"Having successfully found our ideal property in Marche, and negotiated a contract with Italian Builders and Continental Agents, we were becoming increasingly concerned at our ability to handle ongoing issues as non-Italian speakers living mainly in the U.K.

A chance web site surf met our concerns, having identified Chris and Cathy Heald of Italian Property Management.  It was clear from our initial contact that this was an extremely professional set up, able to meet virtually any requirement.  Subsequent meetings and correspondence quickly produced a tailor made, value for money service for the medium/longer term, and a clear ability to deal with ad hoc matters as they arise.  We have now activated this service, which continues to be professional, responsive and punctual, giving us an enormous degree of comfort during our enforced absences.  Moreover, Chris, Cathy and their family, have become friends, who we look forward to seeing nearly as much as our Italian house."

P & L – San Severino

“Italian Property Management provides us with a number of services regarding our House, Casa Julia, in Le Marche. They have found us a builder to put a new roof on the house and fix a problem with subsidence - and oversaw all of the work (the project finished on time and under budget), maintain our garden, clean the house in preparation for, and after, guests and arrange for laundry to be done when guests require it. They have also helped on ad hoc matters such as draining excess water from the swimming pool cover (during winter months) and staking out trees that have been blown over during high winds. Out of the holiday season they make regular visits to the house to make sure that everything is in order.
We have been very happy with the quality of the work that they have done for us and knowing that there is somebody that we can trust to ensure that our house and guests are properly looked after is very important to us. We have found them to be very friendly and we have developed a relationship that is more than just that of client and service provider.
We would not have any hesitation in recommending Italian Property Management to any property owner in the region.”

M B
Troviggiano

To whom it may concern,

We confirm that we are happy for this communication to be used as a reference for the services of Chris and Cathy Heald trading as Italian Property Management  (IPM).

We discovered IPM from enquiries on the web and first met in 2003. We were initially impressed by the openness and clarity displayed in the way that they described the services they could provide and the fees that would be charged. In addition they were clearly willing to shape the service they could provide to the particular needs that we felt we had.

Having commissioned IPM to look after our home in Le Marche, we have since found Chris and Cathy to be punctual, professional, reliable and above all very pleasant people to deal with. The services we receive are in fact better than we expected as no matter seems too much trouble. They have already shown that problems are dealt with swiftly and calmly.

Consequently we have no hesitation in recommending Chris and Cathy to anyone who requires their support services for property in Italy.

Yours faithfully

C and A-l L

Gaglianvecchio

______________________________________________

October 2004

Reference relating to

Italian Property Management

To Whom it may concern

Chris and Kathy took on the management of our house in Le Marche in July this year and have proved to be professional, capable and caring agents for the house.

Renting the house out to the first guests is an anxious time and Chris and Kathy were very supportive, flexible and conscientious - looking after the property and getting it ready as if it were their own.

No job was too much of a problem and they responded to last minute requirements pragmatically and without any fuss - making suggestions, solving problems and taking initiative, which made it very easy for us being in the UK.

They keep us informed at all times, are knowledgeable about local services and how to get things done in Italy - and have demonstrated high standards when preparing the house for guests. 

The whole thing feels very safe and in good hands. We would have no hesitation in recommending them as managers for your property

B and L J

Corridonia

1^st October, 2004

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

It gives me great pleasure to refer Chris and Cathy Heald to you.  We have not even started to undertake serious renovations yet, however, the way in which they have looked after us has given me complete peace of mind that we will get the job done well and that they will look after our house when it is finished.

Chris and Cathy take care of every detail, they even see things that need doing that I miss or don’t even know about.  They have good ideas about design, know how to get planning permissions, get the right paperwork and they know all the right contacts.  Their experience in living in Italy and having done their own renovations and holiday letting is invaluable for us.

We feel in such safe hands and I would highly recommend them to anybody who either needs renovations to their house or needs their home letting out for holidays – or both!  Their standards are very, very high and they always find the best way of doing things.  They always listen and put themselves in our shoes.

