Consulting is fun. Every time you come into contact with difficult situations that you have never had to deal with before... Then you should not only use your knowledge, but you will also have to tap into your creativity because there is always a solution, you just have to find it find it..

This time it was about a divorce involving Italian real estate. The divorce had already been pronounced almost twenty years ago and in the agreement there was a clear division of the estate: the beautiful plot with a view of Lago di Trasimeno was assigned to the ex-wife. And that piece of building land just lay there, even though there was a building permit on it. Shame not to do anything with it! And when finally after many years the opportunity arose to have a house built, it turned out that the land in the Italian real estate registers was still in both names.

Then the process started, in which we had to deal with translations, several apostilles and a Dutch Notary to draw up the authorizations. Fortunately, my customer had already done a lot of preparatory work, but before everything was clear how everything had to be handed in, we were soon months further. The apostilles, in particular, still had some difficulties. The Court guarantees the authenticity of certain documents by means of an apostille, but the language in which those apostilles are written also matters a lot. So it could happen that everything had to go back to the Netherlands and the Court because the Notary in Italy did not accept an apostille drawn up in English.

The authorization was also a story in itself: first drawn up in Italian by the Notary here in Pergola, then had it translated into Dutch so that the Dutch Notary could approve the content. Now an Italian authorization appears to be much more extensive and specific than a Dutch one. Actually, all the information that is also in the deed is already there in a concise version. Surprise everywhere, but luckily I had a Dutch Notary who is crazy about Italy and was therefore not so easily upset. Once signed...hop back to the Court for the apostille. Then translate back into Italian.....and hop back to the Court for yet another apostille. Mamma mia... Of course everything again at the last minute, it won't be like that.

But when I sat as an authorized representative at the Notary and everything was in order, the satisfaction was great. With a registered deed, my customer can now hand in the construction project to her Municipality. And the plans are beautiful, it will be a beautiful house. A big advantage was the excellent relationship I had with my very independent and enterprising customers. That made the work a lot easier and certainly more enjoyable!