The world of construction and real estate sales has always generated many questions and each of these has multiple answers.
Just think of the numerous issues that must be faced during a building renovation or of all the steps that involve a real estate sale.
In this section, always being updated, we try to address some main issues to make it clearer to anyone who wants to know more
Buy a property
Searching for your ideal home
Have you decided you want to buy a property in Umbria on the border with Tuscany?
Good choice! You live well, you eat well, the prices are not inflated and in this period the State is giving incentives to renovate the old houses. There is no better time to buy a house in Umbria.
But what do you need to know before starting your research? Where to start?
First of all try to fix your housing needs as much as possible by asking yourself a few questions:
– How big must the house I want be? How many bedrooms should it have?
– What are the areas that interest me most?
– What is my total budget which includes the purchase and eventual renovation of a property?
– How many months am I willing to wait before my new home is available?
Then go immediately to check if among the properties offered for sale by Studio Romizi there was anything of your interest: https://www.idealista.it/en/pro/studio-romizi-panicale/
Whether you have found something interesting or not, the second step is to contact us so that we can better define your request. Studio Romizi will look for the right property for you.
You have found the house for you, what do you have to do now?
What to do after finding the right home:
You have finally found your ideal home in Umbria and you want to buy it, what should you do? What do you need to watch out for?
If you were a private buyer we would tell you to cross your fingers and hope the seller is a trading expert and knows what he is doing.
If, on the other hand, you have relied on us then all that remains is to think about your offer and under what conditions to present it.
Studio Romizi will help you in presenting the best economic offer that has the most chance of finding a positive outcome, always in the protection of both parties involved in the negotiation.
It will be our duty to draw up a “Purchase Proposal” in compliance with the laws, manage the negotiation and check if all the documentation necessary for the sale of the property is already present or, if necessary, together with the seller, integrate the missing documents.
Thanks to our skills we are able to manage every aspect related to the sale: from technical to legal issues.
The purchase proposal
What is the “Purchase Proposal”
When the buyer has chosen the property to buy, he must formalize his offer in writing and, thanks to the mediation of a professional, possibly enter into a negotiation that leads to a positive outcome shared by the parties.
The Purchase Proposal is an important document that has the same legal value as the “Preliminary Purchase” (or Compromesso) which is nothing but a Purchase Proposal with some more details and, usually, a security deposit greater.
Studio Romizi will be able to write this document for you defining the agreement between the parties and the conditions of sale: payments, timing for the actual possession of the property, guarantees by the seller of the absence of legal mortgages and any other problem that may limit the availability of the property, presence or absence of mortgages, etc. etc.
Normally the “Deed” follows the Purchase Proposal after having established that the parties prepare all the necessary documentation and, if necessary, have the opportunity to obtain a mortgage. In case of land sale it is sometimes necessary to proceed with the division of the land into sectors, a job normally carried out by our Surveyor.
Upon signing the Purchase Proposal, the buyer normally attaches, by non-transferable bank check, a deposit of approximately 5% on the total price offered. This check remains in charge of the real estate agent (Bernardo Romizi) who guarantees its delivery to the seller only upon regular signing of the acceptance of the purchase proposal.
In the Purchase Proposal, the parties generally agree to Article 1385, or 296, of the Italian Civil Code; if the preliminary contract does not reach the notarial deed within the established time frame, the deposit previously paid by the buyer will be lost or returned in doubled quantities, depending on which party was the cause of the failure to conclude the sales contract.
The notarial deed
What is the Deed of sale, or “Notarial Deed”
The Deed of Sale (or Notarial Deed) must be signed in the presence of a “Notary”.
The Notary is the public authority that guarantees that the person involved in the transaction has personally notified him of his intentions, written and signed by the contracting parties.
The Notary must check on the real estate list (“Land Registry”) that the property is not mortgaged; he must also verify that a permit has been obtained to build or renovate the property and that the seller has correctly paid the property taxes.
In addition, the Notary includes in the deed, with reference to the particular case, some specifications required by law to guarantee the contracting parties.
The Notary writes the price declared by the parties.
Taxes are paid on that stated price. The amount of the tax can be significantly reduced if the property is declared as a primary residence (in Italy). The Notary receives the sum of the taxes and his remuneration, which is less than 1% of the declared price.
Tax costs are to be verified on a case-by-case basis.
How much are the purchase costs?
How much are the purchase costs?
Before formalizing a written offer, it is good to have clear what the purchase costs will be:
Mediation: the commission to Studio Romizi for real estate brokerage will be equivalent to 3% of the final price of the property.
