We made our offer on our Italian dream home on Veteran’s Day 11/10/2020. We received the deed, officially on January 28, 2021. We of course saw it for the first time on February 22, 2021. Just this past week, May 14, 2021 we received a follow up email from our Attorney’s office about the water department –
The assistant went on to say, she had not anticipated their bad organization nor how difficult it would be to contact them. She however was able to speak to a manager with the sales office. “Apparently due to their incompetence, the transfer (the change of header of the bills from the ex owner name to yours) had not yet been done. It was necessary to take a photo of the meter and to do that, I took care of this by contacting a technician in Poggio Nativo”. …….Week of 5/14/21.
So, let’s get this straight, going on 4 months to transfer the service into our name. Sounds about right lol. “Relax…..it’s ok”…….It is comical how different the American way of life is. Why are we so rushed, so hectic, so now, now, now. If it’s not done yesterday, that’s just not fast enough. Now, don’t get me wrong, the relaxed pace of finalizing things such as utilities is all fine….but it can be extremely frustrating when you just want to get things settled.
So as we speak our water service has finally been placed in our name. Good good! The contract itself to do so was 64.00 euros. We still haven’t received our 1st actual water bill. This will be billed out quarterly. We expect the 1st bill in June. Given the major plumbing situation we came into, we certainly are curious what that bill will cost us. Stay tuned 🤓.
Next is electric, we were serviced with
NESP- National Electric Service Spa.
However, we were notified by our attorney’s office, that service was being transferred to
ENEL Energia. We were also told to expect a 40% discount for the 1st year once the transfer went through with ENEL 🙌🏻. This is greatly appreciated as we found the electric to be very high. So far to give an example to those looking at purchasing and what utilities could run:
298.00 euros contract to connect service.
87.00 euros additional to change from 3 kw to 5 kw.
187.00 euros 1st bill of service.
Our 1st bill we anticipated it would be higher. It was winter and we did have 2-3 (at times) space heaters running. We anticipate the monthly charge will be less throughout the summer months.
Make sure if you are turning on new service you request 5 kw. It is customary to activate your account at only 3 kw. We were informed of this upgrade in service by our neighbors, and what a tremendous difference it truly made. Well worth the 1 time-price increase. Wifi: 🤳🏻……
Well, this has been the struggle of all struggles. We never figured out with vodafone the unpaid invoice in my name. We finally gave up on that. So, to simplify we struggled for a few days trying to get service in Mike’s name. We finally were successful. The contract online was requiring an Italian phone #. When we were in Italy, the vodafone agent told us we could use the stores #. So, we did:). However, now we find out via email they sent what we assume to be the modem to the house address. Of course we are not there currently. So we have 10 days to pick it up at our postal office in our village. What happens after that? Who knows…..so still no wifi. Time will certainly tell. Getting in touch with the company is like reaching the White House. I’ve had my daughter’s friend Maggie (who speaks decent Italian) try to contact them. No luck. I’ve tried reaching them via their fb Whatsapp, no luck. I’ve tried calling the store, no luck.
I assume we will need to go into the store once we arrive and try to figure this out.
So, stay tuned.
Once you get your services “all set” as we say, now what….you need to pay them, right?
So how do you do that? You can request your bills are sent to your email. Good luck navigating that scenario. Luckily for us, our attorney’s office has been assisting us with this. But, if you set it up from emails, from your email you can (like other utilities) just pay on line……unless of course you can’t because you don’t have an Italian bank account. Some of the utilites require it be an Italina credit card or bank account. In that case (our case) you can do a bank transfer. Unless of course your bank doesn’t do international bank transfers. We found out that between Chase and NFCU (our 2 banking companies) NFCU has a lesser charge. The cost per wire transfer internationally is $25.00. Chase charged $40.00.
We also found out today that the exchange rate has gone up. Back when we purchased we paid a transfer rate of 1.18-1.19 (ish) as of today it was up to 1.24. Every little adds up quickly. But, I will say there could be worse things to complain about. Having to pay our electric/water bill for a property in Italy is still quite amazing to me. I guess I can tolerate the increase in the exchange…hopefully it doesn’t continue to increase significantly.
Actually paying your bill via the “international bank transfer” over the phone, with your bank is a process in itself. This am, it took a full hour to get our electric and water bill paid. 1 hour. By the time I got to the water bill, yes I had finished 3 bottles of wine, only kidding. But OMG what a process to complete. I understand all the security questions they must ask, apparently the international transfers fraud is up as well. So, you are asked a selection of questions on who, what, where, how and when. Once that is all completed, you must provide the IBAN number which is 27 #’s long then the BIC/SWIFT # , all the banking info for the utility company and all this must match in their system because once you “approve” you can’t cancel your payment. It is basically cash. So get your readers on, your big girl pants and be prepared for a migraine lol.
I think we are good to go! I have now paid both our electric and water bills. I am still waiting on vodafone, God only knows where our modem is currently OR how we go about recovering it. It’s certainly funny that they shipped it to our house in Italy, while we are not in Italy. Yet, while we were in Italy we couldn’t get the dang thing activated. Are we the only ones that have these issues? Please tell me & be honest.
I really would love to know if there are others out there like us lol 🌏.
Enjoy a little video Smartie took of me today. Don’t mind me. I’m a hot mess. I had not showered yet, I was on hold for an hour. My migraine was starting……which I quickly turn to delirious. You got to be a little bit of silly, a little bit of crazy and a whole lot of stupid to get through this stuff. 5000 miles away and not speaking the language.
It’s all part of the journey. I wouldn’t trade it for a thing! I can’t wait to be there in our pretty little village….hopefully with wifi. Hopefully with electric and running water lol.
I hope you guys are doing fantastic! I hope those of you searching for your perfect home are finding the process enjoyable. If not, maybe you’re taking it too seriously.
Learn to relax. Laugh at yourself….it’s ok! It’s on Italian time.
Nonostante tutto ~ In spite of everything.
Ciao friends.