MH Legal

Every Bulgarian company must update its articles of association for the euro — here's what you need to know

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Bulgaria officially adopted the euro on January 1, 2026, becoming the 21st member of the eurozone. While the Commercial Register automatically converted all registered company capital from BGN to EUR at the fixed rate of 1 EUR = 1.95583 BGN, the paperwork is far from done.

If you own or manage a company in Bulgaria and haven’t started this process yet, here’s everything you need to know.

What happened on January 1, 2026?

On Euro Day, the Commercial Register automatically recalculated every company’s registered capital from leva to euros. Shareholders’ ownership stakes remained exactly the same, and no action was needed from businesses for the conversion itself.

Bulgaria's Variable Capital Company: No Bank Account, No Minimum Capital, No Problem

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How Bulgaria’s newest company type eliminates the biggest headache for foreign entrepreneurs, and why 2026 is the year to pay attention

If you have spent any time looking into setting up a business in Europe, Bulgaria has probably come up in your research. A flat 10% corporate income tax, the lowest in the EU. A 5% tax on dividends. Full EU membership since 2007. And as of January 2026, Bulgaria officially adopted the euro, which means no more currency conversion headaches, full SEPA integration, and euro-denominated bank accounts by default.

DAC8 Crypto Transactions Reporting in EU

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Your Crypto Isn’t Being Reported to the Tax Office (Yet) – Here’s Why

I keep seeing people freak out about DAC8 - Directive (EU) 2023/2226 – the latest amendment of EU Directive for Administrative Cooperation that imposes crypto transactions to get reported to tax authorities starting January 2026. Let me tell you what’s actually going on.

First, a quick EU Law 101

Here’s the thing most people miss: EU directives don’t work the way you think they do.

Guide to Digital Nomad Visa in Bulgaria (2026)

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In 2025, Bulgaria introduced a new residency category specifically tailored for digital nomads. This legal framework allows non-EU/EEA citizens to reside in Bulgaria while working remotely for foreign employers or clients. This article outlines the legal definitions, requirements, and benefits based on the Law on Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria (ZCHRB).

Legal Definition and Scope

According to the official legislation (specifically referencing the amendments in Art. 24p of the ZCHRB), a Digital Nomad is defined as a foreigner who provides remote services through information technology and meets one of the following criteria:

AI reveals inter-court relations

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Important facts about the Bulgarian limited company in 2026

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Why Hiring a Lawyer is Essential When Buying or Selling Property

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Buying or selling property is one of the most significant decisions in anyone’s life. Whether it’s a first home or an investment property, the process involves numerous legal and financial complexities that require specialized expertise. For this reason, hiring a lawyer during the transaction is not only advisable but also crucial.

Legal Due Diligence on the Property

The first and perhaps most critical step in purchasing property is conducting legal due diligence. Our law firm performs a thorough investigation of the property to ensure there are no legal issues that could jeopardize the transaction. This due diligence includes:

The new rules for transferring real estate or motor vehicles in Bulgaria.

Wed, 20 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

New rules for notaries come into force this year, which will have a significant impact on transactions related to real estate or motor vehicles.

According to the latest legislative changes, effective from 03 May 2024, a new process for verification by notaries will be introduced. They will have to carry out an electronic check in the NRA to establish the presence or absence of enforceable public obligations of citizens who want to transfer real estate or motor vehicles. Notaries will have access to information about all the person’s obligations, not just those relating to taxes, duties and mandatory social security contributions. That is, all obligations established by the NRA, as well as those presented by an external claimant for enforcement in the NRA at the time of the inspection.

Guest house or apartment for bed and breakfast

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In recent months, we have received numerous inquiries and provided various services related to the conditions and procedures for registering a “Bed and Breakfast or Guest Apartment.”

Bed and Breakfasts and guest apartments are regulated by the Tourism Act. To register them, an application must be submitted to the mayor of the municipality or an authorized person, depending on the location of the property. Owners can choose to register either as individuals or through a company. Despite not engaging in hotelier activities in a commercial sense, the law does not provide a simplified registration process for such properties.

