he can't demonstrate that he has paid all this 'tax') he can't do any work 'legally'.

If you have been actually living in the house, (at least for much of the time), and resident, then you are absolutely in the clear as regards ½ûÂþÌìÌà 'plusvalenza'. It is not applicable. The test is where you have been living, (and really does not involve being resident on the anagrafe, though that would help to avoid any questions being raised). Assuming you are UK, you may have a liability to UK CGT.

Certainly there is a level of professional indemnity insurance in Italy - more solid through the geometra than through the architect (nothing against architects, simply that it is a tad more formalised with the geometra's professional association). But it's a hell of a nasty start to a relationship that you are angsty about this stuff. If you think that commissioning a building is akin to buying a kettle from John Lewis... just don't do it; save yourself a lot of grief. Pillock.

The only insurance which a rational being would take out on a ruin is third party liability - and I think this is what you are concerned about. (This covers bits of your building falling on innocent heads - it doesn't cover anything once you have engaged a contractor to repair it.) Usually your bank will offer a minimal cover - should be less than €50 a year - it is called something like responsibilita familiare. Maybe other insurance companies do this too, try   or perhaps even could give you a lead. Try these sites even if you don't speak ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ, they are fairly obvious and even if you get lost you will have picked up some insurance vocabulary without having spent any money.