Areas served: civil engineer in Chieti and Pescara

Starting point

Where I am based and how far I travel

Ivan Nozzi is an Ingegnere — an Italian-registered civil engineer — with an office at Via Torre 168 in Torrevecchia Teatina, in the province of Chieti, a few kilometres from both the provincial capital and the Adriatic coast. I work mainly across the provinces of Chieti and Pescara, and elsewhere in Abruzzo by arrangement.

A service area in Italy is less about distance than about offices. There is no national archive of building records: the planning file for a house lives in the ufficio tecnico of the comune it stands in, the floor plan and ownership record sit with the Catasto, and structural filings go through the regional Genio Civile. Knowing how a particular comune runs its counter, and how long it takes to answer a records request, is a large part of what a local engineer actually brings.

Beyond those two provinces I look at each request on its own terms, because distance changes what is honest to promise. Document review and design work can be handled from further away; work that needs repeated inspections, or site supervision, only makes sense with the site genuinely within reach. If a colleague closer to the property would serve you better, I say so before accepting.

Municipalities

The comuni I serve

These are the comuni — Italian municipalities — where Ivan Nozzi provides engineering services, grouped by province. The list is not closed: if the comune you are looking at is missing, ask.

Province of Chieti

Province of Pescara

Elsewhere in Abruzzo

Outside the provinces of Chieti and Pescara, work is taken on by arrangement. Travel is agreed in advance and shown as a separate line in the written proposal, before the engagement begins.

The local building stock

What changes from one part of the province to the next

Abruzzo is not one building stock but three. Coast, hill towns and mountain villages were built in different decades with different materials, and each brings its own recurring problems — which is what decides the checks worth paying for.

The coast and the Costa dei Trabocchi

From Francavilla al Mare down to San Salvo, through Ortona, San Vito Chietino, Fossacesia and Casalbordino, most of what stands went up after the war and in the decades that followed: reinforced concrete frames, often with thin cover to the steel, a few hundred metres from salt air. Balcony edges, slab noses and exposed columns are where that shows. Much of it is holiday and second-home property, used part of the year, with verandas, enclosed balconies and canopies added long after the original permit.

Pre-purchase property check

The Chieti hills and the inland borghi

In Chieti, Bucchianico, Ripa Teatina, Miglianico and Torrevecchia Teatina, and in the Pescara hill towns of Loreto Aprutino, Penne and Cepagatti, the fabric is older: stone and brick masonry, floors replaced at different dates, extensions and changes of use accumulated over decades. This is where the built state most often parts company with the approved state, and where the cadastral plan stops matching what a tape measure finds on site.

Unauthorised works and regularisation

The Majella foothills and the mountain comuni

Climbing towards Guardiagrele, Casoli, Sulmona, Scanno and Roccaraso, building returns to stone: thick walls, timber roof structures, and use that is often seasonal. Snow load rises with altitude and freeze-thaw cycles work on roofs, eaves and render, while a house left unheated for months shows condensation and heat loss that a year-round home never reveals. Structural and seismic checks here have to start from local figures, not a regional average.

Structural and seismic design

Site visits

How a visit to the property is arranged

A site visit with Ivan Nozzi is set up in writing before a date is fixed. What I need first is the full address, the cadastral reference if you have it, and whatever documents the owner already holds.

With that in hand I can separate what can be settled by looking at the building from what needs a formal records request — an accesso agli atti — at the comune, which runs on its own timetable and has to be started early. You then receive a written proposal setting out the scope, what falls outside it, the form the findings take, and travel.

It also matters who opens the door and how much of the building can actually be reached: cellars, roof voids, plant rooms and roofs change what a visit is worth. If the property is tenanted, or the keys sit with an agency, that is agreed beforehand rather than discovered on the day.

Send the property details

Common questions

Distance, travel and timing

Four points about the coverage of the Torrevecchia Teatina office, answered before you write.

Do you take work outside Abruzzo?

Outside Abruzzo I look at each request individually rather than giving a blanket yes. Document review and design work can be run from a distance across much of Italy; anything needing repeated inspections or site supervision only works if the site is genuinely within reach. Where an engineer nearer the property would serve you better, I say so before accepting. My practice is in Italy, under Italian law.

Is travel charged separately?

Travel is agreed before anything starts and appears as its own line in the written proposal, alongside the scope and the deliverable. It depends on the distance from Torrevecchia Teatina and on how many visits the work needs — a single inspection and a full supervision engagement are not comparable. Nothing is invoiced that was not agreed in advance, in writing, beforehand.

Can you visit a property at short notice?

That depends on the week. I answer Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 19:00 and Saturday from 09:00 to 13:00, and for anything urgent the phone is faster than email. If you are working to a deadline — a compromesso to sign, a filing date — say so in your first message. It changes the order of work, and often lets the document side start while the visit is still being scheduled.

Do you work with owners who live abroad?

Yes, and a large part of the property market here involves owners who are not in Italy. I work in Italian, but you are welcome to write to me in English or German too: enquiries in those languages are read and answered. Quotes and reports are drawn up in Italian, and meetings and calls are held in Italian — you can bring someone to interpret, or I can suggest someone locally. The visit is arranged with whoever holds the keys — a relative, the seller, the agency — and findings come back in writing, with photographs and specific references to the documents. A signed authority is normally needed for records requests at the comune.

Next step

Tell me where the property is

An address, a comune and what you are trying to decide are enough for me to say whether the property falls within the areas I cover, and to propose a date. If it does not, you will hear that straight away.

Write to the office Buying a house in Abruzzo