I received a telephone call yesterday from my agente immobiliare (real estate agent) to say that we can meet today at 3PM to sign the contratto (contract). We had planned to meet three other times this week and each one fell through. I wasn't completely certain our meeting today was going to happen until I arrived at the agenzia immobiliare (real estate agency).
I arrived a little early by taxi because I thought I was running late. The agenzia immobiliare was still closed, so I walked up and down via Romana a little bit to check out the shops.
I saw the girl who works at the agenzia immobiliare unlocking the front door, so I called her name when I got fairly close to her. After letting me in the office, she handed me the contract to read. They had sent it to me via email, but they made a few modifications. We were going to wait for my agente immobiliare, but there wasn't much need to. The proprietaria (owner) had already come by on Thursday to sign the contratto, so I just needed to read it again and sign it.
I was surprised by a few things in the contratto, like un preavviso di almeno 7 giorni (a notice of 7 days before leaving the apartment). Because we have a year contratto, the rule is that one generally needs to give at least one month notice and in some rare cases, I've heard it can be up to three months, but that may be for longer rental agreements.
The girl at the agenzia immobiliare handed me two mazzi di chiavi (sets of keys). I was so happy to have them that I didn't let them go. She also informed me that I needed to pay half of the registration fees, which were 160 Euros. Both the proprietaria and I had to pay our own registration fees of the contratto. She also requested about 32 Euros for the marca da bollo (stamp) they needed to buy to put on the contratto before registering it.
My agente immobiliare arrived and glanced through the contract. She thought it was all OK, but I had already signed it since I read it through myself beforehand. They made me photocopies of everything for my records, but will also be giving me the registered contratto later after it gets stamped by some office.
My agente immobiliare said that she was going to give me a sconto (discount) because she's a friend of one of Simone's business partners. We had become quite friendly I had thought. So, I was a little surprised when we talked on the phone yesterday and she told me how much I owed her and it was the same amount as one month's rent. One month's rent is the normal finder's fee for an agente immobiliare. I felt awkward about asking her about the discount she promised, so I planned on just giving her the cash when I saw her today.
Before leaving the agenzia immobiliare, the girl told me that the proprietaria might also be going this weekend to drop off a new poltrona (armchair). So, I shouldn't be surprised to see her there because she has a mazzo di chiavi as well.
I have a few questions to ask about the apartment, like what is the apartment home phone number and where is the key to the mailbox. I didn't know if I was supposed to go through the agenzia immobiliare or talk to the proprietaria directly. When I started asking my questions to the girl, she told me to call the proprietaria myself and get things worked out with her.
We were going to go to the apartment this evening to have a look, but we need to save our energy for our upcoming trasloco (move).
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