If you would like to talk to me about their service, please don’t hesitate to email me:  juliefraserellis@hotmail.com

J E

St Angelo

_______________________________________

Dear Cathy and Chris

As you know, my house in Le Marche is a dream come true, one that I have been fantasising about for 10 years.  Now it is actually a reality, it brings other ‘things’ that one does not realise are part of the package.

The renovation project is enormous I know, and the truth is that I would find it impossible to do with out someone like you.  Now the project is under way I can see that working with you is an absolute pleasure.  You always follow through on things that are promised, and I feel fully informed at all times.  This is something that I find very rarely.  The quick response to any questions is also very reassuring.

I am also very grateful for your assistance with the creative side of the project, your ideas and advice are very valuable to me.  Even though it has only just started there have been an abundance of things that needed addressing, this would have been so difficult without your input.

Although I manage with the communication when I am there, trying to discuss technical details on the telephone with builders would be hugely difficult for me, having you to communicate fully on the spot is extremely important.

Sourcing everything myself would also be a headache, having someone with a wealth of contacts, saves an enormous amount of time, not to mention money.  Knowing where to get the best deals is vital to a project as large as mine.

I would like to say thank you, and that I would be very happy to recommend your services to anyone.  As far as I am concerned you are an asset to have on the team.

Kind regards

Yours sincerely

A F

Treia

________________________________________

To whom it may concern

Italian Property Management have looked after all of our requirements in Le Marche from the very day that we bought our property, through the renovation and now into managing the property which is let out year round to paying guests.

Their local knowledge, understanding of our requirements and they way in which they have handled all of the guests (some of whom have made excessive and often bizarre demands on them) has been absolutely first class.

They have sourced building materials and white goods, they ensure that bills are paid and that the house is immaculate for guests. The pool is cleaned, the garden maintained and they are also able to offer advice to guests on where to eat, where to visit and where you can buy anything from Gucci shoes to Panatone.

We could not run this business without them and have no hesitation in recommending them.

C & C

Cingoli

To whom it may concern,

Chris Heald along with his wife Cathy of Italian Property Management have managed our six bedroom villa in Le Marche from purchase in 2002, through renovation through holiday lettings and servicing till the present day.

We instructed I.P.M. in 2001 as to our property requirements in Le Marche, having spent a good deal of time myself looking for suitable holiday properties. All the houses I had been shown up until this were either uneconomic to renovate or were not in an attractive enough area.

However after six months of searching Chris found the jem that we now own. It is in a phenomenally good position with great views, 40 minutes from Ancona airport yet within 1 mile of a small village and easy reach of bigger walled towns and good restaurants.

Chris and Cathy guided us through the purchase (no easy matter) and it is true to say, without the confidence I had in them and their local knowledge and contacts I would not have gone through with the purchase.

The purchase went without a snag (though I know there are many snags out there to catch the unwary).

After purchase Chris organised the renovations, appointing a “Geometra” and choosing a builder.

Chris and Cathy negotiated an all-in price and supervised the works. To my amazement the project proceeded ahead of schedule and within budget and the works were carried out to a higher standard then I had hoped for. The builder in question, Farid is first class, an enthusiast, helpful, very honest and extremely hardworking. I understand he now works full time for IPM’s contracts. Over the last couple of years any extra work we have needed he has done for us at very reasonable prices. The only downside is that he is so popular that a wait may be required but I consider it well worth while.

Having renovated the property to a very high standard I.P.M. now manage the holiday rental side for us, advertising the property, co-ordinating the bookings meeting and greeting the guests, arranging the change-overs, the laundry and the gardening and maintenance.

In a business where repeat bookings are important Chris and Cathy provide a high quality personal service. They will meet guests at he airport and will always help out if the guests run into trouble. They have taken their share of midnight calls and have accompanied guests to the hospital to provide support and interpreting.

All things considered, I find their charges very reasonable and they provide a high quality service that means I don’t have to worry about the property when we are not out there ourselves. I am please to receive an itemised invoice showing all the work they do and the time they spend. It is all very professional.  As a busy veterinary surgeon I do not want to be rung up on Monday morning by an irate guest because the boiler has stopped working. With Chris and Cathy on the job I don’t have to.

