Assisting you to obtain annual property insurance in Bulgaria

If you are EU resident, and on the other hand a property investor in Bulgaria, then you should already be advised by your Bulgarian conveyance solicitor that the ownership of a real estate in Bulgaria has the same marks like the ownership of a property in your own country. In the usual situation within the meaning of the Bulgarian property law, the completion of a purchase via signing the new Title Deed, usually transfers ownership and possession of the property directly towards the buyer (if something different has not been agreed between the parties here, i.e. stipualted in the Deed). Full and proper receipt of the ownership rights, incl. the possession of the property is the 1st moment which entitles its owner to habit and manage activities with the property, respectively various kinds of contracts related to the property to be signed and to take place – facility agreements, contracts for supplying water and electricity, maintenance contacts, rental/management/ contracts, Internal regulations, etc. ( please refer to our section Preparing contracts ).

In addition to the above, the receipt of the ownership of a Bulgarian real estate legally transfers towards you and the risks of any damages or accidential destroying of the real estate (as to the present moment these have been covered by the seller while in their possession), done with signing the Title Deed – personally or via authorized proxy (in the most cases being a Bulgarian property lawyer). Note that so far up to 2012 property insurance is not obligatory per the Bulgarian legislation (despite practices in other countries), which fact leaves many local real estates non-insured, i.e. the same practice causes underestimating of the risks for caused damages and reduces the chances for reimbursement for the owners of damaged/destroyed properties (if your neighbors do not care about insuring their own apartments, then you should not expect them to reimburse voluntary you for damages caused by them to your own property). Of course you can not rely on the sole presumption that somebody will reimburse you if they damage or destroy your property – wrongfully or not. On the other hand, the previous peak of constructing new developments in Bulgaria for the last couple of years (i.e. the completion of delayed developments now in the crisis) has been done against reduced expenses for many of these developments because of increase of building materials and laborhand; resp. a fact which has reduced and the high quality of many newly built or completed developments. On the other hand, the current property market has placed on the table many real estates for re-sale (refer to our section Property selling, most of these also non-insured.

In this line of thoughts, as well with the other types of contracts which you may decide to conclude in relation to returning the investment in your Bulgarian property, once you have obtained from the office of the notary public the original of your Title Deed for ownership, you are already legally entitled to sign also annual insurance policy, i.e. to get the property (apartment, house or villa) properly insured. Nowadays within the Bulgarian insurance law, there are various types of property insurances offered on the local market by Bulgarian insurance companies, but the most common policies, related to real estates, are these against damages caused by suden fire, flood, earthquakes or other natural forces/events or destroying the property – and applicable to mainly two types of local Bulgarian properties:
1) Apartments, situated in residential or holiday complexes insured for their actual price (in most cases insurance of furniture not chosen). These types of properties are fully occupied usually during the holiday seasons, i.e. the chance your neighbor to cause a flood that may affect your apartment by chance and without you notice it, is bigger.
2) Village houses or villas insured for their actual price - these are not permanently occupied and respectively need to be insured for eventual theft or failure at the electrical system, for example.

The standard fees for these kinds of annual insurances vary from a hundred Euros up to couple hundreds Euro for the more expensive properties and depending if additional risks/events have been insured.

What we can do for you, is to help you to choose the most convenient and less expensive type of annual insurance policy for your Bulgarian real estate and on your behalf, via power of attorney to sign it with the local insurance company; respectively to re-new it on your behalf the next year, and in case the insured event occurs – to assist you further on a later stage, if requested by you, with registering of eventually occurred events at the related local institutions and applying for compensation of any damages at the insurance company and receipt of the insurance compensation (*for far destinations against extra payment).

Bear that for insuring the immovable assets (i.e. furniture and fittings) in your apartment or house, a personal visit of the insurance brocker is necessary, which respectively will increase our fees in order to cover travel expeneses.

Contact us for more information, guidance and quotation

If you intend also to re-sell your Bulgarian property in the near future, we can also help you on the matter – please visit our section Property selling