About
How we choose the peoplewe introduce
The standard, the checks behind it, and why a short list is the honest position for a network that is still being built.
Editorial policy Updated August 2026
01The standard
We introduce people we would use ourselves
The test is narrow on purpose: we introduce a firm when we would put our own house, our own boat or our own purchase in its hands. Not when it is merely competent, and not when it is the only one answering the telephone in August.
It is a named person as much as a firm. Work on a protected house, an Italian conveyance and a winter haul-out all turn on the individual doing the job rather than the letterhead above them. The introduction comes with our view attached: we will say which of two firms we would use and why, and if the job needs somebody we do not know, we will say that instead.
02Checks
What we check before a firm goes on the list
That the firm is properly constituted and insured for the work, and that any Italian professional registration it needs is current and in the name of the person who will do the job, whether that is a notary, a surveyor, an architect, a lawyer or a skipper.
That we have seen its work, or somebody whose judgement we trust has, on a job of comparable size. A firm that is excellent on a small apartment is not automatically the firm for a lakeside restoration, and we would rather say so than stretch a recommendation.
That it can work in the way an owner who is not always here needs: written quotations, photographs when asked, and an honest answer when something has slipped. And that there is no arrangement between us that would colour the recommendation. There is no referral fee in either direction, no shareholding, nothing that makes an introduction anything other than our own view.
03Scale
Why the list is short
Como Private is new, and the network is being built firm by firm rather than assembled from a directory. At launch it is small on purpose. We would rather introduce two people we can vouch for than fifteen we have heard of, and a short list is the only honest position for a business that has not yet had time to build a long one.
It grows the way it should: by working with somebody, seeing how a job goes when it goes badly as well as when it goes well, and only then adding them. Where we have nobody we would recommend, we say so plainly rather than filling the gap with a name. The categories we are building out are set out under services.
04Independence
No firm pays to be on the list
There is no fee to be included, no sponsored position and no advertising anywhere on this site. A firm cannot buy its way into the network, and no amount of work sent our way keeps it there.
We take no commission or introducers fee when a member engages a firm we have introduced. You deal with them directly, on their terms and at their price, and we have no financial interest in which of two names you choose. That rule sits in our editorial policy, and it is why the recommendation is worth anything at all.
05Review
How a firm comes off the list
We ask members how an introduction went, and we take a pattern seriously long before it becomes a complaint. Work that slips, quotations that move without warning, a person who stops answering when a job gets difficult: any of those is enough for us to stop introducing a firm while we look at it properly.
Some come off quietly because the person we trusted has moved on. We do not publish a list of who is no longer on it, but we will tell any member who has used a firm that we are no longer putting it forward, and why.
06If it goes badly
What to do if an introduction goes badly
Tell us early, at office@comoprivate.com or through Ask Como Private. A job that has drifted for a fortnight is usually recoverable; one that has drifted for a season often is not.
We will speak to the firm ourselves, in Italian, and set out what was expected. Where the disagreement is technical we will help you get an independent opinion; where it is not our place to intervene, we will say so and make sure you have somebody qualified beside you.
We are not a guarantor of another firm's work. What we answer for is the introduction: if we put forward the wrong person, that is ours, and it changes who we introduce next.
Also worth reading
For people who work on the lake
Are you the bestat what you do here?
The list we introduce from is short and grows slowly: by working with somebody, seeing how a job goes, and only then adding them. If that is the standard you hold yourself to, tell us who you are. We read every one. We check work before we introduce anybody, and no money passes in either direction.
Put yourself forward