Legal Blog

Changed construction plans for already sold offplan property

I don’t know what the builders are thinking when they change the construction plans and don’t update all off-plan purchase agreements? Imagine the following situation. You have bought a relatively cheap apartment in an off-plan development.The estate agent have shown you some fancy 3D graphics of how the building would look like. Nice gardening around, happy people walking on nice alleys. The reality is slightly different. Builder didn’t have any experience, hasn’t done any legal/technical research but have started selling off-plan.

Farmland the new trap set by the government

New amendments were introduced to the Ownership and Use of Agricultural Land Act on 27 March 2012. All agricultural land owners or lessees are now obliged by 31 July each year to submit declarations to the local offices of the Agriculture Municipal Service. The declarations need to point out how the farmland they own or use will be used. Art 37b. (1) Each owner shall submit a declaration form in the local Agricultural Municipality Service, where the land is located.

Forging distribution of common areas in apartment complexes

We have been warning apartment owners that developers use incorrect calculation of common parts, in order to gain majority in the condominium General Meetings. Thus they set their own decisions about which will be the maintenance company and how much that maintenance company will be paid. It’s out of question that they form their own maintenance companies and get the maintenance fees. For the past year we have been fighting such developer in Bansko.

Buying regulated land in Bulgaria 2012

Because of the speculations, I decided to write this small post. I will try to clear out whether an EU citizen can buy regulated land directly in Bulgaria as from January 2012. A common misunderstanding is that foreigners cannot buy regulated land directly if they own primary home in their native country. This was valid until 2012, but not any more. The legal grounds are Art. 29a of the Ownership Act:

Full text of the Condominium Management Act

Many people wanted to see the full text of the Condominium Management Act 2011 in English. This is particularly useful for all foreigners who have bought holiday apartments in Bansko, Pamporovo, Borovetz and the Black Sea resorts. The Act can be downloaded from here [PDF 178kb].

Maritime transport in Bulgaria

Transportation of passengers and goods by water is regulated by Order No. 82 of 15 July 2002, Ordinance No. 4 of 9 January 2004 on Recognition of Organizations for Surveys of Ships and Ship Owners, Order No. 87 in accordance with article 362, paragraph 1, section 3 from the Merchant Sea Shipping Code. The domestic regulation of transportation services can be found in Merchant Sea Shipping Code and Maritime Spaces and Inland Waterways and Ports Act of the Republic of Bulgaria.

Railroad operation certificate in Bulgaria

The transportation of passengers and goods by railway is regulated by the Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail(COTIF) from 9 May 1980, Regulation (ЕО) № 1371/2Transportation of passengers and goods by railway007 REGULATION no. 41 of 27 JUNE 2001 and REGULATION № 54 from 2 June 2003 accordingly. The domestic regulation of transportation services can be found in the Railway Transport Act. In Bulgaria Railway transport activities are coordinated and controlled by Executive Agency Railway Administration (EARA).

Air Carrier certificate in Bulgaria

Air transportation in Bulgaria is governed simultaneously by EU legislation e.g. Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 [PDF 113Kb], international aviation law and the domestic legislation, such as the Civil Aviation Act and secondary legislation ordinances. The authority which supervises civil air transport is Directorate General “Civil Aviation Administration”. How to establish an air carrier in Bulgaria Air carriage is subject to licensing by the Directorate General “Civil Aviation Administration”. Each company applicant needs to match certain requirement before the license is granted:

Compulsory liquidations delay for unknown reasons

The Commercial Register Act was clear enough “all companies which don’t re-register by 01.01.2012 are subject to compulsory liquidation by the state”. 1st Jan has passed and there’s no sign of the Registry Agency to have initiated any liquidation. There is even no official statement, neither to the public, nor to all the liquidators who are listed with the Agency. Naturally the Agency don’t respond their officially announced phone numbers (more than 10!

Liquidation of Bulgarian limited company

The biggest issue with the compulsory liquidation of the Bulgarian limited companies is the communication with the state appointed liquidator. Since the Registry Agency appoints liquidators from their liquidators lists, no one considers whether the company owner is foreigner or does he speaks Bulgarian. Some liquidators are not diligent enough when they see that the company owner is not Bulgarian. Sometimes they will not make efforts to contact the latter. One a separate note, this is difficult because the company owner address is spelled in Cyrillic letters and it is very difficult to restore the right English spelling.