Procedure for registration of short-term employment of posted workers-citizens of third countries

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Seconded foreign workers can perform certain tasks without a work permit, only a one-time registration with the Employment Agency is required.

Seconded workers and employees-citizens of a third country carry out labor activities on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria only for the specific host enterprise, which has submitted a declaration to the Employment Agency before the start of employment.

The procedure for registering short-term employment of posted workers from third countries in Bulgaria involves several steps and required documents. Here is a summary:

Black Friday for Bulgarian rural properties purchased by the English.

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

More than 15 years ago, citizens of the United Kingdom started buying properties in Bulgaria massively. They were attracted by what seemed like a good investment and the dream of owning a beautiful house with land in a quiet and picturesque village or a house/apartment in a developing city, without bothering to thoroughly research the market.

If the properties seemed cheap back then, they probably were truly cheap—hastily built or renovated. A large percentage of the newcomers had never seen the property because they bought it online or visited it once and never lived there. Thus, what appeared to be a good investment at one point turned out to be a burden. The reasons are diverse and inexhaustible:

Moving business from Ukraine to Bulgaria

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 12:38:59 +0000

War is never a good thing. Ukraine had many thriving business which are suffering right now. One of the solutions is to move business and employees (as much as it can be done) to a close friendly country.

Why Choose Bulgaria

Bulgaria is relatively close, but far enough to be safe from the conflict. It’s part of EU and NATO. Black sea coastal cities such as Varna and Burgas offer great opportunities with fair price accomodation and business. Bulgaria uses cyrillic alphabet, so Ukrainians would be able to adapt easy.

Got a Bulgarian property? Act now, so you don't loose it for good!

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 12:46:56 +0000

If you have bought a property in Bulgaria as an investment in the past decade or so , you should be aware of the recent practices of the local councils to put unattended properties on actions. Find below the most common THREE WAYS you could lose your property if you are neglecting your investment in Bulgaria.

Unpaid council taxes

Many people think that once they have invested in Bulgarian property, there are no further obligations, besides the conveyancing costs. That is not correct. Each year, the owner of the property has to pay council tax and waste collection fee. If the property is uninhabited, the owner can apply to the local council and ask for waste collection fee relief. By doing so, you will benefit a significant reduction of the waste collection fee. This application has to be submitted every year, effective for the following year.

Ill-advising property agents in the area North of Varna

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 17:22:22 +0000

If you have bought a rural property in Bulgaria back in mid 2000s, you know it’s not too easy to maintain it if you are not living permanently in the country. Because of Covid-19 restrictions, many Britons now feel they can’t use their rural houses and are willing to sell them on loss, especially in Dobrich region, North of Varna.

If your case is similar, be careful not to fall into the trap of the still unregulated profession of the “property agent”. Besides charging extortionate commissions of 3% (excl.VAT), they usually insist on receiving their commission in cash and in hand, without issuing any receipts or invoices, thus leaving no trace that you have actually paid them. You may think it doesn’t affect you but you might be wrong as it’s tax evasion.

Own a property in Bulgaria? Act now, so you don't lose it for good!

Wed, 24 Jun 2020 15:08:00 +0000

All companies in Bulgaria which are not re-registed by the end 2020 will lose their real estate properties.

Do you own a property through a limited company in Bulgaria? Please read below, as you might be affected by a major law change concerning your property.

History of the process

If you have bought a property in Bulgaria before 2010, most probably you have set up a limited company in Bulgaria as well. Having a limited company as a holding company for the property was a requirement back then. This is not the case any more. Any EU citizen can own regulated property (e.g. regulated land, apartment, house etc.) directly on their personal name.

Buying or creating an airline in Bulgaria (AOC holder)

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 11:18:17 +0000

All airlines and AOC holders, registered in Bulgaria benefit of the country’s EU membership and all connected Single Sky and Open Skies agreements. Country’s location is quite beneficial as it is almost in the middle on the route between the large airport hubs of the Middle East (Dubai, Doha etc.) and Western Europe’s largest airports (Frankfurt, Paris, London).

