Giambrone instructed by British family after Italian authorities seize their £250,000 holiday home in Dolcedo

Giambrone has been instructed to act on behalf of a group of foreign property owners - including a British family from Surrey - in the defence of a recovery action by the Italian authorities.

In a long-standing legal battle, the Italian authorities seized several holiday homes in the village of Dolcedo (Liguria) alleging that these properties were illegally built on  agricultural land. This highlights a good reason to instruct an experienced Italian Real Estate lawyer when buying real estate in Italy.

Giambrone’s Avv. Alessandra Bellanca appeared on behalf of a group of investors and successfully defended them: the Court of First Instance in Imperia ruled that these seizure orders were illegitimate and revoked the seizure orders.

The Public Prosecutor appealed these decisions at the Tribunale del Riesame in Imperia and the Court of Appeal overturned the decision, ruling that the seizure orders were correctly issued, regardless of whether the properties were bought from the developers in good faith at the time of purchase. Most of the properties in Dolcedo have now been sequestered, with each family being given just sixty days to remove their possessions and vacate the properties.

The further appeal advanced by Avv. Bellanca has now been filed and the case has been transferred to the Italian Supreme Court in Rome: a final decision is likely to be reached before Christmas, hopefully bringing an end to this legal nightmare for the property investors’ group.

“The case continues to attract wide media attention as the majority of owners are British, German, Swiss and Dutch property investors” says Avv. Alessandra Bellanca. “I am of the opinion that the decision of the Court of Appeal is flawed and incorrect. My clients are the victims and not, as alleged by the Prosecutors, the perpetrators. The facts remain that the holiday homes were bought in good faith, all due diligence documents were in order at the time of purchase, and the Notaries transferred the ownership to them.  It should therefore be up to the Municipality of Dolcedo and the Province of Imperia to sort this mess out. My clients deserve an unreserved apology from the Municipality for the anguish that my clients have been put through. I am confident that the Supreme Court will rule in our favour in a couple of months”.

The story of the British owners, Jane and Brendan Crossan, has also been featured in a recent article on the Daily Mail:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2471508/British-family-forced-sell-house-Italian-authorities-seize-holiday-home.html