Notary: the notary’s fee is generally equivalent to less than 1% of the final price of the property.
In case of a bank loan these costs will be doubled as the notarial deeds will be 2 (sale and mortgage)
Taxes: The sales taxes must be paid to the Notary at the time of the notarial deed.
They vary based on two main factors:
1- Whether or not the seller is a construction company
2- If the buyer takes advantage of the concessions for the “first home”
Here is a summary table:
Restore a property
After the purchase, the preliminary analysis
The purchase is complete, you have a new home in Umbria, congratulations!
But now the time has come to take care of your home and renovate it to make it the way you want it. What do you have to do though? What do you need to watch out for? Studio Romizi is here to help you, we’ve been doing it since 1946, we don’t lack experience.
Preliminary analysis: Through the study of the PRG (Municipal Regulatory Plan) and its implementation rules, Studio Romizi can verify all the characteristics of your new property by providing you with precise information such as:
– How can you renovate your property
– If you have the possibility to make extensions or new buildings
– If your property or the area in which it is located have landscape, archaeological, hydrogeological or other constraints that affect the characteristics of your renovation
Once you understand what you can and cannot do in your new home, you can move on to thinking about planning and cost estimates.
Design and metric calculation
How to design and estimate the cost of the works?
After understanding what you can and cannot do in your property, you will be ready to draw up a renovation project.
Design:
Studio Romizi, thanks to its staff, will help you translate your renovation idea on paper, advising you on the architectural and economic choices that best suit your needs, making use of design software in two and three dimensions, 3d renderings, videos. animations and anything else necessary and useful to ensure that the project is the best of your expectations and desires.
Metric calculation:
After defining the renovation project, Studio Romizi will proceed to draw up a metric calculation, or a detailed estimate of the costs that you will have to face.
This estimate will take into account the precise dimensions of the property and will be a list, item by item, of all the building interventions that will be carried out, with the related costs based on the Umbria Regional Price List.
Subsequently, the metric calculation will be presented to some selected construction companies who may or may not apply discounts to draw up a final offer for the works.
Types of renovations
Old houses in Umbria and Tuscany: which materials and types to use for the restoration?
There are many types of renovations and the client has the freedom to opt for different types of choices and materials, from mainly traditional to more modern ones.
In this section we describe a traditional renovation of a typical Umbrian-Tuscan country house
The country houses that are located between the hills of Umbria and Tuscany have been built for centuries with simple materials obtained directly on site.
This is also an economic advantage for those who are preparing to renovate a home.
In Tuscany bricks are more used, while in Umbria the walls are generally made from local stones. Mainly used is sandstone, a light brown and gray porous stone.
The ceilings are generally built with thin bricks, called “pianelle”, on a structure of wooden beams: a few large beams (about 25×30 cm. of section) and many small rafters (about 7×7 cm.), positioned at a distance between centers of 30 cm. to support the slippers.
The structure of the roof is similar to that of the ceilings, using terracotta, tiles and bent tiles.
Another type often used is the “volticine”:
To get an idea of the interior of an ancient country house of the time, imagine the stables and warehouses on the ground floor. Outside a staircase leading to a covered loggia on the first floor with its entrance door. The first room is often a large kitchen with a large fireplace. In the left and right wall of the kitchen it is easy to find some entrance doors to the bedrooms. No internal bathroom, running water only in houses built from the 1950s onwards if the owner had connected electricity and added a pump to get water from the well.
Whatever the state of conservation of the house, the total renovation is facilitated by the use of materials available on site.
The Studio Romizi generally works in the following method:
If, as often happens, there are no problems in the foundation, the works begin with an excavation of about 50 cm around the ground floor, thanks to a small mechanical excavator, to have useful space for the construction of a new terracotta and insulated concrete floor. from the ground, in order to make the rooms on the ground floor habitable.
For the realization of the new terracotta floor in Italy, there are many types of solutions: antiqued terracotta tiles made exactly as in the past, Impruneta terracotta with tiles of about 13×26 cm. called “campigiane”, modern terracotta tiles of cm. 15×30 or 30×30.
The skirting board can be in terracotta or wood.
Depending on the condition of the walls, the old plaster is usually demolished to make a new one or repair it with the same mixture of lime, cement and sand.
In the case of stone walls, they will be cleaned and refilled:
Wood frame ceilings can be repaired or totally rebuilt. In both cases, beams and rafters are used. Old beams are usually made of oak, elm or chestnut. We also usually use oak beams that are not perfectly square to maintain the rustic shape. In some cases, to recreate the typical environment of rural houses we use real ancient beams, which can be found on the market but at a higher price than those of new construction.
