Seven checks to make before you buy
None of these checks needs an expert and none costs much. Together they account for almost every purchase that ends badly.
1. The land register extract, always
Who is selling, in what shares, and what encumbers the property. This one document answers half the questions you are asking, it is public, and it arrives quickly. If a seller or an agency hesitates to show it to you, you already have the most important information of the day.
2. Sheet C: is there a restriction?
In this province this check comes before every other, because it decides whether you will be able to live in what you are buying. If the entry is there and you do not meet the requirements, the negotiation ends — better to know at the first viewing than after the deposit.
3. The floor plan against what you saw
Take the deposited floor plan and compare it with the flat: a wall moved, a veranda enclosed, a bathroom where the drawing shows a cupboard — these are discrepancies to regularise, and the bank will spot them during underwriting. Putting them right costs time and money: a negotiating item, not a surprise to absorb.
4. The condominium: charges, minutes, work voted
Ask the administrator for the last two years' charges, the seller's payment position, and the minutes of recent meetings. That is where work already voted but not yet done appears: a roof replacement approved last year is a cost that lands on you, and it belongs in the price.
5. The energy certificate, and the real bills
The certificate has to be attached to the contract and gives you the class. The last two winters' bills tell you what heating that home actually cost the people who lived in it, with those habits and that system. Ask for both: the first is a legal obligation, the second is the check.
6. The tax sum, done in advance
First home or not, private seller or developer, cadastral category, prezzo-valore: four variables that change the bill by tens of thousands, and all of them checkable before making an offer. The notary will give you a full quote on request, and that quote is as much part of the budget as the price.
7. What the sheet you are about to sign says
How long the offer stays irrevocable, what kind of deposit it is, the mortgage condition with its amount and deadline, and what happens to the money in each scenario. Four lines, ten minutes to read, and the only ones that matter if something goes wrong.
If somebody hurries you over those four lines, that hurry is the most telling thing you have learned. A sound negotiation survives ten minutes of reading, and a sound agency offers them before you ask.
In short
- Up-to-date land register extract, sheets A, B and C
- Check on the residents' restriction and on your own eligibility
- Floor plan compared with the property as it stands
- Condominium charges, minutes and work already approved
- Energy certificate and the last two winters' bills
- Full notary quote including taxes
- The offer read line by line, before signing
The questions we are asked most
What do all these checks cost?
Almost nothing, and that is the point. The land register and cadastral extracts cost a few tens of euro; the condominium papers come from the administrator; the notary's quote is free; the seller has the bills. The only item with a real cost is a surveyor's visit, and that is needed only where there are discrepancies or works to cost.
Shouldn't the agency do these?
Some of them yes, and that is what we do: we verify a property's position before publishing it. But a buyer is entitled to see the documents, not merely to be told they are in order — and it is a request any serious agency expects. The difference between the two shows precisely at the moment you make it.
I am in a hurry, there is another buyer: can I skip any?
The two that are never skipped are sheet C and the conditions in the offer: the first decides whether you can use the home, the second decides what happens to your money. The others can move to after the offer, provided the offer makes them a condition. Hurry is handled by drafting better, not by checking less.
Official sources
Note
This guide is general information written by an estate agency. It does not replace advice from a notary, an accountant or the surveyor handling the property. The rules cited are those in force at the date of publication.
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Buying in South Tyrol: the land register and the buyer
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Offer, deposit and preliminary contract: the buyer's protections
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