When it comes to sell your property in Bulgaria, everyone should admit that the process and legalities are not so complicated, but only if your property has been kept in line with tax and legal requirements for all the time since you became owner. However, that’s not the common case. Lack of care by many overseas owners for their properties and unawareness of the required legal and tax maintenance on annual basis is what could turn the selling process difficult and expensive. Our subject in this article is to describe the basics of the normal selling process and if you think that you may expect problems due to any reasons, just follow the link and contact us with your case. / link to contact form/
Let assume that you have in place a buyer and you agreed the selling price for the property. It is recommendable to immediately appoint your representative in Bulgaria who will be responsible to carry the whole process for completion of the sale. The first thing, off course will be to be prepared preliminary agreement with the buyer and deposit collected. The real process of the sale now must get underway.
It is very common, that majority of the foreign owners who are selling their properties in Bulgaria, prefer to delegate the responsibility for the sale to their agents or solicitors rather than flying backwards and forwards which will cost them time and money, as well as dealing with matters and authorities without fully knowing the procedures and requirements. Choosing your representative for the sale is important and you have to trust so be careful, seek for professionals and ask for credentials.
The next step is to supply your representative with detailed information for your property, your personal details and documents related to the property such as deeds, architectural plans/ if you have such/, old cadastral plans/ if you have such/ and everything you are keeping in the file of your Bulgarian property. This will help your representative to evaluate the situation and set the correct plan of actions in preparation for the sale of your property.
Your representative/ agent, solicitor / is now in position to draft the required set of documentssuch as declaration for lack of tax liabilities, protocol of the GA of your company stating the decision for selling the asset /if the property is obtained via Bulgarian company/ and POA that will authorize him to legally represent you in front all relevant state authorities and individuals in the process of the sale. All the documents need to be signed by the owner/s and witnessed by Notary Public. Three possible ways of doing that: Fly initially to Bulgaria to appoint your representative, sign preliminary agreement, collect the deposit and sign the required document in front Bulgarian Notary Public; Second option is to receive the drafts of the documents by e-mail from your representative and visit the respective consulate in the Bulgarian Embassy in any of the Europeancountries. After notarization you should forward the originals to your representative via trusted courier service.; Third option is to sign and witness the documents using local / British Notary Public/ typically found at high street solicitors. In that case your witnessed documents will require also to be apostilled by the Foreign office / for more information please visit https://www.gov.uk/get-document-legalised Most Notary Publics and solicitors are offering that service also. Having back the witnessed and apostilled documents, you should send them to your representative again with trusted courier service.
Your representative in Bulgaria is now in position to act officially on your behalf and actual sales process can begin.
We can divide the actual sales process on two stages. The first stage is for checking and if need getting the property in compliance with the legal and administrative regulations, obtaining all required documents that need to be presented to the Notary and clear all outstanding liabilities connected with the property.
The compliance with the legal and administrative regulations appears to be in most cases the problematic one due to unawareness on behalf of many foreign owners for the requirements and changes of the laws over the years. For example, many people bought their properties before adopting the Bulgarian cadaster in 2008. There was a set period in which every owner was obliged to check, is the cadastral plan fits the old municipal plan of his property and confirm the details of the owner. In fact, very few foreign owners in Bulgaria have completed that procedure so most owners now incurring costs and time in the process of sale.
Obtaining all required documents for the deeds transfer is pretty standard process. Every Notary requires for deeds exchange “Tax estimation document” issued by the local tax office, cadaster plot drawing issued by the local cadaster office or the municipal office, Declaration for the owners lack of tax liabilities and certificate of encumbrances issued by the Registry agency. For obtaining “tax estimation document” and certificate of encumbrances, it is obligatory that all liabilities related to the property must be cleared.
When all of the above completed it is time for your representative to open a bank account on your name or your company name / depends who is the actual owner of the property/ where the funds from the sale should be received. Appointment with local notary now needs to be booked. All required documents together with your original deeds to be presented and date and time to agree for all parties or their representatives to physically attend for signing the deal. It is required that the buyers must present a proof /payment order/ document for transferring of the agreed funds to vendor’s bank account.It is common rule that the buyers are covering the state and notary taxes and fees.
The sale is completed and your representative can forward the balance of the funds to the seller’s account by instruction, proving the transfer with a copy of the new deeds.