Once the terracotta tiles have been positioned on the coils, we make a 4 cm thick top of reinforced concrete connected to the external walls to increase its resistance. The same type of ceiling is used for the roof with a slight slope, finished with layers of insulation, waterproof membrane, terracotta tiles, tiles and bent tiles.
A structure with iron or reinforced concrete tie-rods can then be applied. In any case, a structural design that complies with building safety laws is required.
The exterior walls are usually cleaned, reinforced with concrete between the stones and finished with new concrete and lime.
Interior work: a restoration of a country house generally consists of transforming the ground floor into a living area and restoring the sleeping areas on the 1st floor.
This description is of course only a possibility, as each project has unique characteristics, useful for those who are now approaching the theme of renovations.
Construction companies
Find the right construction companies for your project
With the bill of quantities at your disposal, you are now ready to choose the construction company that will carry out the renovations.
The choice of companies to make the work is the most delicate part of the restructuring.
Not all companies have the same capacity and the same reliability. This is why it is important to have good references from the selected companies.
Studio Romizi, thanks to its long experience, knows and has worked with dozens of reliable local companies that work with excellent quality / price ratio. We will be able to advise you on the companies we trust that we consider suitable for a certain type of work but the client has full freedom to choose the company that suits him best.
Regardless of the company, to get a good idea of the real costs of the repairs it is important that the assessment is carried out considering all the works that need to be done. Even if a detailed estimate has been made, it often happens that by proceeding with the work, it becomes necessary to deal with some work not considered. For example, it may happen that, removing a plaster, some old badly repaired cracks appear on the wall: in this case a repair work is necessary for the stability of the wall. For this reason it is advisable to define an hourly cost of workers which must be used for unexpected jobs. It is possible to make a different type of contract with a company that takes into account unexpected expenses. Few companies accept this type of contract, but some, very capable and professional, may accept after a careful examination of the construction.
Once the company has been chosen, the Studio Romizi usually prepares a contract that is signed by the company and the buyer, in which it is written:
- the cost of the works (total cost or detailed cost for each job);
- start date of the works;
- estimated duration of the works, barring unforeseen circumstances
- when and how much to pay (usually a deposit before the start, then some payments depending on the progress of the works, for example a first payment for the restoration of the foundations, one for the construction of the first floor, one for the construction of the roof, etc. .);
- penalty that the company must pay for each day of delay with respect to the fixed completion date (if it does not depend on weather conditions or other choices of the client during the work).
Before starting work, in many cases the buyer must pay a technician to draw up a safety document for the work. The Studio Romizi will be able to assist you also in this phase.
Types of building permits
Types building permits
In Italy there are numerous and complex building laws, an important part of our professional work is to help make everything as easy as possible for the client.
Once the works and who will carry them out have been decided, we must now submit to the Municipality where the property is located the documentation in which the building intervention is requested and describes.
First of all, what do Municipalities require for certain building activities?
NO BUILDING PERMITS:
- Repair, renovate and replace the finishes of buildings
- Integrate or maintain existing technological systems in efficiency
- Eliminate architectural barriers inside buildings
C.I.L. or C.I.L.A
(Communication of the beginning of the works):
- Temporary works to be removed within 90 days
- Paving and finishing works of outdoor spaces
- Solar, photovoltaic panels
- Extraordinary maintenance, i.e. works and modifications that do not alter volumes, surfaces and intended uses, as long as they do not concern the structural parts of the buildings and which do not involve an increase in the number of real estate units
S.C.I.A
(Certified notice of start of works):
- Restoration and conservative restoration
- Changes in functional intended use
- Extraordinary maintenance that concerns structural parts of the building or leads to an increase in the number of real estate units
- Extension of buildings within the existing shape
- Simple perspective changes (such as opening or closing of one or more windows, of one or more doors)
- Variants to qualifications
- Construction of parking lots on the ground floor or underground
PERMISSION TO BUILD:
- New construction
- Urban restructuring:
- Building renovation with changes to the volume, shape and surface of the building
Free building activity
Free building activity
a) ordinary maintenance interventions; or building interventions concerning the repairs, renewal and replacement of building finishes and those necessary to integrate or maintain existing technological systems in efficiency
b) interventions aimed at eliminating architectural barriers that do not involve the construction of ramps or external lifts, or of artifacts that alter the shape of the building;
c) temporary works for research activities in the subsoil which have a geognostic character, with the exception of hydrocarbon exploration activities, and which are carried out in areas outside the built-up center;
d) the movements of earth strictly relevant to the exercise of agricultural activity and agro-forestry-pastoral practices, including interventions on agricultural plumbing systems;
e) seasonal mobile greenhouses, without masonry structures, functional to the conduct of agricultural activity.
