Housing Saga Continued

This is not very exciting.  I tried to make it funny and exciting several different times but just couldn't.  I figured I would still share it in case anyone who is moving overseas is reading this blog.

I may be new to living overseas but the Navy is not.   The base has been here for a while (no idea how longJ) and some things have been simplified to help the military members acclimate quickly to the new area.  There is an understanding that the first two months of your time in Italy will be spent looking for houses, setting up your utilities, moving into your house, and not really getting started on your new job.  As a new mom, I am very glad this was the case otherwise the baby and I would have had to do lots of things on our own.  The process is clearly laid out-find the house, pre-contract, inspection, lease signing, move in.  And there is an entire department to help with utilities since we are not Italian speaking.

To make it easier, there is a hotel on base (the Navy Lodge) which is referred to as TLA (because you get a temporary living allowance).  Every newcomer stays here which is located on the Support Site.  It’s walking distance from all the things you need at first.  There is even a bus that goes to Capodichino for those days when you have to work but you don’t have a car.  Or when you have to work and you don’t want to use your own gas!  Everyone who has stayed in TLA has a secret little understanding of this place.  We lived in TLA for 49 days (max allowed is 60).  We were fortunate because of the dog that we actually had a villa: a two bedroom, two baths, a full kitchen, a balcony, and a living room.  Most TLA accomodiations  are a one room hotel room with a mini kitchen.  This doesn’t sound terrible but after 30 days you are really ready for your own stuff.  And after 40 days you want out.  And after 50 days, I don’t know what happens since we didn’t get there!  Living in TLA is a great time to spend lots of time with your family because there is not much else you can do.  You can watch the  AFN (Armed Forces Network) which shows American television (yippee!) but really cheesy commercials.  Or you can sort coupons.  Or fold laundry. 

While living in TLA, you must pay your bill every ten days.  And then you must submit your bill to housing and PSD (not sure what this stands for) so that you can get reimbursed.  You will get reimbursed for the full amount and a little extra for food which I think is pretty awesome of the Navy to do.  GO NAVY!  During the time in TLA, you must prove that you are actively searching for a place to live by looking at houses with realtors.  This is not hard to do because there are lots of realtors and everyone really wants to get out of TLA.  We went out with 4 different realtors.  As soon as you find your place, it will still be a month before you get to move out of TLA.

We found our house 17 December.  I thought we were doing great since we found our place in less than three weeks.  Luckily, I didn’t believe that things would go easily and figured it would take a long time until we got into the house because of the holidays.  Ironically, it was not the holidays that really made it a long time! 

We found the house on a Saturday and Matt called Monday to make an appointment to have a meeting to set a hold on the house.  YEP-we had to make an appointment to say this is the house we want and we want to make an appointment to have a pre-contract.  Ridiculous I know!  So we did this but after requesting an appointment you have to wait until the landlord provides all the necessary documents before we can actual schedule the pre-contract.  He brought all the paperwork but forgot one thing by the Friday but they still would not make the appointment until they had the paper! We finally got our appointment for the pre-contract 2 January. 

Pre-contract is a meeting where the landlord and the housing representatives and the tenants meet to discuss what we want.  For example, the landlord did not want to pay for water, even though it is required.  We wanted to have the garage door be automatic. We asked for a dryer hookup (gas) in the bathroom or the kitchen.    We agree on the price and set up an appointment for the inspection.  A tip for all new people: be more aggressive with your contract.  We were very happy with our house and didn’t ask for much and we didn’t think about some of the little details.  For example, there is an alarm system (which is required by the Navy) but we found out after we moved in that it only works when you leave the house.  Of course we didn’t negotiate an alarm that works while you are in the house because we didn’t know it wouldn’t work until later.  So check the little things like that and ask for everything. 

