Fillide's activity

When you get an e-mail from someone, then you have a look at the source - andrea's e-mail came from a decent IP address, was using the account webmaster at ipsos.it, could be responded to, and was created using Drupal stuff. That is all completely compatible with it coming from Ronald Ashri's perfectly respectable organisation, and the same Ronald is the admin on this Italymag site. The link it entirely unthreatening (I think it's historic). So - my guess is that this andrea was experimenting with a bit of code which needed an address list, so he used something out of the Italymag site (quite legitimately), and there was either a glitch in the coding or something else went slightly wrong and unintentionally the mailer sent all this rubbish out to worry the nervous amongst you! Having said all that, it would be nice to get a quick "oops, sorry" from the admin.

It looks pretty legit to me, so the resurrection of an administrator, perhaps 

Before 1967 there was basically no such thing as a planning permission, even less anything resembling building regulations, as far as normal houses were concerned. When the possibility of these sorts of control became legislation (in 1967) there had to be a provision made for existing buildings - thus any building (or extension/alteration) which you can "prove" was built before 1967 is considered okay.  As Ram has hinted, "proving" can be quite...well....easy!

Next you'll be suggesting tipping the bin men (as I believe is frequent in the UK)! The only beggar who seems to expect to be tipped is the Priest - and presumably it is my tight-fistedness which has resulted in my house not getting blessed every Easter, (or it could be the Black Sabbath artwork on the walls)  

Yes indeed, you are correct in that the values entered on the form for whether the money is going to the comune or to the state (and the relevant codes) are as you state. The total sum (which is due for 2012) does come out at the correct value if you use one of the online calculators - but if you use one which doesn't print out the form for you, (and if your comune has altered the rate from earlier in the year), then the issue which you raise is relevant. Hopefully the printouts for IMU which many comune sites make available have got it right!

I'm gnashing at the bit! There are so many new people I want to annoy - (not to suggest they are new to this forum, just they haven't hit my radar yet)! So - is it here that I can indulge my asocail whims - or have you created a private grumpy old forumites bar, hidden away under the Drupal?

Hmm, I'm not utterly convinced by Penny's post (though since I didn't write the software for calcoloimu..)!. For sure the Italian state has declared that the rate first notified remains unmodified, many comuni have (as they are entitled to) upped their rate percentage - in my experience from 0,46% to 0,56% for prima casa, and from 0,76% to 1.06% for second casa or commercial etc. So - whether the state was after 50% of the 0,76% (the seconda casa/terreno/commercial initial rate) or is after 0,38% of everything - I really do not know. And (probably) nor does any native Italian, nor their commercialista! But - it is not your commercialista, nor your patronato, who the tax authorites will be after if your advisers have made an honest mistake in their advice - it is you who will cop it.

The major query is does your (gas fired) boiler still work! That is the single appliance which I have encountered to be phase sensitive - everything else just says AC, do I care - and so ENEL take the same view. Most salvavitas are simple RCCBs (and no, I'm not qualified to discourse on the difference between  ELCBs or RCCBs) Why I enquired as to the colours of your wires?: well, in Italy black was always neutral - as it was in the UK and the US. That (to me) is a no brainer universal intelligence thing. However, for some reason absolutely beyond my comprehension, the Europeans decided that blue would be the 'new' colour for neutral, and that brown would be the colour for live. Now how effing crazy was that? Earth is brown coloured (for a  layman, innit, brown is what earth is coloured). Blue (accompanied by black, the uiversal neutral) was (up to about 1994) the live feed in Italy.  There are norms for which colour wires you can use (in new installations) - they differ for low voltage circuits, and for two way (or relay switched) circuits, but basically they avoid green for anything other than earthing. The absolute cretinosity (IMO) was to move from Red = Live, Black = Neutral, Green = Ground - (norms which I thought one got ingrained in nursery school wherever one lived in the world). But - in practice, it doesn't really matter, and we could all move to a two wire (feed and ground) system if there weren't professional electricians' lobby groups pressing for consumers to be kept confused! If it works - don't fix it. (Sorry to hear of your tools getting nicked - that was a bummer)

I don't believe that you will be able to change your mind on this. The choice to opt for the taxation base being the catastal value has to be written into the atto, and since it clearly wasn't in your case then I think you are stuck with the purchase price as the taxation base. 

Absolutely agree with KarenR on this. Forget poncy trite things like lavenders which you pick up for a couple of euro in the market, and they strut their stuff within six months. Buy (small) trees, or hedging, if you are really starting out on serious landscaping. (It would be great to see some pics from Karen - though I understand that it is absurdly difficullt on this forum!)