Legal Blog

Unpaid council and state tax and the consequences

We had few clients who have bought houses in the villages around Varna. They purchased a house as an impulsive buy and never really had the intention to live in it. After they left for UK, the house was left and never maintained. Often the holiday home buyers don’t think about the tax consequences of owning a property abroad. It’s not just having a place in the sun. Obligations of the property owner in Bulgaria Whether you buy your property in Bulgaria on personal name or through a company, you have to submit a declaration to the local town council.

Purchase of debts (factoring)

In 2008, I was talking about the development of the factoring Market in Bulgaria. The credit crisis was in its peak and the few factoring companies in Bulgaria were progressing in their business. These factoring companies were sole owned by few banks. However there were also other private limited companies which deal mostly with debt portfolio purchases and debt collection. The latter have increased their market share due to the fact that they were sub-contracted by the banks to collect bad debts and foreclosures expenses.

Company Liquidation of Your Bulgarian Company

As Bulgarian qualified solicitors, we were among the first ones in 2008 to alarm the foreign property owners of the compulsory liquidations that would follow if they had fail to re-register their holding limited companies. Now the liquidation process has been initiated and there are still property owners that have no idea of the legal process going on in Bulgaria. Therefore this blog article is to alarm all those property owners, who has limited companies and haven’t re-registered them by the end of 2012.

How to Make a Bulgarian Will

Many Britons and Irish who own properties in Bulgaria are turning to me with the question how to make a Bulgarian will. There is a huge difference between the Bulgarian Wills and Probate process and the UK one. That’s why the Bulgarian will has to be drafted as much close to the UK requirements as possible. Before we go through the details how you can make a will in Bulgaria, we have to clarify some jurisdiction specific topics.

Can I swap my Bulgarian house for another one?

Have you ever been in the situation when you buy a holiday home overseas but you haven’t been sure if you want to live in it? May be not, but may be you will some time in the future. In this short article I will explain if it is possible to swap your Bulgarian house for another one, also located in Bulgaria, but on different place. Why would you want to swap a Bulgarian house for another Bulgarian one?

Liquidation of un-reregistered companies now has started

The long wait for the compulsory company liquidation of un-reregistered companies is now over. It has been one year and four months and the Registry Agency is finally ready with the paperwork and the procedures for liquidation of un-reregistered companies. The Company Register Act has been amended accordingly end of 2012, so technically the liquidation could have been started. The problem with un-reregistered companies is that the Brits who have bought properties before 2012, bought it though a limited company and because they failed to re-register the limited company, it is now subject to compulsory liquidation.

Bulgarian property solicitors' role in the conveyancing process

Many Brits who buy property in Bulgaria don’t bother instructing a Bulgarian property solicitor. This is either due to the belief that the estate agents in Bulgaria are regulated as in UK (which is not true) or simply because they don’t believe that something wrong could happen. Real estate agents want just to sell Real estate agents in Bulgaria are not regulated, so their only goal is to sell you ***anything.

Collecting outstanding maintenance fees from Condominium owners

Holiday apartment owners find themselves in the gray area of Condominium regulation. Most of the holiday apartments are located in the so called closed complexes (also called gated apartment complexes or aparthotels), but the Condominium Ownership Management Act (COMA) dedicates only one article to those kind of buildings. This is quite insufficient, having in mind the big amount of such buildings across Bulgaria - mostly located in Black Sea resorts and the ski resorts.

Airline Licence and Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from Bulgaria

Starting an airline business is not so difficult as it seems. There are few things to consider when you decide to get an airline licence and the first one is obtaining an Air Operator Certificate. There are some prerequisites before you apply for AOC. The first one is registration of a air carrier company. You can either register a Bulgarian company or apply though an already registered company, based in another EU member state.

Bulgarian antiques and how to trade them

Probably you are wondering how you can trade with Bulgarian antiques? The answer is in the [BG] Cultural Heritage Act and it’s latest changes. The Act imposes special regime for treasure-hunting, trading, exporting (both sale and exhibitions) of Bulgarian cultural heritage artifacts. Treasure-hunting for Bulgarian antiques Treasure-hunting in Bulgaria is banned but you can see many people scavenging the areas round historic places. they carry metal detectors and other equipment and can be seen normally at dusk.