Collecting title deed
Following the provisions of the Bulgarian legislation, the title deed for immovable property is a standard sales contract, which is to be signed between the seller of the property and the buyer, on the other hand. This signing has to be done in person (or via proxy, in most cases – appointed Bulgarian lawyer), before a local notary public in the area whare the Bulgarian proeprty is situated. Once the Title Deed for ownership is signed and witnessed, then the notary public registers it at the same day, in the local department at the Land Registry Agency in the area. Which means that usually on the very next day, an original of the Title Deed should be available to be picking-up by the new owner (i.e. the buyer), again in person or via their Bulgarian lawyer or other authorized representative, at the office of the notary public who has witnessed this deal the previous day.
If you have bought a real estate somewhere in Bulgaria via signing a Title Deed for ownership (or alternatively have sold a Bulgarian property), but haven’t received the original of your Title Deed and receipts for the taxes paid and related to the purchase from your property solicitor, we can do it for you via simple power of attorney. In our capacity of Bulgarian lawyers on your behalf we may find out the registration details of the Title Deed, then to check where signed and in which local Land Registry Agency registered, and then to visit it and obtain for you new original of the Title Deed (and receipts for the paid property transfer charges). It doesn’t matter in which region of Bulgaria the Deed has been signed and registered – in our capacity of professional Bulgarian lawyers we work nationwide and we are capable to help you. This original then we may:
- translate for you in your spoken language for your convenience, which signed translation to attach to the original of the Title Deed when posting it to your home address. So far in our practice we have translated lots of Title Deeds in the mostly spoken languages of overseas investors – English, Russian, Spanish, Greek.
- to advise you on the characteristics of your signed Title Deed: It is very likely if you haven’t signed the Title Deed in person, but using someone else for this, then not to be informed about the actual clauses of a contract which is designated and signed by your represntative in Bulgarian language, which obviously you may not understand, but still to be fully obliged with the clauses of the Deed. In our pracitce there are many examples of badly surprised property owners who have got lower prices detailed in their Deed without being informed about such procedure prior signing of the Deed; who have got Title Deed excluding a Certificate for exploitation, just because the representative has "forgotten" to inform the buyer that actually there is no Certificate for Expoitation issued for this property (i.e. impossible to re-sell later); or simple there could be a clause put by the developer with the agreement by your rerpesentative, to protect only their interests, respecitively to harm your rights as an owner. This is why we can examine for you the Title Deed and to advise you about the terms and conditions of this signed Bugarian contract. Check our section Preparing and examining Bulgarian contracts for more information and guidance.
- to check if you in your capacity of foreign property owner have been properly registered with Bulstat Tax ID card and then if the property has been registered at the local Tax Authorities as well within the deadlines provided by the Law – if this hasn’t been properly done by you or your proxy previously, then we can do it for you on your behalf, where you will get an individual identification tax number, if this is your 1st property purchase in Bulgaria. The card could be posted to you together with the Deed, and we will apply on your behalf with a Tax declaration.
- to check on your behalf if your property has been registered by you at the Cadastre with your details as the owner, and if not – to perform this registration on your behalf, where we may collect, fill in and apply with the needed documents. More details available on our section Cadastral registration of new owners
- for many property owners it could be unknown, that in Bulgaria there are annual property taxes charged by the local Authorities – just like in your own country you pay annual taxes for owned real estate in Bulgaria. We may check for you the annual property taxes due and when requested by you – to pay these on your behalf and to present to you the receipts for your records. Check our section Paying council taxes
- if requested by you, to obtain a property insurance for your Bulgarian real estate. More details on our section Obtaining property insurance
- finally to post the originals of the documents to your provided home address os you can keep them in your records.
- in addition, if requested by you, we are capable also to prepare and register at the Authorities a personal will for you, in relation to the owned by you property in Bulgaria. More details and guidance on our section Preparation of Bulgarian wills
Note that once achieved, we can always on a later stage advise you about your ownership, about advertising your property for sale, about the prospecitve legal activities like re-sale - check Property selling or renting out of the property, next year to check again the annual property taxes due, etc.
If this is you case, please feel free to write to us for more information and a quote – Contact us