Closing, Part 3 – The Finale

We met in the notary's office to sign the final documents. The notary serves in an official capacity as a neutral party to facilitate the transaction. She ensures that all parties understand and accept the transaction's terms, certifies the transaction's legitimacy, completes the required documentation and, very importantly, makes sure that all parties pay the various taxes.

With my bank drafts in hand, I arrived at the notary's office where a secretary ushered me into a conference room to meet my translator. We were soon joined by the 95-year-old owner's daughter and son-in-law, who represented her with a power of attorney, along with the estate agent, the architect serving as “technical advisor” to certify the official title and registration documents, and the notary herself.

We had assembled to sign two main documents: the deed of sale itself and the mortgage deed. The process requires that the notary read the ten page deed of sale in its entirety out loud to us. The translator had prepared an English translation for me, and we followed along as the notary read in Italian. As the reading progressed, we stopped periodically to discuss certain points (apparently it was important that the document correctly identify the vendor as a housewife rather than a pensioner) and the notary modified the document in real-time on her computer.

The section that outlined the specific property included in the sale generated the most discussion (and confusion). This purchase does not include simply a house on one a single plot of land; rather the property consists of about four small parcels of land linked together, the house itself and a garage that is part of another house altogether.

As the notary read out each numbered parcel and the technical advisor verified it on the official documentation, we found inconsistencies in the documentation. We spent about twenty minutes clarifying what exactly we were buying and after much discussion, gesticulating and paper shuffling (see previous post) we finally achieved clarity, or at least an acceptable level of ambiguity, and we moved on.

Finally, after an hour of reading, discussing and modifying, the notary pronounced the document complete, printed out a clean, fresh copy that the vendor signed on each page. Now it was my turn, and at this point I committed a major blunder.

When told where to sign, I did – using a blue-ink pen. Horror or horrors. The notary chastised me immediately as my pen slid across the paper leaving the offensive blue markings. Apparently, everyone knows that one can only sign documents with black ink. Duly chastened, I signed the remaining pages in black, and apparently my transgression could be overlooked if it was contained to one page – it was never mentioned again.

I thought that we had finished at that point, but we still had to go through the same process for the twenty-four page mortgage deed. This document required less discussion, but it was the notary's responsibility to ensure that I had a full understanding the mortgage contract. This process took another 45 minutes

Finally, in a flurry of activity, everyone stood up, checks changed hands and we finished. All of a sudden, it was done.

I left, dazed, confused and with a significantly lighter wallet. But we now own the house!