You Can’t Always Get What You Want…

Author : Mia

Or you already did, but…maybe not really? Is asking for an inventory insulting? Is that addition legal? Is anything legal? What are we even doing? (Note-Find you a good and communicative lawyer before attempting said endeavor).

I mean, we went in knowing buying a home in Italy would be an adventure and, it didn’t disappoint! 🤪

When we traveled to Sardinia last October we stayed on the coast, in Costa Paradiso, and looked at a few properties there before driving 45 minutes inland to Tempio Pausania, which at 2000’ elevation sits at the foot of the Monte Limbara range.  It is also one of the Borghi più belli d’Italia (“The most beautiful villages of Italy”) of which there are something like 350 in total. Deservedly so.

We toured a few properties in beautiful Tempio with my mom, my cousin Sarah and her husband Stan. The very modern property seemed perfect – 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, open floorplan, a garage with storage and another bathroom (Bill asked about the additions legality and was assured it was permitted) and a view looking out towards the mountains. We all loved it.

Through our Italian lawyer we made an offer soon after arriving back home in Colorado. Our initial offer just a few thousand less than the asking was rebuffed, like, how dare we? Because they did this to the place and fix-ey-fixed that to the place and it was being sold totally furnished and oh yeah, odd for Italy but even the kitchen was going to stay! The only thing they would take was the large mounted television. So okay then, this all sounds good. We changed the offer to match the asking price and we were off to the we’re-buying-a-place-in-Italy races!

But then…our lawyer suggested we ask for an inventory as everything but the big tv was staying, right? But they balked at that suggestion and just sent a few random pictures. Um, okay?

Then the geometra (like a cross between architect and surveyor) looked at the place and asked about the permits for the bathroom in the garage. Did said permits actually exist? No, in fact they did not.

The estate agent and our lawyer made intimations that the seller was extremely difficult in these dealings, and though we did want the place we also wanted to make sure we didn’t pull up to an empty shell on arrival as what would our recourse be? 

Our lawyer then tried to set up the closing in Rome, the location of which in Italy is the buyer’s perogative. The seller insisted it be in Tempio even though this would cost us thousands more and even though he was moving back to Rome and had children close by the closing location. Aiyiyi.

Hackles up we then simply requested a list of anything he would be taking and… it was now all three of the tv’s. In the grand scheme these were not important but the general feeling of optimism and joy in finding this perfect place felt sullied and I felt, I don’t know, weirdly guilty? It felt an awful lot like we’d been bullied by him and it just tarnished the whole experience. Dejected, we pulled out of the deal, two full months wasted.

But my friends, all was not lost, we continued searching and…