Chris and Cathy in their previous lives in Britain have extensive business experience and they have brought this high level of professionalism to bare on their work in Italy.

Significantly they have developed very strong connections within the local community around Le Marche, which is vital to success in a land where connections and who you know is more important than it would be over here in England.

If you want to book a good restaurant and let it be known you are a friend of Chris and Cathy’s you will often get the best table and be treated like royalty. The ensuing hangover however is entirely one’s own responsibility!

In short I.P.M. and Chris Heald offer an unsurpassed property management service in the Le Marche area, which through their extensive range of contacts with tradesmen and in local government enables any property project to be undertaken with confidence.

                        Yours faithfully,

Simon Gubbins

Vino Di Visciola for those of you who do not know is a beautiful after dinner drink - a cherry wine that slips down with the minimum of effort.

This drink is not always easy to find in shops and when we were asked by one client if we could find them a dozen bottles before they went back to the UK the following week we knew we had our work cut out.

A bit of sleuthing later and an after hours pick up and we had managed it.

The best bit was being given a bottle by the client as he took possesion of the consignment. Cheers

“Italian Property Management have made our lives much easier since they took over looking after land surrounding our 300 year old stone mill near Camerino.  We found it almost impossible to arrange regular and reliable garden maintenance from a long distance until we met Chris and Cathy - from that moment all problems were solved.  Since then, there has been a marked improvement in the appearance of our house and garden, plus the added benefit of peace of mind - knowing that there is always someone who is on the spot and and can be counted on to solve any problem which crops up.  We would not hesitate to recommend Chris and Cathy's services to other property owners in our region."

P&J

Camerino

We are delighted to announce that Villa Castelletta  (www.italian-holiday-villa.com ) in conjunction with John Smith, will be offering a number of painting holidays in 2006. Whilst the final details are still being thrasshed out, the principal for these week long events, along with fun, will be based on full board , with tuition in the mornings, the ability to participate in organised trips in the afternoons or simply collapse by the pool or continue with your own painting. John, in addition to offering fine art tuition in oils and watercolours will also teach mural painting and trompe l’oeil techniques. Excluding flights, but including all transportation (should you not wish to hire a car), meals, accommodation and tuition we are hoping to offer this for approximately £825 a head for a week. The numbers on the course will be based around a minimum of 6 being tutored and a maximum of 12. We are also hoping that friends/partners etc of those being tutored will want to come at the same time and just enjoy the Villa and the local area. Clearly a diferent price will be applicable for those not painting.

JOHN A SMITH FINE ARTIST/MURAL PAINTER

John Smith studied art at Stourbridge College of Art in the 1960’s and started a career in advertising. He moved to the Channel Islands In 1970 where he carried on his career, he returned to England and settled in picturesque Herefordshire in the late 1970’s, where he started to work as a freelance illustrator. Portraiture slowly took over from illustration work, but with a continuing interest in the countryside and landscape painting. John taught at Herefordshire College of Art for 15 years. John has exhibited in Monaco, London and throughout the UK and traditionally paints in oils but is completely at ease with mixed media; water colour, acrylics, pencil etc. and regularly undertakes large mural and trompe Leoil commissions

This year we were please to host,  organised through one of our repeat guests, a week long Spiritial Retreat. A group of 10 guests came for a week of physical and mental pampering on an all inclusive basis. From being picked up at the airport to having a daily maid service and all meals prepared (with the exception of a couple of meals out) every personal need was catered for. The three highlights of the week for the guests were the Massage and Yoga sessions – held by two specialists flown in from the USA – and the last night’s Pizza making extravaganza where all the guests were able to participate in making their own pizza and cooking it in the Villa’s traditional wood burning oven.

Through Alison, we are hoping to run one or two more such weeks next year. If this is something that may interest you please send me an email – info@italian-holiday-villa.com  and I will pass your details straight on to Alison who will be able to fill you in on the details.

