Think I've done something illegal on the house?

[Shiv]

OK I think we've been nabbed. We were over at our house in Abruzzo doing major repairs to our roof last autumn, basically we took out a fire place and chimney which left a hole in the roof and while we were up there we put in new felt under all the coppi tiles. We have now been told - not officially as yet, but through a local that the Urban Police have found out and will be pursuing the case. What exactly does this mean, what should we expect? I am more than worried. Does anyone have experience of anything like this?

[alan h]

Talk to a Geometra - he may be able to rescue the situation - if you have broken the planning rules

[and I think you may have]



.

[deborahandricky]

Hi
I agree with alan h...well worth checking what you have permission for.
I also remember our geometra warning us about doing any major works ourselves as they have to sign them off at the end of works .

[Shiv]

thanks for the info guys.
Talking with the geomotra is difficult - our italian is poor and his english is also poor and there are no permissions on the house so our geomatra cant sign anything off (see my other thread about planning permissions). would have been better at this stage to have employed an english speaking geomotra, other than the fact this geomotra is actually on the town council - eeeks!
Does anyone know what the process is now we've established we've probably done something illegal - am I to be extradited?

[deborahandricky]

Nah......just hung ,drawen and quarted.........just try and get permissions back on track

[Shiv]

eeekss!!!!!

[paul norman]

Hi,
You have probably done nothing wrong at all. Building repairs is not new build.
What you have done is deny a geometra a fee. That is your crime. The greedy b.....s don't like it.
Regards,
Paul

[AllanMason]

Originally Posted by Shiv

Does anyone know what the process is now we've established we've probably done something illegal - am I to be extradited?

You don't say who has told you that there's a problem, but I would first suggest that it would be very un-Italian to go and ask someone in authority if there's a problem. If someone in the comune is unhappy, let them come to you and deal with the issue then.

Second, I'd suggest that you not loose any sleep over this. The Italian attitude to doing things contrary to the law is somewhat different to what us uptight nothern Europeans are used to. An example:

Last year I bought a new car from a Nissan garage in Teramo. The usual way-too-smooth salesman assured me that everything had been sorted out and the car was legal to drive. I assumed - not unreasonably, I think - that this included things like Italian road tax. I saw nothing about this in the papers he gave me, but what do I know about such things?

As the car's first birthday approached, I decided to sort out the Bollo for 2008 so I went into the Teramo ACI (automobile club) office. After tapping away on his computer, the nice gentleman behind the counter informed me that tax had never been paid on the vehicle.

The penalty for this violation of the law? A fine of €4.49 - €3.60 penalty and €0.89 interest.

We came home that night, switched on the satellite TV and the first thing we saw was one of the DVLA's shock adverts where a car gets crushed because its Road Tax hadn't been paid.

Sometimes, you just gotta love Italy.

I suspect it's due to Catholicism: to sin is only human and, when you do, you do a bit of penance, get forgiven and move on.

It's easy for me to say, but I really wouldn't get too anxious about anything too horrible happening to you.

Al

[NickZ]

What's the issue ? Removing the exterior chminey?

At worst you might get fined. Go into hiding until the next amensty

[myabruzzohome]

Our neighbour's roof fell in and we had water coming into our place,it took a year for him and a builder to 'fix' -no permission !!!Tel them the roof let water in so you had to repair it!Or even that a beam rotted so you had to repair it.What are they going to do about it???