Buying a Farmhouse in Tuscany: 8 Checks Before You Make an Offer

Picture the viewing. A gravel track, a bend, a stone house with its outbuildings and a view across the valley. The viewing shows the stone, the light and the view; the registers, the deeds and the land hold the rest. What follows sets out eight checks to put in hand before an offer is made, who normally carries them out, and the questions that follow from them. It is general information from public sources and describes no particular property.

Why is a country house not a flat in the city?

A flat is typically one unit within a single building, reached from a public street and served by public utilities. A farmhouse is often a group of buildings on several plots. Older Tuscan farmhouses were often extended or divided over decades, sometimes informally, and a farmhouse may depend on a private track, a well or a septic system. Each of these is a separate question in law and each has its own record.

Outside the urbanised areas, Tuscan regional law also governs what may be done with rural buildings, including a change of their agricultural use.^[1] Tuscan regional law draws a line at 15 April 2007: stricter limits on changing agricultural use apply to rural buildings whose works began after that date.^[2] What applies to a given building depends on its date, its use and the municipal plan, which is one reason for asking before an offer and not after.

The eight checks that follow take the issues in the order in which a buyer’s lawyer and technician usually meet them. They are not ranked: any one of them can change a decision.

What are the eight checks?

1. Do the plans match what stands?

Two records describe a building: the cadastral plan kept by the Agenzia delle Entrate and the municipal building file. They answer different questions and are corrected by different procedures, so agreement with one does not show agreement with the other.

A technician compares what stands with both before the offer, since the deed must state that the cadastral data match the actual state and, for buildings begun after 17 March 1985, give the permit details.

2. Are there unauthorised works?

Older farmhouses often carry additions or conversions made without a permit. Some deviations fall within the tolerances of the national building code,^[3] some can be regularised after the event,^[4] and Tuscan law provides for demolition orders for works without a permit.^[5]

Whether a given work can be regularised, at what cost and in what time, is a question for a technician and a lawyer before a preliminary contract is signed.

3. Is there access, and on what right?

A farmhouse may be reached by a public road or by a private track that crosses other people’s land. The right to use a track rests on a documented right of way (a servitù, an easement: a burden on one plot for the benefit of another) in the title or, in some cases, on the law, for example where a plot has no exit to a public road.^[6]

The check is what the title says, which plots the track crosses and whether the right covers vehicles as well as people on foot.

4. Where do the water and the drainage come from and go?

Water may come from the public aqueduct, a well or a spring. In Tuscany an owner may use water from a domestic well on the land within annual volume limits, a new well is notified to the competent office within thirty days of the end of the works, and in some areas an authorisation is needed instead.^[7]

Wastewater that does not go to the public sewer needs an authorisation from the comune, the municipality.^[8] Septic or Imhoff tanks with sub-irrigation or a trench are among the systems the regional regulation describes.^[8] Whether a given well or system was declared or authorised is found in the file and on site, not assumed.

5. What are the heating, the roof and the certificates?

The deed must mention the energy performance certificate (the APE, attestato di prestazione energetica) and have a copy attached.^[9] The certificate is valid for up to ten years, provided the required checks on the heating system have been respected.^[10]

The habitability notice (agibilità, filed as an SCA) is not a condition of sale, but its absence can give rise to claims against the seller.^[11] The condition of the roof and the heating plant is a technical matter, and a technician inspects it.

6. Are there heritage or landscape constraints?

Large parts of Tuscany are subject to landscape protection, including coastal strips, lakeshores, river banks, parks, forests and Apennine land above 1,200 metres.^[12] Works there that alter the place generally need a landscape authorisation before they begin,^[13] and it cannot in general be granted afterwards.^[14]

A building declared of cultural interest can also carry a State right of pre-emption, so the comune and the Soprintendenza, the State heritage and landscape authority, are asked, not the sales description.

7. Where are the boundaries, and what do the neighbours hold?

Rural properties often lack boundaries that match a modern survey, and the cadastre serves identification and tax, not the fixing of boundaries. A neighbour may hold rights over the property, or the property over the neighbour’s land, that the deed does not describe plainly; an easement without visible and permanent works devoted to it cannot be acquired by long use.^[15]

A technician walks the boundary against the map, and the lawyer reads the title for burdens in both directions.

8. Who owns what?

The seller must be entitled to sell the whole property, and an incomplete inheritance, where all co-heirs must sign, or a registered mortgage or attachment can interrupt the chain of title. A farmhouse with land often has several plots and several cadastral entries, and the sale of agricultural land can be subject to a right of pre-emption held by a tenant farmer or a neighbouring farmer.

The notaio, the notary, checks the registers before the deed; the buyer’s lawyer reads them earlier, to see what the buyer would actually acquire.

Who carries out the checks?

Three roles appear in most purchases, and they are not interchangeable.

The lawyer reads the title deeds, the registers and the preliminary contract, and advises the buyer on what they mean. This is where checks 2, 3, 7 and 8 are read for their legal effect. The technician (a geometra, architect or engineer) compares the building with the cadastral plan and the building file, measures boundaries, and inspects the structure, the roof, the water and drainage and the heating. This is where checks 1, 4, 5 and 6 begin.

The notaio receives the deed, identifies the parties and checks the registers, and sees that the statements the law requires are in the deed. The notaio acts for neither party. The condition of the building and its conformity with the plans are for the buyer’s technician. See “Due Diligence: What Sinks a Purchase”.

An advisor on the buyer’s side is not a substitute for any of the three. Each issue is cheaper to identify before a preliminary contract is signed than after, which is why the checks start before the offer.

What should you ask before making an offer?

These are the questions to put before an offer is made:

– Does the cadastral plan match the building as it stands, and does the building match the permits in the municipal file?

– Has any work been done without a permit, and if so, has it been regularised, and what remains?

– What does the title say about access, and does the right of way cover vehicles?

– Where does the water come from, and if from a well or spring, was it declared? Where does the wastewater go, and is the discharge authorised and maintained?

– Does the house have a current energy performance certificate, and what is known about the heating and the roof?

– Is the property or any part of it within a landscape area, or declared of cultural interest?

– Does the boundary on the ground match the map, and does any neighbour hold a right over the property, or the property over theirs?

– Is the seller the sole owner of every plot in the sale, are there heirs who must sign, and is any mortgage or other charge registered?

– Does any right of pre-emption apply to the land?

– May the buildings be used as they are now, or changed, under the regional rules for the rural territory?

Enquire

Considering a country house? Bring us the questions before you make an offer. Enquiries are handled in confidence. Enquire →