Surprisingly, the inspection was set for two days later.  This was the quickest part of the process!  Everyone said that the first time, the house will fail.  Matt told them he wanted to be part of the inspection.  He even skipped work (remember it doesn’t really count as skipping as long as you are doing something related to house hunting!).  We waited and finally about noon Matt called housing to find out.  For whatever reason, they did not call us before the inspection, which passed!  I think that if they had called, we would have learned about the alarm system and other little details about the house, such as all the lights blink like a strobe light when you turn them on.  And Matt says that if he had been there, the house would have failed inspection because of him! 

Now that the house has passed inspection we must again make an appointment to go and sign the lease with the housing people, the landlords, and the tenants.  This time you have to bring two months’ rent in cash.  It took a few hours because you have to sign 5 copies of the lease!  Matt read every word on the lease (the English words at least) and we double checked that things were going to happen like we wanted.  After you sign the lease, you have 5 days to get your electricity turned on and then you move in.  Our move in date was 18 January…exactly 32 days after we found the place.  And we passed inspection the first time!  This is not a quick process!

After the lease signing, we go through the appliance check out and we signed up to receive washer, dryer (not gas cause it didn’t work out), refrigerator, kitchen hutch, 4 wardrobes, 2 converters, and a deep freeze.  These will all be delivered on the same day as we move out of TLA, the power should be turned on, and our household goods are delivered.  Immediately after signing out the appliances, we are told to rush over to the NEX for the residential services.  Here we sign up for electricity, internet, phone, and anything else you might need in your house.

This is a tricky little situation.  You need to quickly get your electricity turned on because you are getting kicked out of TLA in 5 business days.  You don’t speak Italian so you don’t really know how to contact the ENEL (Power Company) to get it turned on without using the services provided.  The NEX residential service seems too good to be true!  You go there and tell them when you want your power and internet turned on and they do all the work.  They even translate and pay the bills for you.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of little tidbits we did not know beforehand.  For example, the NEX requires a deposit for the phone/internet (you must get both) and a deposit for the electricity.  They also charge a fee to translate/pay your bill.  That is reasonable but they actually charge you PER bill. So we are paying people monthly to pay our bills, which come ever TWO months.  This part really made me mad but there was not really another option, unless I could quickly learn Italian so I could do it on my own!  You have to pay for convenience.  If you noticed that we pay monthly even though we are billed every other month, you might wonder what we are being charged.  The months that are not billed by the Italian utilities we are charged an estimate based on other previous usage.  Again, I am a bit flummoxed by this but it is not worth the hassle to try to find another way. 

While signing up for the internet and electricity, we find out that there is a technical problem with the internet and they have NO clue when it will be fixed or when we can expect to get the internet.  He tells us to call back in ten days.  Ten days later I go into the NEX to ask about the situation and he says that it is fixed and he will check the list.  I am currently not on the list so he can’t tell me when I will get internet.  I asked him when can I get on the list and he said he has no control, the phone company does that part.  I asked him how I get on the list.  He says they call you and tell you when you are on the list.  I wanted to know that I was on the list to be called whenever they were ready to put me on the schedule and he couldn’t seem to understand. Finally, I was able to find out that I was on the list to get service but they had not scheduled a time yet.  He thought schedule and list were the same thing and I did not! 

So everything is set for us to move in on the 18 January.

Things I learned from this process: 

1.    It is important to be flexible and enjoy the difference in the cultural approach to renting a home.

2.    I am cheap.  I don’t like paying extra for things.  I don’t like having large deposits because other people skip out on bills (how do you skip out on a bill when you work for the military I am not sure)

3.    You need to take a little more time examining the details of the home you like. 

4.    Ask for the moon.  Most likely you will get it.

5.    They do not pro-rate here.  Your lease starts on whatever day you sign and that will be the day you pay the bill from then on.

6.    The Italians are not big phone people.  The entire country does not use voicemail. It costs extra to have a voice mailbox on your cell.  And they do not try to call repeatedly.  They call once and that counts as calling all day. (This we found out during the inspection).  Also, Vodafone (the cell phone service on the base which most people use out of convenience) is not the greatest service so you will often not have a signal.  These two situations (no signal, and only attempting once without leaving a message) means you must be aggressive if you want to know something.  Call, call again, and call one more time!