Greek roofs and steel rods.

I was at a Positive Money meeting over the weekend and someone told me that on a trip to Greece he noticed half the houses in several areas looked fine except that they had steel reinforcement bars sticking out of the roofs. Those are the so called “rebars” used to reinforce concrete.

He was informed that the innocent explanation for this is that householders are planning to build an additional storey for their children. But apparently the real explanation is that in Greece, one doesn’t pay property tax on a house which isn't complete. And if there are rebars sticking out of the house then obviously the house isn't  - er – “complete”.

The fact that a family has been living in the house for years is apparently irrelevant. There’s more about this tax dodge here.