david and maria's activity

Not been on here for a while, been back and forth bettween UK and Sicily over the last few months. To clarify my earlier post, on looking at the receipt I paid £650 not £750 for the volvo estate and £400 full comp insurance from stuart collins, and by cruise down to Genoa I meant driving eurotunnel, overnight stop in dijon (france) then a nice drive down and through the mont blonc tunnel into Italy and got to Genoa around 6pm for the 9pm ferry to Palermo. The car was full of stuff we wanted to bring from england. During the last year we have writen a list of things we want to bring next time that either we cant get in Sicily, or is much cheaper in UK. The insurance MOT and road tax all run out this month, and we decided as the value of the car was so little, and our first year experiment was a success, we will not return it to UK for mot etc as we want to bring over a newer and better car that we will return back and forth UK/Sicily  for the next 3 or 4 years. The volvo 960 estate although in great condition, will become redundant short of finding someone who wants it for parts, but it has been worth it against what Italian car plus insurance would have cost, let alone the exhorbitant car hire costs we used to pay. We reccomend buying a UK car and insuring with stuart collins (LHD sounds like a good idea) and make the yearly trip back and forth pay by bringing things in and out that you want. Dont forget to offset the cost of this trip against what your air fares would be. Hope our experience helps others. Regards David and Maria

Our geometra agreed a fee for his charges and said he would take care of everything from start to finish, his fee was around 8,000 euros for everything and we paid  upfront, then he charged extra 2,500 for engineers drawing, 1,500 for 3d images, which were inacurate and very poor 2d images, then 900 euros for forestale, I am sure topped up various taxes and bolli, which we got his computer produced reciepts for and not the original stamped copies from commune, we had a big argument and ceased work after his charges and and related items reached 20,000 euros on top of the 100,000 euros paid out to the builder. The house currently remains as a shell waiting for us to get some more money together to continue( around 70,000 euros) and then we will try to get someone we feel we can trust not to rip us off.

  Thankyou Pat M, Beery spice, Stefanaccio, for your advice and help, yes we do have all the paperwork in order and a geometra, we knocked down the old ruin house and replaced it with what you see in the photo, we had to keep the flat roof, as thats what was on the old house, but we were alowed to add the large wrap around balconies so we can get the best of the sea and mountain veiws. We await further funds to push on to the finish, and the roof is a concern for me as it is required to be insulated with a slight slope and waterproofed, the builder and geometra say nonte preocupare.

  Thankyou, I will take a look at assifin, regards David

  Hello everyone, We have had such a frustrating time getting residency in our local comune in Sicily. It has been provisionaly granted pending the visit from the vigile, but we have been asked to provide a certificate of medical insurance. We are happy to do this and pay for a private contract to save all the hastle. Does anyone know of an economical way or company that can provide this for us in Italian and what we should expect to pay. regards David and Maria

By the way the full comp insurance from stuart collins was about £400 for the year. David and Maria

 We had all the same dilema's last year and after looking at the cost of Italian cars and how much to insure them, we bought an old volvo 960 auto estate with all the gadgets,leather aircon and everything you need in a car for long comfortable journeys. It was in excellent condition, 85,000 mls full mot and cost only £750 pounds insurance from stuart collins and the car is insured to stay in Italy full comp( even when we are back in Uk without it) for the year. we filled it up to the brim with stuff we wanted to take( you can't get all that in hand luggage on ryanair) We cruised to Genoa and got the ferry to Sicily. We will drive the car back when the mot is due and fill it up again with stuff. Simple, stress free, and much cheaper than buying in Italy and insuring. And if it gets bashed, hey ho we have got our moneys worth. The car is there when we arrive, looked after by a local friend.no problem. Trust me its the best way. good luck David and Maria

 Thankyou both for your informed responses. We will attend the commune where the house is when we return there in Febuary. Thanks again and we hope you have a great Christmas and a happy new year, Regards David and Maria