Studio Tecnico Michele Sozzo, Chartered Surveyor, Lecce
Studio Tecnico Michele Sozzo, Chartered Surveyor, Lecce
Before you sign anything on a house in Salento, someone has to check what is actually there, against the cadastral plans, the building permits and the town hall records. I do that, in English, for the buyer only.
None of these are rare. All of them are findable before the deed, if someone looks.
Rooms added, walls moved, a veranda closed in. The cadastral drawing shows a different building from the one you walked through.
Works were done without a permit, or under one that was never completed. Until it is regularised, the property cannot be legally sold, mortgaged or renovated.
A figure given verbally by a builder, with no measured survey, no scope and no permit costs in it. Real cost lands 40–80% higher.
You are 2,000 km away. Decisions get made without you, extras appear on the invoice, and the only account of the works is the builder’s own.
Each service is a defined package: you know exactly what it includes and when it arrives. You receive a written quote, with a fixed fee, before any work begins.
The fee for a Pre-Purchase Inspection is credited in full against a Due Diligence on the same property, and a Due Diligence is credited against Renovation Management. You never pay twice for the same site visit.
Each stage ends with something in your hands. You can stop after any of them.
You send the listing and whatever documents the agent has. I tell you within 48 hours whether the property is worth a site visit at all.
I go with the cadastral plan, camera and, where it earns its place, the laser scanner. You get a video walkthrough the same evening.
Permits, amnesties, land registry, mortgages. This is the part no one else does properly, and the part that decides whether you can renovate.
Defects become numbers you can argue with. I brief your notary and lawyer directly so nothing is lost in translation.
Quotes tendered and compared, permits filed, site supervised, payments released against work done. You watch it from home.
This is what makes the difference between a technician and a consultant you can rely on from abroad.
I am paid by you and only by you. I take nothing from agencies, builders or suppliers, and I will tell you in writing if I have worked with any of them before.
Fixed fee agreed before I start. If the scope genuinely changes, you approve the variation in writing before any extra work happens.
Every email and message gets a reply within 24 working hours, even if the reply is that I need three more days for the real answer.
Reports, permits, quotes and builders’ invoices explained in your language. Italian documents come with a translated summary of what they commit you to.
Surveys, point clouds, drawings and photographs are delivered to you in open formats and archived for ten years. Ask any time.
A survey done properly at the start is what keeps a renovation from drifting. These are the instruments behind every drawing I hand over.
A first written opinion and a fixed quote within 48 hours, at no cost. If I think you should walk away, I will say so before you have paid me anything.
Or write directly: geomsozzo@gmail.com, replies within one working day.