The geometra: how are they involved in the buying process?

I often hear people saying that to buy a property in Italy you just need a geometra and a notary, you do not need anyone else. This may be true; however, I’d like to clarify the involvement and the role of the geometra in the buying process. We’ll talk about the role of the notary in one of our next articles.

First of all, it is worth to remind who the geometra is. It’s an expert in land registry values, measurements, land valuation, topographic surveys and estimates of properties and buildings. They perform land registry consultancy, as well as land checks; they draft energy performance certificates (APE), documents for building renovation works, estimates and appraisals of damages resulting from accidents or natural disasters.

They can draw up plans, but that often is in collaboration with an architect supervisor, who is more skilled in this field.

So, why should you hire a geometra when you buy a property?

They can check the correspondence between the actual floorplan and the official registered floorplan. To be fair, the correspondence between the actual floorplan and the official floorplan should be certified by the seller’s geometra regardless, so that you can save the money of your geometra’s involvement.
The geometra can tell if any renovation work has been done in compliance with rules and local regulations, so you may want to hire them in case the property has undergone a massive restoration and you want to make sure all associated documents are in order before making any offer to buy.

They can also check the structural state of the property, and that may be relevant in case you are going to buy a fixer-upper.
You may also want a survey by the geometra if you wish to make alterations and want a preliminary assessment of their feasibility. However, this can also be done by an architect, who is usually more skilled and qualified than a geometra.

The involvement of the geometra is essential when, for example, there is a land for sale and the borders are not clear: the geometra can measure and clearly identify them; or if the property for sale is made up of more parts, each identified by different cadastral data: the geometra identifies all those parts and all cadastral data, which will all have to be included in the offer to buy.

Lastly, though, a geometra is not a lawyer and does not have the skills to check nor draft your offer to buy and to protect your money, so, for that, you may want to have a lawyer.

This article is not exhaustive and is a guidance only.

You can find a lot of info on the buying process here.
If you need assistance in the buying process, please do get in touch.

Barbara De Benedittis Relocation and Legal in Italy