f) The installation of liquefied petroleum gas deposits with a total capacity not exceeding 13 cubic meters is considered, for urban planning and construction purposes, free construction activity, as governed by article 6 of the Presidential Decree n. 380 of 2001
It should be specified that for each building activity to be put in place the prescriptions of the municipal planning instruments, and the other sector regulations affecting the regulation of the building activity and, in particular, the anti-seismic, safety, fire prevention, hygiene and sanitary regulations must be respected. , those relating to energy efficiency as well as the provisions contained in the code of cultural heritage and landscape.
C.I.L. or C.I.L.A.
What is the C.I.L.
In fact, a whole series of interventions can be carried out without a qualification title upon communication of the start of the work also electronically by the interested party to the municipal administration.
These are the following interventions:
a) works intended to satisfy objective contingent and temporary needs and to be immediately removed when the need ceases and, in any case, within a period not exceeding ninety days;
b) the paving and finishing works of outdoor spaces, including for parking areas, which are contained within the permeability index, where established by the municipal planning instrument, including the construction of entirely underground and inaccessible cavities, water collection, burial rooms;
c) solar panels, photovoltaic, at the service of the buildings, to be built outside zone A, referred to in the decree of the Minister for Public Works April 2, 1968, n. 1444; (letter as amended by article 7, paragraph 3, legislative decree n.28 of 2011)
d) the non-profit play areas and the furnishing elements of the appurtenant areas of the buildings.
It should be noted that for each building activity to be put in place, the prescriptions of the municipal planning instruments, and the other sector regulations affecting the regulation of the building activity and, in particular, the anti-seismic, safety, fire and hygiene-sanitary regulations must be respected, those relating to energy efficiency as well as the provisions contained in the code of cultural heritage and landscape. Therefore, the interested party in the above interventions attaches any mandatory authorizations pursuant to sector regulations to the communication of the commencement of works and also, in the cases provided for by current provisions, submits the cadastral updating deeds.
What is the C.I.L.A.
Given that:
– for each building activity to be put in place, the prescriptions of the municipal planning instruments, and the other sector regulations affecting the regulation of the building activity and, in particular, the anti-seismic, safety, fire-prevention, hygienic-sanitary regulations must be respected, those relating to energy efficiency as well as the provisions contained in the code of cultural heritage and landscape.
THE C.I.L.ASSEVERATA is required for extraordinary maintenance:
Extraordinary maintenance interventions, including the opening of internal doors or the movement of internal walls, as long as they do not concern the structural parts of the building, do not involve an increase in the number of real estate units and do not involve an increase in urban planning parameters; only for this type of intervention does the interested party attach any authorizations required under the sector regulations and the identification data of the company to which he intends to entrust the execution of the works to the communication of the start of the works.
It also transmits to the municipal administration a technical report with a certain date and accompanied by the appropriate design documents, signed by a qualified technician, who first declares that he has no dependency relations with the company or with the client and who asserts, under their responsibility, that the works comply with the approved urban planning instruments and the building regulations in force and that for them the state and regional legislation does not provide for the issue of a qualification.
Regions with ordinary statute can extend the discipline to further building interventions than those
foreseen for which it is important to check region by region, where it exists, the text that regulates the matter with any changes introduced to the national one.
S.C.I.A.
What is the S.C.I.A.
In which cases can it be used?
It can be used in the following cases:
– conservation and restoration interventions; or building interventions aimed at preserving the building organism and ensuring its functionality through a systematic set of works which, in compliance with the typological, formal and structural elements of the organism itself, allow intended uses compatible with them. These interventions include the consolidation, restoration and renewal of the building’s constituent elements, the insertion of the accessory elements and systems required by the needs of use, the elimination of elements extraneous to the building organism;
– changes in the “functional” intended use; or the change in the intended use of the existing building heritage, which is achieved without carrying out works.
– extraordinary maintenance interventions concerning structural parts of the building
– individual “structural” interventions that do not constitute a “systematic whole” and therefore cannot be classified as building renovation works.
– the interventions of splitting or merging a real estate unit into two or more distinct units through the execution of “internal” works, to obtain, separate or merge the units in question.
