Okay. So I have a ground floor shop and second floor flat for sale (potentially). No major need to get shot of them, but not a lot of point having them empty. I was practically born in that flat but no point being sentimental if I'm not intending to stay in Italy (except as a Brexit armageddon backup plan and even then Scandinavia has greater appeal).
The first floor flat is to be let out and owned by my aunt who lives locally. So if I sell the floor above and below to the wrong person, it will affect her. No other flats in the building: only 2 floors and ground. The flats are not completely independent as the stairwell and back entrance are communal, as is a small ground floor store room which houses the stopcocks and supply pipes to the flats and the shop.
Despite the shop having a pre-tax profit of €13,000 per year out of which the owner has to pay €7,000 between NICs and income tax plus any buildings maintenance as that isn't a deductable expence (usually a small business like this in Italy is run on a self employed or partnership basis without employees because you can't afford them), I have found a family interested in purchasing and pursuing the same line of business (or they're lying). I have even given them a brief statement by my accountant that shows, among other details, the taxable profit. Retired couple with a 27 year old daughter at university who seems to be interested in the job because she likes working with people despite no experience in shopwork or running a business. In a way, it's not a completely mad idea as it's nice area but with low property values (800 sq ft of shop and a similar size flat for €160000 total). If the business doesn't work out, I suppose they haven't lost a lot: they have have a nice place to retire and may find another use for the shop or can convert it.
I don't understand why you'd want to commit yourself to a 365 day working year without paid holidays, sick pay, overtime and someone to be responsible that isn't you for €6000 a year when you could get a part-job in a supermarket. But I don't need to understand that really. Living with parents at 27 if you're single isn't that unusual in Italy.
But my concern is the parents anyway (I'd love to talk to this girl on her own and make sure she understands the situation properly, but I've so far to get no more than 2 minutes alone with her, which is a bit odd since she's 27 and she's going to be running the shop even if it her parents money and she's living with them) are batshit crazy and that I'm too open minded to realise it.
Having spent some considerable time showing the parents (no daughter present) the flat, the shop, and discussing some aspects of the buildings to them the other day, we then had a long coffee and a chat. The parents are Catholic (not unusual in Italy). They believe the current Pope was put in place by bad people within the Vatican who forced Ratzinger to resign and that Ratzinger deliberately put errors into the Latin text of his resignation in order to invalidate it and show to posterity that it was written under coertion, that the new Pope didn't mention something or other in his acceptance address which shows he knows he isn't really the Pope, that the Covid vaccines aren't vaccines because they only work to a degree and the virus mutates (like the flu jab, I said). And that some lady called Luz de Maria who sees the Virgin Mary on a fortnighly basis suggested Good Samaritan's oil is a better alternative to vaccination. As it's largely aromatic oils, I can't see what harm it can do as an addition, though I personally took the first possible opportunity to be vaccinated.
I actually looked at the 'revelations' of this Luz de Maria type and it's the typical stuff. She's been banging on about viruses for so many years she had to get it right sooner or later and if you predict enough earthquakes some of the predictions are likely to be reasonably accurate. Even so, even if you are religious, the test for a prophet is 100% accuracy, so logic dictates she fails the Christian test. If you aren't Catholic she's either a fraud or she's delusional.
Today, two days after coming up to visit, the father drives up with the daughter to ask the town hall about a licencing issue that they could have asked about by phone (80 miles and from sea level to 3000ft above, some sections of road being like the Michael Caine "Italian job" ending road), to walk around a park for half an hour (there's nothing especially interesting about that park) and to bring me a bottle of this anti-Covid oil. I told my aunt and she said she hopes they don't buy the place, and I'm starting to lean against the idea.
Am I just making excuses not to sell because I have an emotional attachment to the building, or should I just get rid of these buyers because they are going to cause my aunt (and me, possibly) hassle and grief?
The first floor flat is to be let out and owned by my aunt who lives locally. So if I sell the floor above and below to the wrong person, it will affect her. No other flats in the building: only 2 floors and ground. The flats are not completely independent as the stairwell and back entrance are communal, as is a small ground floor store room which houses the stopcocks and supply pipes to the flats and the shop.
Despite the shop having a pre-tax profit of €13,000 per year out of which the owner has to pay €7,000 between NICs and income tax plus any buildings maintenance as that isn't a deductable expence (usually a small business like this in Italy is run on a self employed or partnership basis without employees because you can't afford them), I have found a family interested in purchasing and pursuing the same line of business (or they're lying). I have even given them a brief statement by my accountant that shows, among other details, the taxable profit. Retired couple with a 27 year old daughter at university who seems to be interested in the job because she likes working with people despite no experience in shopwork or running a business. In a way, it's not a completely mad idea as it's nice area but with low property values (800 sq ft of shop and a similar size flat for €160000 total). If the business doesn't work out, I suppose they haven't lost a lot: they have have a nice place to retire and may find another use for the shop or can convert it.
I don't understand why you'd want to commit yourself to a 365 day working year without paid holidays, sick pay, overtime and someone to be responsible that isn't you for €6000 a year when you could get a part-job in a supermarket. But I don't need to understand that really. Living with parents at 27 if you're single isn't that unusual in Italy.
But my concern is the parents anyway (I'd love to talk to this girl on her own and make sure she understands the situation properly, but I've so far to get no more than 2 minutes alone with her, which is a bit odd since she's 27 and she's going to be running the shop even if it her parents money and she's living with them) are batshit crazy and that I'm too open minded to realise it.
Having spent some considerable time showing the parents (no daughter present) the flat, the shop, and discussing some aspects of the buildings to them the other day, we then had a long coffee and a chat. The parents are Catholic (not unusual in Italy). They believe the current Pope was put in place by bad people within the Vatican who forced Ratzinger to resign and that Ratzinger deliberately put errors into the Latin text of his resignation in order to invalidate it and show to posterity that it was written under coertion, that the new Pope didn't mention something or other in his acceptance address which shows he knows he isn't really the Pope, that the Covid vaccines aren't vaccines because they only work to a degree and the virus mutates (like the flu jab, I said). And that some lady called Luz de Maria who sees the Virgin Mary on a fortnighly basis suggested Good Samaritan's oil is a better alternative to vaccination. As it's largely aromatic oils, I can't see what harm it can do as an addition, though I personally took the first possible opportunity to be vaccinated.
I actually looked at the 'revelations' of this Luz de Maria type and it's the typical stuff. She's been banging on about viruses for so many years she had to get it right sooner or later and if you predict enough earthquakes some of the predictions are likely to be reasonably accurate. Even so, even if you are religious, the test for a prophet is 100% accuracy, so logic dictates she fails the Christian test. If you aren't Catholic she's either a fraud or she's delusional.
Today, two days after coming up to visit, the father drives up with the daughter to ask the town hall about a licencing issue that they could have asked about by phone (80 miles and from sea level to 3000ft above, some sections of road being like the Michael Caine "Italian job" ending road), to walk around a park for half an hour (there's nothing especially interesting about that park) and to bring me a bottle of this anti-Covid oil. I told my aunt and she said she hopes they don't buy the place, and I'm starting to lean against the idea.
Am I just making excuses not to sell because I have an emotional attachment to the building, or should I just get rid of these buyers because they are going to cause my aunt (and me, possibly) hassle and grief?
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