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Legal Advice
The Bulgarian legislation is one of the liberal legislations in
Europe at present, giving the opportunity for foreign legal and
physical persons to acquire real estate on the territory of the
country, with one exception - one cannot acquire direct ownership of
land. This restriction is imposed by the Constitution of the Republic
of Bulgaria.
"Article 22. (1) Foreigners and foreign legal persons cannot
acquire ownership rights on land, except in case of inheritance by
virtue of the law. In such a case they must transfer their ownership.
(2) Given the conditions defined by way of law, foreigners and
foreign legal persons can acquire usage rights, building rights and
other property rights.
There is no restriction as to apartments, houses, garages,
ateliers, shops and the like, and the foreign physical and legal
persons can acquire direct ownership on these objects. Here we have to
mention that according to the Bulgarian legislation foreign persons are
considered all physical and legal persons with permanent residence or
seat abroad, as well as Bulgarian citizens permanently living abroad
with the intention to become residents of this country, and local
persons are considered all physical and legal persons with permanent
residence or seat in R. Bulgaria, independent of their citizenship, and
all foreign citizens with permanent residence permission on the
territory of R. Bulgaria. To this category refer also companies
registered according the Commercial Law with 100% foreign
participation.
When the case is purchasing land on the territory of R. Bulgaria
by foreigners, the above-mentioned restrictions can be avoided with the
registration of a company on the territory of the country, which
according to law is considered a Bulgarian legal entity and there is no
restrictions for it as to acquiring ownership on land. In this company
both only foreign persons, and Bulgarian and foreign physical and legal
persons can be associates. The company can also be owned by one foreign
person only. Usually our clients choose the option to register a
Limited Liability Company, as some of them prefer the manager of the
company to be a Bulgarian physical person (a confidential person
recommended by us), with minimum share participation (1%) and familiar
with the Bulgarian legislation. This facilitates to a great extent the
formalities in registering the company, purchasing the property and the
following registrations in the administrative services, as well as the
eventual accountancy of the company.
The purchased real estate in the name of the physical or legal person,
as well as the share participation in commercial companies is
considered foreign investment according to the law and it defines the
following principle proclaimed in the Law on encouraging investment
-"Article 4. For foreign investment made before amendments in the
legislation and which establish normative restrictions to the foreign
investment only, the law provisions operating during the procedures of
the investment are applied." Foreign investment is considered also -
"Foreign investment is each investment or increase of the investment of
a foreign person or his branch in:
a) shares in commercial companies;
b) ownership rights on buildings and restricted property rights on real estate;
c) ownership rights and restricted property rights on movable property with the character of long-term material assets;
d) ownership rights on independent branches of commercial companies
with more than 50% state or municipal participation in the capital
according to the Law on privatization and after-privatization control;
e) securities, including bonds and treasury bonds, as well as the
derivative instruments issued by the country, the municipalities or
other Bulgarian legal entities with remaining period to the date of
payment not less than 6 months;
f) credits, including in the form of financial leasing for a period of not less than 12 months;
g) intellectual property - objects of copyright and the related rights,
patent-capable inventions, useful models, trade brands, brands of
services and industrial design;
H) rights on concession contracts and contracts of assigning
management. If you show interest, our lawyers can give you more
detailed consultations concerning your particular plans. Also they
could, given the desire on your part, give you written reports on some
questions raised by you, they could participate in negotiations about
specifying the parameters and finalizing deals, preparation of
documents for the registration of companies on the territory of R.
Bulgaria and in case necessary they could carry out eventual legal
services, rapid registration of companies from distance (without your
physical presence in the country being obligatory) and many other legal
services.
Our legal experts have rich long-year experience, profound
knowledge and capability which allow them to be maximum helpful to you
in your initiatives.
Our fees for professional legal assistance and advice are based
on how much time a certain activity takes and how complicated is the
posed problem, and respectively a legal advisor with what qualification
takes up its solving. Taking in mind the above mentioned, we present to
your attention a sample of some of the fees for the most frequent legal
services connected with purchasing a property in the country by
foreigners.
For the registration of a company:
- Ltd. - 600 euro;
- JSC - 1200 euro;
- Associate companies with non-profit activity - 500 euro;
- Preparation of the necessary documents about changes in an
already registered company in the Commercial register in the respective
court - 100 euro;
- 50 euro - per hour for preparing and submitting claims, requests,
warrants, powers of attorney, and the like, demanded in the
administrative or court procedures;
- 75 euro - per hour for written opinions, consultations,
proposals, participation in negotiations, signing agreements,
preliminary contracts, and the like, and in case the legal advisor in
his capacity of a attorney, participates personally in the meetings;
The procedure of purchasing the property is the following:
- Finding a property and understanding whether it is for sale, with
or without the land. If the land is also to be purchased, a Ltd. should
be registered.
- Negotiating a final purchasing price with the owners.
- After having specified the parameters, signing a preliminary contract.
- Carrying out the usual checks by a lawyer - title deeds,
construction permissions, certificate of the lack of property burdens
(mortgages and injunctions), plans and the like according to the case.
- Certifying the deal before a notary for the transfer of the ownership rights to you or your company.
For questions and more info, do not hesitate to contact
us.
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