– expansion interventions of buildings within the existing shape that do not determine functionally autonomous volumes.
– interventions consisting of simple perspective changes (such as opening or closing one or more windows, one or more doors).
– building interventions of variant with authorizations that do not affect urban planning parameters or volumes, do not modify the intended use or the building category and do not modify the shape of the building.
– building interventions aimed at the construction of parking lots on the ground floor or in the subsoil of buildings, also in derogation from the current planning instruments.
– building interventions aimed at creating parking lots for the exclusive use of residents in the subsoil of appurtenant areas outside the building as long as they are not in contrast with urban traffic plans.
Are there areas in which SCIA is excluded?
Only in cases where there are environmental, landscape or cultural constraints.
What does SCIA consist of?
In the substitutive declaration of the owner’s deed of notoriety and in the sworn declaration of the designer, complete with all the technical documents necessary to allow the verifications under the authority of the administration.
Each municipality has its own form to fill in, usually available online.
Can the municipality stop the works?
Yes, but only in the case of ascertained lack of requirements and conditions. In this case, within thirty days of receipt of the report referred to in the same paragraph, it adopts justified measures prohibiting the continuation of the activity and the removal of any harmful effects thereof, unless, where this is possible, the interested party to comply with current legislation such activity and its effects within a term set by the administration, in any case not less than thirty days.
You can use the S.C.I.A. even outside of construction?
Certainly. Any deed of authorization, license, non-constitutive concession, permit or nulla osta, however named, including applications for registration in registers or roles required for the exercise of entrepreneurial, commercial or artisanal activity whose release depends exclusively on the verification of requirements and prerequisites required by law or by administrative acts with a general content, and no overall limit or contingent or specific sectoral programming tools are envisaged for their release, is replaced by a notification from the interested party.
Normative requirements:
LAW 30 July 2010, n. 122: Conversion into law, with modifications, of the decree-law 31 May 2010, n. 78, containing urgent measures on financial stabilization and economic competitiveness. (Official Gazette No. 176 of July 30, 2010 – Ordinary Supplement No. 174) – In force since July 31, 2010.
The regions can specify the subject for which it is always necessary to verify any changes introduced by regional legislation.
For example:
- in Tuscany see the Regional Law of 03 January 2005, n. 1 “Rules for the government of the territory”;
- in Umbria see the regional law of 18 February 2004.
Permission to build
What is the Permission to build
a) new construction works;
b) urban restructuring interventions;
c) building renovation works
Definitions:
a) “new construction interventions”, those of building and urban planning transformation of the territory not falling within the categories defined in the previous letters b) and c).
However, they are to be considered as such:
-the construction of buildings above ground or underground, or the extension of existing ones
outside the existing shape;
– primary and secondary urbanization interventions carried out by subjects other than the Municipality;
– the construction of infrastructures and plants, including for public services, which involve the permanent transformation of undeveloped land;
– the installation of light products, including prefabricated ones, and structures of any kind, such as caravans, campers, mobile homes, boats, which are used as homes, workplaces, or as deposits, warehouses and the like, and which are not aimed at satisfying merely temporary needs;
– appurtenant interventions that the technical standards of the urban planning tools, in relation to the zoning and the environmental and landscape value of the areas, qualify as new construction interventions, or which involve the construction of a volume greater than 20% of the volume of the main building ;
– the construction of warehouses for goods or materials, the construction of plants for productive activities outdoors where they involve the execution of works resulting in the permanent transformation of the undeveloped land
b) “urban restructuring interventions”, those aimed at replacing the existing urban-building fabric with a different one, by means of a systematic set of building interventions, also with the modification of the design of the lots, blocks and road network.
c) “building restructuring interventions”, interventions aimed at transforming building organizations through a systematic set of works that can lead to a building organization that is totally or partially different from the previous one. These interventions include the restoration or replacement of some constituent elements of the building, the elimination, modification and insertion of new elements and systems. The building renovation works also include those consisting of demolition and reconstruction with the same volume and shape as the pre-existing one, except for the innovations necessary for adaptation to the anti-seismic legislation; interventions that lead to a building organization that is totally or partially different from the previous one and that involve an increase in real estate units, changes in volume, shape, elevations or surfaces, or that, limited to the properties included in homogeneous areas A (historic center), lead to changes in the intended use.
Photographs of portals in Umbria and Tuscany
Photographs of Industrial Archeology
Enter the Modern Light Museum
historic houses for rent in umbria