By way of name dropping……. The yoga and spiriual guide for the week was Jules Paxton who has become the practitioner of choice to many well know people – Donna Karan, Sting, Denise Rich, Annie Lennox and Barbara Streisand to name a few. So you will be in good company!

When you are out in Italy do your calls back home, or more importantly calls from friends and family to you, cost a fortune as you are on a UK tarrif?

If so it is easy to get hold of a 'pay as you go' Italian sim card. For €40, plus your passport and fiscal code, you can get a sim card that should work in your UK phone. It could save you a fortune.

Its easy for us to organise for you and top ups can be done online, over the phone or in a large number of stores over here. You can even set your phone up so that the language used when topping up your credit is English.

A number of our clients have their own cars out here, which has over time saved them a great deal of money (and hassle) with hiring. The greatest downside though is what to do with your car when you are not in the country. You can always leave it at your house, but how do you get to the airport and then back to the house once you return?

We are able to provide a tailor made solution. We can, if you wish, arrange to meet you at the airport as you prepare to depart, take your car off you and then have it back waiting for you as you arrive (a traditional meet & greet service if you like). You car can then be taken back to your house and left on your drive – if you feel that this will act as a deterrent, or we can look after it for you. Of course we can also pick you up a your house and take you to the airport and vice versa.

For those of you who cannot live without a regular dose of English films, comedy programs and Bargain Hunt there is good news!

Whilst our own investigations into getting UK Sky out here turned up a blank (unless you do it illegally!), we have recently stumbled across a good half way house.

No you cannot get UK Sky but if you take out an Italian Sky package you can get a number of English speaking options. For example we took out a package that has the normal Sky channels (Sky news, CNN, Fox, Paramount as well as the Italian Channels), Sky Cinema (Italian – I will explain more later) and Sky Sports (only because it was cheaper to take this extra feature and get free installation).

We had heard that it was possible to change the language on a few films from the dubbed Italian into the language of the film. We were happy with this.

Well what a bonus! You can actually change the language on just about every film (and there are 6 or 7 channels), on sky sport you get English premiership matches (some live) and on the other channels you can change the language on a large number. You also get BBC Prime which shows programmes such as Casualty, Eastenders, No Going Back and so on.

Our package costs €38 a month without Sky Sport you can get Cinema and the normal channels for €30 a month.

Whilst we are not tour reps there have been a few occasions when we have had to take guests of our clients to the local accident & emergency department. Clearly part of our usefulness has been in a translation capacity, but we have also ended up liaising with insurance companies, organising the collection of medicines and have in one case even had to learn how to administer injections – the norm in Italy is to inject antibiotics rather than give tablets to be taken orally!!! Fortunately all of our visits have been for relatively minor things and all have lived to tell their tales.

Whilst I am sure that you all have travel and medical insurance when you come out can we also urge you to ensure that you also have a form E111 (fully completed and authorised) as well. It makes things far easier at this end.

A call from one of our clients asking us to investigate why they had been told by the Comune that they had a very large bill to pay led to a request from 90% of our clients to sort out the payment of a tax that they had never been told about. The Ichy tax (essentially a community charge type payment) is a tax, payable twice yearly, based on the size of your property. The charge is not high (if you pay it) but the penalty charges can make the bill go from €200-300 to over €2,000! The good news is that it is possible to make back payments without incurring the hefty fines. All in all we must have saved our clients approaching €30,000! If only we worked on commission!

As is quite often the case clients either rent their property out on a commercial basis or allow friends and family to use it when it is free.

This example is from the latter category.

Friends of our clients had been offered this villa for a week’s holiday in September. Our clients had given the builders all the details (in fact had told them that these friends would be arriving 2 days before they actually were) and had been promised that they would be gone and everything would be ready… famous last words as it turned out.

Lunchtime and our telephone rings. This family of four had turned up at the house to find not only the builders still there, but all of the floors covered in cardboard, the kitchen … well did not look like a kitchen and so on. They asked if we knew of an agritourismo they could stay at for the week.