Status of Bulgaria in the aviation industry

Bulgaria is EASA member and for all AOC holders and airlines, registered in Bulgaria, the EASA rules apply in full. The regulator, which is responsible for the supervision and registration of the aircrafts and granting the AOCs is the Bulgarian Civil Aviation Authority. This authority is also responsible for keeping the Bulgarian aircraft register, which as of this date is still not open to public, despite the latest court ruling of Sofia Administrative Court.

Bulgarian Aircraft Register should be open

Thu, 25 Feb 2016 14:17:26 +0000

Bulgarian Civil Aviation Authority is responsible for keeping the aircraft register of Bulgaria i.e. records of all aircraft registrations, aircraft ownership rights, dry or wet lease contracts records. Bulgarian aircraft register is not very big, but has a potential to grow as Bulgaria is part of the EU and any registered aircraft in Bulgaria will benefit the Single European Sky.

Bulgarian Aircraft register regulation

The aircraft register is regulated by the Chicago Convention, Annex 7, the Bulgarian Civil Aviation Act and the ordinance about the rules for keeping the register. As the local aviation sector is not huge, there is no case law or legal acts, concerning the status of the register and access procedures for third parties. Milen Hristov of MH Legal applied for information on certain aircraft registrations at the Bulgarian CAA. However, the Director of CAA rejected the request, grounding his decision on the basis that the register was “non-public, it contained private business matters” and the records were “personal data”. The justification of CAA’s decision was illegal and was based on misinterpretation of the Access To Public Information Act.

Temporary replacement of aircraft engine in Bulgaria

Wed, 15 Jul 2015 10:00:00 +0000

If an aircraft engine fails, the airline can make a temporary engine replacement until the rightful owner (lessor) allows permanent engine replacement. Sometimes in case of financial problems the aircraft is seized by creditor or the airline goes bankrupt. In such cases the owner of the airframe might acquire title over the engine if the engine owner doesn’t legally protect its asset. Such protection of assets effectively can be done by an aviation lawyer, experienced in the local jurisdiction.

Аppealing fines of Bulgarian Border Police imposed to Airlines

Fri, 08 May 2015 12:03:45 +0000

Many airlines are fined by the Bulgarian Border Police because they are not aware of the liability to check if their passengers have a valid visa to enter Bulgaria. In most of the cases, the passenger has a valid visa to enter another EU country, but the flight to Bulgaria is just one of the legs of the journey.

Fines to Airlines are between €3000 and €5000

Because of the relatively recent accession into EU, Bulgarian Border Police are still not fully trained in the EU regulations. For example, if the passenger has a valid Schengen Visa for France, and flies to Bulgaria and then is transferred on another flight to Paris, the airline shouldn’t be fined for letting the passenger on board. However, the Bulgarian Border police are following strictly the letter of the law of the Bulgarian Foreigners Act, namely:

Claim against ground handling company in Bulgaria

Thu, 07 May 2015 08:41:53 +0000

If an airline has a claim against a ground handling operator in Bulgaria, most probably the claim will be resolved according to rules of the signed IATA Standard Ground Handling Agreement (SGHA). In extremely rare cases, the ground handling company in Bulgaria will have its own custom handling agreement. All major ground handling companies such as Swissport (servicing Sofia Airport through Swissport Bulgaria JSC) regularly update their SGHA when IATA produces a new draft.

Specifics on ship arrest in Bulgaria (Varna and Bourgas)

Fri, 20 Feb 2015 15:52:46 +0000

Аrresting a ship is a way to secure a maritime claim, while the claimant initiates the claim proceedings. We have described the procedures for ship arrest in Bulgaria before, but here we will clarify some prerequisites, necessary for the ship arrest. At MH Legal, we advise any claimant who will initiate a ship arrest to prepare the following minimal set of documents:

Proof of registration for the claimant
Proof of registration of the defendant
Proof of service delivery
Notice for payment

Existing entity

The above four points are essential for a successful ship arrest in Bulgaria. These evidence are necessary to convince the court that there are two parties, which exist in their respective jurisdiction. The court can't initiate a case against non-existing entity. Therefore it's essential to have those documents beforehand. An apostille on those documents is required unless, the parties' place of registration is a country, which have signed bilateral agreement for legal aid with Bulgaria.

