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