Due to our network of clients we were able to go one better and find them a villa with a pool for them to stay in for the week. Pleasing for us to be able to find a solution for them and I think it would be fair to say that they were delighted with the end result… no holiday from hell.

Fortunately this does not happen all that often, but when it does it can cause a whole host of problems.

On one occasion we received a telephone call from clients of ours at about 7:30pm on a Sunday night. Their boiler had sprung a leak; they had no water and no heating.

Knowing the universal problem that there is in getting a plumber out at the best of times I have to admit that we did wonder how successful we would be and more importantly whether our clients would need to take out a second mortgage if we could get them out.

Rather surprisingly the plumbers met us and followed us to the house arriving at about 8:30pm. A couple of hours later having hacked some of the wall away to find the leak (the pipe had burst) a temporary solution was in place. They returned on Monday morning and dealt with the problem fully.

The most surprising thing about the whole thing was that they only wanted €50 for their troubles.  

One of our most frequent users of this service lives in Le Marche and works for one of the worlds largest technology companies. Consequently he spends a lot of time flying to one continent or another.

Originally he used to drive himself (and pay the parking – or expenses would!) or get a taxi. An urgent requirement last March where he needed to get to the airport quickly and, due to snow, needed a 4x4 to get to his house, was our first journey. There have been many more since.

He has told us that he is grateful for our service as he know we will be waiting for him at the airport as pre arranged, we know where we have to take him to and he can – if he does not want to catch up on business or have 40 winks – speak in English to us. His company are grateful as we cost less that a taxi journey would!

One of the many wonderful things about living in Italy in a rural spot is that your house will invariably come with a number of olive trees. Hopefully enough to enable you to have your own pressing of olive oil.

For this particular client, having sourced and bought all the necessary paraphernalia to actually pick olives (nets, rakes, poles, gloves, crates) we were asked to make arrangements for and oversee the pressing of their olive harvest. The 2004 olive harvest was blighted by poor weather and consequently our clients had been unable to pick as much as they had wanted to in time to get them pressed before their return flight to the UK.

5 or 6 large crates were delivered on the morning of their flights. We made the booking, saw the olives start the process and were there to watch them being pressed before the oil was produced. The crop yielded 12 or so litres which we held onto, delivering them to our clients in time for their next visit a couple of weeks later.

One of our clients asked us to source all of the white goods for their kitchen and laundry. This required taking a brief of the ‘sort’ of appliances etc they required and also working to some pre defined constraints (on sizes) placed upon us by the builders.

Not a big job, so we thought. That was until we sat down with 3 suppliers gave them the brief and were then swamped by potentials. Not only the make and model type issues but colour as well. Although our brief was clear in this respect – silver being the choice – did you now just how many types of ‘silver’ there actually are!!

Armed with our information we refined all of it and produced a list of options (with varying price levels) giving what we felt was best choice and value for money and all the dimensions of all the products.

Once the clients made their decisions (very promptly) the goods were ordered and delivery dates arranged between supplier and builders. All went to plan except for the fridge whose delivery date was too far away and alternative had to be found.

The following items were sourced: Electric fan oven, Gas hob, Cooker hood, dishwasher, washing machine, and fridge.

Italian Property Management is pleased to announce the introduction of its News Blog feature from 1st January 2005.

This new feature will provide a method for us to advise you of our past successes and achievements for our existing clients with homes in the Le Marche region, and keep you informed of new developments and projects.

This new service should supplement our website and provide much needed and updated information for you to assess whether you wish to use us to look after your property during your absence. 

Happy New Year to all our readers.

Extra content

This section provides extra content if and when needed.

Italian Property Management is pleased to announce the introduction of its News Blog feature from 1st January 2005.

This new feature will provide a method for us to advise you of our past successes and achievements for our existing clients with homes in the Le Marche region, and keep you informed of new developments and projects.

This new service should supplement our website and provide much needed and updated information for you to assess whether you wish to use us to look after your property during your absence.