I will be moving to Italy later this year and will most probably be renting a flat / room in a flat. Reading this blog, the author states that it’s normal for people to remove the kitchen from their flat when moving, with the new occupant providing their own kitchen, as well as painting the walls. Please tell me this is a joke.
think portable kitchen in a box, the mess kit. how big a flat 900sq ft or less I imagine.
or eat on the street, you are in Italy!
If you’re moving to Tuscany don’t bother there’s NOTHING available 
HGTV’s show House Hunters International has featured a few people looking for houses or apartments in Italy. (I haven’t reviewed the episodes available at the site to see if any are relevant.)
Apparently, kitchens are often often sold as rooms with plumbing & power outlets–to be equipped by the new owner (or tenant).
Nope - not a joke. And by the way, check the conditions for giving notice in case you want or need to move out early. My friends tell me there are many contract forms that basically trap you in until the end of the tenancy, which can be years and years long.
Holy shit has this put a new spin on things. Is this a uniform practice throughout the whole country? The same in cities as well as the countryside?
I believe this is not unusual in Germany either. There’s some phrase that I forget which they use in rental listings, which indicates whether kitchen fittings are included.
True about Germany, at least when I was there in the late 80’s. Cabinets and appliances were very standardized and modular, you could install & hook up an entire kitchen in a few hours. Oddly, I did not hear of much of a used market - I guess people used them in their next place.
Short-term rentals will have “equipped kitchen” (which may or may not include pans, pots and dishes); long-term rentals may have the kitchen furniture or not and will not include anything that isn’t bolted to the floor.
It’s one of the details that you need to ask about.
It seems in many countries kitchen appliances are considered furniture that moves with you. When I rented in South Africa the kitchen had nothing except a built-in stove top. I was pleasantly surprised when I first rented in the United States and discovered all the appliances were included.
Certainly in the UK, a kitchen is expected to come with some cupboards and a sink. If you’re lucky it might have a built in cooker but anything with a plug tends to be supplied by the tenant.
Tbh anything different would seem strange to me, why would you want someone else’s fridge, or washing machine?
To the US way of thinking, for a renter, it’s not “someone else’s”, it’s customarily the landlord’s property. There’s pros and cons here - a standard gripe your average renter might have about their apartment is major appliances that seem to date from the Eisenhower administration. OTOH, it means a renter doesn’t have to learn anything about shopping for major appliances, and doesn’t have to move a fridge when they rent a new place - the largest thing they will likely have to cope with is bedroom / living room furniture.
In fact, major appliances are a variable item when PURCHASING in the US. Often, someone selling a house will leave the washer, dryer and fridge, or some subset thereof. It’s actually rather handy for the first time home buyer, who can simply use those appliances for a while until they need replaced or they want better ones (if they were relatively new, the previous owner probably took them).
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a house in the U.S. where the appliances didn’t convey. It isn’t uncommon for people to upgrade the appliances in order to sell.
All of the rentals I’ve had come with appliances. They weren’t very high end and were on the crappy side, but it was one less thing to worry about when I was renting. I had a decent dishwasher until two years ago, when we replaced the one in the house we own.
You can sort of see the difference when you look at the kitchens sold at IKEA. The IKEA base cabinets stand on four adjustable legs, while typical American base kitchen cabinets stand directly on the floor and are permanently attached to the walls.
North American and European kitchen cabinets both come in standard sizes, multiples of three inches for North American cabinets. European style cabinets, like Ikea, can come with legs but they are still meant to be mounted to the wall with screws. Typically north american wall cabinets are screwed to the wall, where as the european method is to hang them on a ledger, but I see both methods used.
Fridge, stove, dishwasher, microwave are standard items supplied when we build a new house. A rental property with out at least a fridge and stove would be very unusual in Canada.
or toilet?
One major advantage to landlords supplying appliances in the US is that the landlord is also responsible for servicing them. For example, if the compressor in the fridge dies or a heating coil in the stove breaks, the landlord makes sure that the proper repairs are made. Because each unit has identical appliances, it’s easy to stock parts and therefore repairs can be made quickly and cheaply.
In many parts of the US (if not all of them), it’s law for the landlord to provide a fridge and stove, which I’m sure was seen as a way to help low-income tenants. Dishwashers, clothes washers and clothes dryers are frequently available, especially in nicer units.
It’s not at all uncommon to have to buy your own toilet seat. So the base is there, but you have to buy - and scre on - your own seat. I don’t think this is a rule, but it isn’t unheard of either (I had to buy my own seat when I tarted renting my place).
Also, as said above, it is common for the cupboard and sink to be there (at least in the Netherlands) but most appliances need to be provided by the tennant. If appliances are there already, it will be stated quite explicitly as it will mean a higher rent.
I’ve rented two flats in the UK and both have come with appliances and kitchen fittings. If you’re renting, why wouldn’t you want to use the landlord’s washing machine and fridge?
Living in Italy and Spain in the Eighties and Nineties, I was in longer term lets. There were, and I am sure are rental properties that are just the bare walls. floors and ceilings wires hanging out of the ceiling, etc. I used rental agents to find furnished accomodations.
Good news is, you should be able to find completely furnished quarters through an agent.