Ship arrest in Bulgaria Varna and Burgas Black Sea ports

Sun, 10 Aug 2014 16:34:14 +0000

The ship arrests in Bulgaria can be executed in one of the two Bulgarian Black Sea ports - Varna and Burgas. The legal regime of the ship arrest is described in the following statutory regulations, effective in Bulgaria:

Executing a commercial ship arrest in a Bulgarian sea port

Pursuant to the International convention, the ship arrest in Bulgarian sea port can be executed against a commercial ship only, regardless the flag under which it is registered under. A ship arrest cannot be executed against a government owned ship or non-commercial ship.

The biggest mistake when dissolving Bulgarian company

Sun, 06 Jul 2014 16:35:34 +0000

There are two main reasons why foreigners dissolve their Bulgarian limited companies:

They failed to re-register by end of 2012 or
They want their property on their personal names

Regarding the first point, we have alarmed in the past few years that all companies in Bulgaria which haven’t been re-registered or dissolved voluntarily, will be subject to compulsory liquidation by the government. According to §5а paragraph 1 of Companies Register Act, the deadline for voluntary dissolving of the non-reregistered companies is set to 31 January 2015, which is just 6 months away. Regarding the second point, people realised the benefit of having the real estate property on their own name and decided to dissolve their holding company. In order to do this, they hired a solicitor or an accountant to conduct the liquidation procedure.

Inheriting company in Bulgaria made easy

Sun, 24 Nov 2013 18:35:04 +0000

Following the 2003-2008 property rush, many Brits and Irish have bought properties in Bulgaria through limited companies. Some investors were in their retirement age, hoping to get their last years spent in new Bulgarian home. Due to complicated parent-children relations, in case of death of the company owner (or shareholder), the lawful heirs often couldn’t find the property or even company details. Sometimes, a further problem is the complicated shares structure of the company. I have written a small article about how to deal with inherited Bulgarian limited companies published by the British Embassy in Bulgaria in theirlegal FAQ document.

Bulgaria breaches the Apostille Convention

Sat, 05 Oct 2013 02:01:19 +0000

This post is consequence of my week struggle with the Bulgarian Commercial Register’s reckless breach of the Apostille Convention. Bulgaria has signed the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (its official full name) and it is effective for Bulgaria since its adoption by the Bulgarian Pаrliament and promulgation in the state Gazette on 30.04.2001.

Purpose of apostille

Apostille’s purpose is to remove the bureaucracy when official document, issued in one signatory state is used in another signatory state. The state that issues the document, puts an apostille on the document, and this document shall be recognised without any further certification on the other state. This basic principle of simplifying paperwork should be followed by all countries that have signed the Aspostille Convention.

Certification of documents in the Bulgarian Embassy in London

Fri, 20 Sep 2013 22:03:24 +0000

This blog post was provoked by my visit in the Bulgarian embassy in London today. An English fellow was standing in the queue in front of me waiting to certify some documents, clearly given to him by a Bulgarian solicitors firm (there was a letterhead document in his hands). These documents were prepared for registration of a new Bulgarian limited company.

I was quite surprised when he asked the Bulgarian Consul to certify all documents he had. In fact for registration of a new sole owned limited liability company he needed only two documents to be certified, not the whole pack of 9-11 documents.

Unpaid council and state tax and the consequences

Sat, 03 Aug 2013 09:38:45 +0000

We had few clients who have bought houses in the villages around Varna. They purchased a house as an impulsive buy and never really had the intention to live in it. After they left for UK, the house was left and never maintained. Often the holiday home buyers don’t think about the tax consequences of owning a property abroad. It’s not just having a place in the sun.

Obligations of the property owner in Bulgaria

Whether you buy your property in Bulgaria on personal name or through a company, you have to submit a declaration to the local town council. The deadline for submission is two months from the date of the title deed signing. The reason for this declaration is to notify your local town council that you own the property and all taxes and tax notices should be send to you for payment. The address for correspondence in the tax declaration should be a Bulgarian one. Town councils don’t send mail abroad.

