[GTranslate]Houses for sale for 1 euro: this has been happening in Italy, for several years, in small towns at risk of depopulation and where there are many old ruins that no one would ever buy.

But in some cases, the mayors “reckon without their hosts”. And the descendants of the ancient owners of those properties turned up, whose existence was unknown because they were children or grandchildren of emigrants abroad.

This is the case of Josie Faccini, an Italian-Canadian, who claimed ownership of her grandmother’s house in Castropignano, a small village of a thousand souls in the province of Campobasso, Molise, offered for sale by the Municipality for 1 euro. This was revealed by CNN (in this article: Why not everyone is happy with Italy’s €1 homes bonanza) who interviewed the woman who claims not to not even been notified of the sale of the family home. “I had heard about the sales plans and I contacted the Municipality of Castropignano in August,” Faccini told CNN.

“Then I saw the article that said the mayor had sent notifications overseas, but no one in my family has been informed. I am angry and frustrated. I would love to see the city flourish and help be a part of it, but please don’t steal our home from us”, emphasized Josie who says she lived in that house and wants to return, together with her family spread all over the American continent who are organizing themselves to assert their rights.

Interviewed by CNN, the mayor of the small Italian municipality, Nicola Scapillati, defended himself by saying that he had not been contacted by that family and that other descendants of the houses put up for sale would have come forward after the announcement of the initiative.

There are many, we said, the Italian municipalities that have launched the initiative to sell the old abandoned houses for 1 euro: one of the first was the Municipality of Zeri, in the province of Massa Carrara (Tuscany), many years ago: in that case, the ruins they were even given as gifts, as long as the “buyers” committed themselves to renovating them. A way to recover the existing building stock and, perhaps, attract new tourists – if not residents – enticed by the idea of ​​owning a “holiday home” at no cost (refurbishment excluded, of course)

The problem, as Josie Faccini’s case demonstrates, is making sure there are no descendants of the old owners in circulation yet.

One of the promoters of the initiative, Mussomeli in the province of Caltanissetta, to avoid problems has set up a special office that deals with this (https://www.comunedimussomeli.it/news/142-progetto-di-promo-del -territory-manifestation-of-interest) and it seems to work: from 2019 to today, with the “CASEA1EURO” project, the small Sicilian municipality has successfully sold hundreds of houses “on offer”. In this case, without the risk that one day someone will knock on the door asking to enter his house…