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[News] Why not everyone is happy with Italy's €1 homes bonanza


Dewey

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Castropignano Bruno Sardella-2

Dozens of towns in Italy have been selling abandoned dwellings for a song, sparking a new kind of gold rush as enthusiastic buyers from all over the world try to secure a bargain in beautiful, remote villages.
The deal is seen as a win-win, with dying communities getting an influx of new life and investment as dilapidated properties spring back to life and, more importantly, start contributing revenue.
But there could still be losers.
Now families of the original owners of some of the abandoned homes are starting to come forward to stake their claim on these old stone structures, saying that they should've been contacted to be made aware of the sales.
Among those now disputing the potential sell-off of their family home is Josie Faccini of Niagara Falls, Canada.
Faccini's grandmother, Consilia Scapillati, migrated to Canada in the 1950s, leaving behind a cute little stone house in the historical center of Castropignano in Italy's southern Molise region that the family has visited regularly over intervening years.
After reading about Castropignano's plan to offload its old housing stock, Faccini began worrying about a "property grab" and has spent months trying, from afar, to reassert her claim to the home her grandmother left decades ago.
And she's not the only one. Despite efforts by local authorities to contact the families of the original owners, others say they've also feared losing their ancestral homes as they struggle to assert their claim because of distance, time and legal complications.

'Angry and frustrated'
"I'd heard of the plans of selling and reached out in August," Faccini tells CNN Travel. "Then I saw the article saying the mayor had sent notifications abroad but no one in my family was notified of this."
Faccini says she's sent multiple emails and a registered letter to Nicola Scapillati, the mayor of Castropignano, who shares the same surname as her grandmother, but has received no reply.
"Nothing," she says. "I am so angry and frustrated. I would like to see the town flourish and help be a part of this, but please don't steal our home from us."
Faccini says she finally got a reply from the mayor after an agonizing eight month wait, but says Scapillati told her she needed to provide a deed of ownership and information to verify her claim.
This could prove tricky. Asked by CNN to comment on Faccini's claim, Scapillati points out that over the years, the home could have passed to new owners outside the family or to other heirs or distant relatives. Faccini has cousins back in Italy who she has never met.

It's also not unknown for sales or transfer of ownership to be made informally in Italy, especially in rural locations, to avoid taxes, Scapillati says.
Castropignano is doing things differently compared to other places selling € 1 homes. The town has roughly 100 abandoned buildings, but the mayor says he wants to match interested parties with the right house for them.
He says he’s moving along two parallel paths, reaching out both to potential buyers and old owners at the same time, step by step, to ensure demand meets supply.
Once interested buyers get in touch with a detailed plan of what kind of house they'd like and why, the mayor says he attempts to reach the original owners based on the land registry data.

 

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