Purchase of debts (factoring)

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 17:44:09 +0000

In 2008, I was talking about the development of the factoring Market in Bulgaria. The credit crisis was in its peak and the few factoring companies in Bulgaria were progressing in their business. These factoring companies were sole owned by few banks. However there were also other private limited companies which deal mostly with debt portfolio purchases and debt collection. The latter have increased their market share due to the fact that they were sub-contracted by the banks to collect bad debts and foreclosures expenses.

Company Liquidation of Your Bulgarian Company

Wed, 10 Jul 2013 16:58:44 +0000

As Bulgarian qualified solicitors, we were among the first ones in 2008 to alarm the foreign property owners of the compulsory liquidations that would follow if they had fail to re-register their holding limited companies. Now the liquidation process has been initiated and there are still property owners that have no idea of the legal process going on in Bulgaria. Therefore this blog article is to alarm all those property owners, who has limited companies and haven’t re-registered them by the end of 2012.

How to Make a Bulgarian Will

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 13:32:04 +0000

Many Britons and Irish who own properties in Bulgaria are turning to me with the question how to make a Bulgarian will. There is a huge difference between the Bulgarian Wills and Probate process and the UK one. That’s why the Bulgarian will has to be drafted as much close to the UK requirements as possible. Before we go through the details how you can make a will in Bulgaria, we have to clarify some jurisdiction specific topics. If you have already made a will in UK, check below if it is not in contradiction to the statutory requirements in Bulgaria.

Can I swap my Bulgarian house for another one?

Sat, 01 Jun 2013 15:24:41 +0000

Have you ever been in the situation when you buy a holiday home overseas but you haven’t been sure if you want to live in it? May be not, but may be you will some time in the future. In this short article I will explain if it is possible to swap your Bulgarian house for another one, also located in Bulgaria, but on different place.

Why would you want to swap a Bulgarian house for another Bulgarian one?

If you have already bought a rural house but haven’t started renovating it (let’s say in Provadia area), you might have realised that there are no other Brits (or on the contrary - there are too many Brits) in the area so you want to move to another beautiful place in Bulgaria where you like it more (let’s say Balchik area, because it’s closer to the Black Sea coast). You search on the Internet and find another person in your situation who sells his house because he wants to move to a different place in Bulgaria. This would be a good opportunity just to swap both houses. Instead of each one selling his own house separately and pay double notary fees, stamp duty, solicitor fees and other expenses, you might want to make a single property swap deal.

Liquidation of un-reregistered companies now has started

Sun, 12 May 2013 17:34:35 +0000

The long wait for the compulsory company liquidation of un-reregistered companies is now over. It has been one year and four months and the Registry Agency is finally ready with the paperwork and the procedures for liquidation of un-reregistered companies. The Company Register Act has been amended accordingly end of 2012, so technically the liquidation could have been started.

The problem with un-reregistered companies is that the Brits who have bought properties before 2012, bought it though a limited company and because they failed to re-register the limited company, it is now subject to compulsory liquidation. This means that there is a real thereat that those Brits can lose their property unless they take control of the compulsory liquidation process.

Bulgarian property solicitors' role in the conveyancing process

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 13:31:00 +0000

Many Brits who buy property in Bulgaria don’t bother instructing a Bulgarian property solicitor. This is either due to the belief that the estate agents in Bulgaria are regulated as in UK (which is not true) or simply because they don’t believe that something wrong could happen.

The Agent’s Priority

Real estate agents in Bulgaria are not regulated, so their only goal is to sell you ***anything.***They will probably show you tons of properties and will try to persuade you to buy it. They don’t have ethical code, nor you can file a complaint against them in a special professional regulatory body. There used to be an idea to codify the rights and obligations of real estate agents in Bulgaria, but it failed. Whether this was on purpose or not, it’s hard to say. This situation creates a loophole in the law, allowing all kind of property scam. In this case it is a wise idea to instruct a property solicitor, who will initiate a full property research on the deeds and seller.

Collecting outstanding maintenance fees from Condominium owners

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 15:38:03 +0000

Holiday apartment owners find themselves in the gray area of Condominium regulation. Most of the holiday apartments are located in the so called closed complexes (also called gated apartment complexes or aparthotels), but the Condominium Ownership Management Act (COMA) dedicates only one article to those kind of buildings. This is quite insufficient, having in mind the big amount of such buildings across Bulgaria - mostly located in Black Sea resorts and the ski resorts.

