Real estate transactions in Bulgaria

What does our company provide to you?

One of main activities and fields of expertise of our team are the real estate transactions and building legislation.

First of all our company works in enhanced co-operation with plenty of notary public offices such as Notary public Albena Sherbanova in Sofia city, Alexander Tsvetanov in town of Breznik. Thus we ensure and provide professional legal consulting to our clients of highest level.

A minor part of the activities and services that our company provides concerning real estate transactions are as follows:

Why should you use professional help when buying real estate property?

No matter whether you hold the side of the transferor of the acceptor in the real estate transaction there are a few bound steps you must fulfill before the final transaction act.

First of all if you are a buyer of the property /acceptor/ you must make sure yourself that the vendor is a holder of the ownership rights. Therefore all documents for the ownership should be carefully examined and also some necessary verifications be made including a certification by the charges register for a period of time at least ten years.

The last thing is necessary not only in order to be followed up all the legal real estate transactions in the past, done by the previous owners, but also to find out eventual charges on the estate such as mortgages. If there are any charges on the estate they are resistant to the new buyer. In case there is any charge /for example a mortgage/ done more than 10 years before it lapses /loses its force/.

It is also very necessary the client to be consulted what kind of transaction should be done – sale-trade, donation, exchange (barter), conveyance after duty to care and maintenance, etc. There are different hypotheses dependent on the parties such as ties of relationship, their real purposes, expences etc.

ДFor example in case of transaction between relatives with donation local taxes are much lower than any other kind of transaction. However, later on donation could be disputed by other relatives of the donator after his death in case there is “reserved power” guaranteed by the law /reserved power is the right of the inheritor to receive part of the legator’s possessions/.

Another example is in case of common estate /joint ownership/ when the joint owner wishes to sell his part to third party he must first offer the other joint owners to buy his share at the same conditions. This statutory prohibition could be evaded by doing a simulated donation or exchange with other property.

There are plenty and various of obstacles that might arise in every translation and that is why this exposition could not neither summarize all possible hypotheses not give the most proper solution for them. That is why we highly recommend to make a professional consultation with a lawyer about the best way of transaction.

In the past years it became a practice that real estate transactions are done with the assistance of real estate agencies. Their employees often offer the parties blank deeds /preliminary contracts mainly/ that are not considered with the exact property and parties specific characters. When using services provided by such agencies you must be aware of that their main interest is to conclude the transaction the fastest way possible. Their completion of the contract is fulfilled with the undersigning of the Preliminary contract for real estate transaction when they most often receive their payment by the parties.

Legal aid is also preferable because real estate agencies often represent both parties. That is one more reason to refer to a lawyer’s consultation. That consultations include not only the most proper way to complete the transaction but also take part into conduct of negotiations. This is extremely important when the subject-matter are newly built properties and also old built properties with complications such as succession, restitution, etc.