Thursday 6 May 2010

Home from home

When you buy a house in Italy you think you have a great chance to learn the language of Dante. This may be wrong actually! You sometimes end up learning the language of Adriano and Claudio, and although these two sound like Roman emperors, they may be in fact your plumber and builder!

Phrase books are pretty unhelpful to foreign property owners, so you will have to sort out the names for a tack (bulletta), a nail (chiodo, or if smaller, chiodino), perhaps with the aid of a famous Italian dictionary called Zingarelli, which is the Italian version of Larousse.
Some words need particular care for instance- the gas in Italian is butano, which is easily miss-heard for puttano, resulting in the request that you are asking your local gas company, to fill the tank (serbatoio) up with a sex worker or an escort!
When you buy a property in Italy, it would be a good idea to translate instruction leaflets for the central heating or electric system of your house, because user guides in Italian sometimes need Einstein standing by!
You also need to take care when addressing people, Italians have a complicated system of verbs from the familiar (Tu) to the deeply respectuful (Lei). I would opt for the latter because it's better to address your land surveyor as " Your Honour", rather than "You there"!
However while you are waiting to come here and learn the language properly, we offer you a brief glossary of Italian real estate terms to help you understand a little more about real estate in Italy.
We definitely want you to feel at home in the land of Dante, but we would also like to help you avoid its inferno!
Accatastamento / Catasto : Government's Survey System Books (Cadastre)

Agibilita' Abitabilita': Declaration of Habitability
Collaudo: Acceptance of Work
Concessione Edilizia: Construction Authorization
Valore Congruo: Suitable Value
Comunicazione Cessione Fabbricato: Statement of Transfer of Real Estate
Condono Edilizio: Pardon for the Infringement of Building Regulations
Conservatorie dei Registri Immobiliari: Land Registry
Certificato di destinazione urbanistica (CTU): Building Allocation Certificate
Demanio / demaniale: State Property
Equo canone - Legge 392/78: Fair Rent
Frazionamento catastale: Cadastral Splitting
Grezzo e grezzo avanzato: Unfinished and Partly Finished
Imposte Ipotecarie e Catastali: Mortgage and Cadastral Taxes
Imposta Comunale sugli Immobili I.C.I. : Municipal Real Property Tax
Imposta Incremento Valore Immobili (INVIM): Property Increment Tax
Imposta di Registro: Registration Tax
Imposta sul Valore Aggiunto (I.V.A.): Value Added Tax (V.A.T.)
Ipoteca: Hypotheque i.e. Mortgage
Prelazione: Pre-emption
Preliminare, compromesso, promessa di vendita: Promise to Sell
Prevenzione incendi (certificato): Fire Protection (Certificate)
Progetto: Project
Planimetria catastale: Cadastral Planimetry
Rendita catastale: Cadastral Rent
Rogito e scritture Private autenticate : Notarial Deed / Private Deed
Servitu': Easement
Strumento Urbanistico P.R.G.: City Planning
Superficie (utile,commerciale,ecc,): Surface
Tassa occupazione spazi e aree pubbliche (TOSAP): Tax on the Occupation of Public Spaces and Areas
Usucapione: Prescriptin or Limitation of Action
Volture o volturazione: Registration of a Transfer Deed

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