Bulgarian courts should accepts/send papers online

This week we have achieved a small victory. We are representatives of a client on a case, heard in Stara Zagora District Court. We have asked the judge to send by email copies of the latest hearing minutes. The judge refused, grounding her decision with “the court doesn’t have that practice”. We’ll that was not quite true. Art. 42 para 4 of the Civil Proceedings Code allows the court to send notices and subpoenas by email.

If your company is subject to compulsory liquidation

The deadline for re-registration has passed. Now all companies that have failed to meet the deadline will be liquidated. Most Britons have registered companies as holdings of their property in Bulgaria. the compulsory liquidation will put their properties on tender and will sell them before the company is closed. So what they can do? Make sure you have someone to check your company file on a regular basis. This way you can find who is appointed by the Commercial register as a company liquidator.

Smartpartners-BG Ltd. declared bankrupt by Sofia City Court

Smartpartners-BG Ltd. - the developer of The Orchard, Bansko- have been declared bankrupt by Sofia City Court on 18.01.2012. The court resolution is sent by the court to the Commercial Register for announcing. It will be officially announced probably next week. You can download the court decision in Bulgarian language from this link [PDF -1.1 MB]. As from the moment of announcing the court resolution, all creditors will have 1 month to present their claims to the administrator (through court).

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Balchik Golf Heights woes

[NB]: Please read Mike’s comment below for more accurate information. Since the developer of Balchik Golf Heights was forced to insolvency procedure, the developer continues to struggle. It turns out that even the sole owner of the capital of Varna Estates Ltd. - KMB Best of Bulgaria Properties and Services Ltd. (company No 131280900) - has also entered bankruptcy procedure. This makes collection of any creditor’s money difficult since the court fees for the bankruptcy administrator for both companies has to be paid by its creditors.

Developer of Balchik Golf Heights enters bankruptcy procedure

The developer of “Balchik Golf Heights” apart complex - Varna Estates Ltd- has been declared insolvent by Varna District Court. The proceedings have been initiated by a group of apartment buyers whose title deeds hasn’t been transfered to them. The procedure is in its beginning because the creditors need to pay the court fee. The case is suspended for indefinite period of time, but all Varna Estates Ltd assets has been seized and cannot be disposed.

Check your contractor's diligence

A new service is offered by the Bulgarian Chamber Of Private Enforcement Agents. The Chamber maintains a register of debtors in Bulgaria. It contains names of all companies and persons who have been sued successfully and enforcement proceedings has been initiated against them. In short there is a public register of people and companies who don’t pay their debts. Access to the register has every law enforcement agent. They can provide information on particular company/person if you provide company number for companies and personal number for Bulgarian citizens.

Benefits of joining a property Owners Association

First, I need to say some words about why Owners association is so important. If you read this you have probably bought at least one property in Bulgaria. May be 80% of you have communication problems and other legal difficulties with the seller of your property. Since the property bubble was quite huge, almost every “construction entrepreneur” in Bulgaria got greedy when they saw the cashflow. Construction quality got poor, client-seller relation got poor.

Preliminary agreement for purchase of property

This type of contract has been singed by almost 80% of all Britons and Irish who have bought properties(mainly apartments) in Bulgaria. Many of them think that once they have signed such agreement, they own the property. This is a common misunderstanding among the foreign property investors in Bulgaria. The preliminary contract is regulated by only one article in the entire Bulgarian legislation(Art 19 of Obligations and Contracts Act): Art 19.

Buying land in Bulgaria without registration of limited company

The Bulgarian legislation have set a restriction for buying land by foreigners directly. This was changed when Bulgaria was accepted as EU member state in 2007. However, the accession treaty allowed Bulgaria and Romania to extend the restriction for few more years. Naturally both states took advantage of this option. The right for extending the restriction is set in Annex 6, part 3 (movement of capital), point 1 to the Treaty for Accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU.