Case study: a UK buyer, a farmhouse near Spoleto

Case study: a UK buyer, a farmhouse near Spoleto, one expensive doubt

Anonymous, as usual. Figures rounded. Location and names omitted on purpose.

The situation

A buyer in FAKE-CLIENT-CITY had agreed a price for a stone farmhouse advertised as “habitable, APE pending”. The seller’s agent said a small internal staircase had been “always there”.

What the paperwork said

No building permit (SCIA) matched that staircase. The cadastral plan showed the floor differently. The energy class in the draft APE was based on a heating system that had been replaced, so the real class was likely one or two steps worse than advertised.

What the survey found

Measured survey and photographic record over one day: internal heights under the legal minimum in two rooms, a load-bearing wall opened without a structural check, and a rainwater problem that was deliberately hidden by furniture.

What happened

• The buyer renegotiated the price using the written report as evidence.
• The works needed were priced by a local builder at roughly FAKE-AMOUNT.
• The client walked away from the deal with the deposit intact, after discovering the staircase could not be regularised within the agreed timeline.

Cost of finding out

One survey, one report, one call: FAKE-PRICE-SURVEY. The doubt it removed was worth six figures.