Rob…
Am glad you raised this one for trust is very important. And so is professional integrity!
To answer your questions:
1) In Italy you have FIAIP (FEDERAZIONE ITALIANA AGENTI IMMOBILIARI PROFESSIONALI) and FIMAA (FEDERAZIONE ITALIANA MEDIATORI AGENTI D’AFFARI). But not all agents belong to these organisations.
You’ve also got the CAMERA DI COMMERCIO and the MINISTERO DELL’INDUSTRIA e COMMERCIO. Contractors should be registered at the REGISTRO DI IMPRESE.
The question is: are the accepted and practiced methods some of these organisations use to set standards of performance acceptable or not? Judging by the relatively poor performance of some organisations and individuals operating in real estate, together with their debatable morals, maybe not. However, in fairness to these regulatory bodies, perhaps the root of the problem stems from the fact that there are certain unconquered loopholes in the law. For example, a friend of mine has a chain of professional real estate agencies in Tuscany. There is a consulente immobiliare right next door to one of his offices. However, this organisation is permitted to trade because it provides consultancy. It is not operating as an estate agent. This is just one of the many conundrums of Italy’s legal culture.
2) An estate agency can be set up as a company or with one person being iscritto nel ruolo. In fact, at one stage there were problems with the interpretation of this category since either a person or a company could be iscritto. The problem has now been eliminated by a ministerial decree removing areas of divergence that previously existed between legislation 39/1989 and regulation 452/1990.
This means that your company Rob S.r.l. can be iscritto nel ruolo for example, although you as MD or legal representative will have to sit and pass the exam. You can employ people to work for you but they don’t necessarily have to be iscritti nel ruolo. Moreover, you can also have a network of freelance people working away in the background to provide you with clients and again, they don’t necessarily need to be iscritti nel ruolo. Since you are the only person iscritto, you are the only one legally (article 1755 of the Civil Code refers) entitled to receive a commission (provvigione) for every successful transaction. The freelancer who has just brought you a client and closed the sale will expect some financial reward and will most likely invoice you for consultancy services.
Know what you mean about turning the water on. I know of one so-called property management company operating in the Marche whose head honcho complained that the heating system in a client’s property was faulty. When we went to have a look we found that the main trip switch was in the off position!
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