Airline Licence and Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from Bulgaria

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 05:38:49 +0000

Starting an airline business is not so difficult as it seems. There are few things to consider when you decide to get an airline licence and the first one is obtaining an Air Operator Certificate. There are some prerequisites before you apply for AOC. The first one is registration of a air carrier company. You can either register a Bulgarian company or apply though an already registered company, based in another EU member state.

Bulgarian antiques and how to trade them

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:22:44 +0000

Probably you are wondering how you can trade with Bulgarian antiques? The answer is in the [BG] Cultural Heritage Act and it’s latest changes. The Act imposes special regime for treasure-hunting, trading, exporting (both sale and exhibitions) of Bulgarian cultural heritage artifacts.

Treasure Hunting

Treasure-hunting in Bulgaria is banned but you can see many people scavenging the areas round historic places. they carry metal detectors and other equipment and can be seen normally at dusk. If you are a treasure-hunter you need to know that if you are caught there are serious sanctions. However if you accidentally find some antique objects which could be of interest to the museum, you should mind that according to the Art. 90 of the Ownership Act:

Restricted access to company files

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 18:09:25 +0000

The new regulations in to the Commercial Register Act restrict free anonymous access to the company files, located in the online database of the Registry Agency. Together with the long anticipated mandatory liquidation amendments, the new articles impose requirements for authentication in the register.

End of Anonymous Access

No matter what are the reasons behind this new regulation, it surely casts some shadow over the free access to information. By free, I mean free as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer”. By now everyone could open any company file and gain access to and stay anonymous to the Register system. Only people who were submitting documents had to identify themselves. Now anyone who want to see any company documents have to identify themselves to the Register systems. The identification can be done in one of the following ways:

Happy New Year 2013

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 16:47:40 +0000

Compulsory company liquidation will start early 2012

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 12:30:59 +0000

The long anticipated changes to the Commercial Register Act are finally here. The changes concerning company liquidation of non-re-registered companies in Bulgaria are in force as from its promulgation in Stage Gazette, issue 99,2012.

Liquidation Status

Before the amendments there was no clear idea how the liquidation process for non-re-registered companies can start. I want to note that I’m talking about the liquidation process only for companies, which failed to register under the new Commercial Register. The deadline was end of 2011. All failed companies are now in a pending position and can neither trade, dispose real estate properties nor they be closed. In short, the companies were non active because the parliament had not adopted any rules for the liquidation. There was only a framework of the process but no real applicable liquidation process rules.

Official information on property purchases and Condominium ownership in Bulgaria

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 12:01:00 +0000

Yesterday the Registry Agency announced their official property information webstie. We know very well that foreigners have concerns trusting information over the Internet, as there are many contradictory sources. People often ask in forums and receive ‘advice’ from other fellow forumers. This is neither professional advice nor a trusted source information.

Purpose

As the press release announcement stated, the goal of this property information source is:

..to provide general information and guidance to foreign nationals on the process of acquisition and management of real estate in the Republic of Bulgaria.

Rural house in Bulgaria what to be careful about when you buy one

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 11:00:09 +0000

Rural houses in Bulgaria are tempting both for investment purchase and for retirement life. People consider them so cheap that its not worth the hassle to instruct a solicitor to check whether the property documents are in order or not. Ignorance, however, often can cause troubles when you least expect.

We had few cases where retirement couples have bought such rural village properties and have renovated them. They’ve spent few years enjoying relaxing life at the country side. But in reality not everything is as they saw it on “A Place in the Sun”. When you buy a property overseas, you need to get familiar with the local legislation, concerning renovation, building etc.

Running your Bulgarian business remotely

Sat, 06 Oct 2012 10:22:42 +0000

Despite the recent bad image of Bulgaria, the country still got its business benefits. It’s has the lowest corporation tax in EU, along with Cyprus, but also has the advantage of lowest labour costs. If you consider the EU principle of free movement capitals this makes Bulgaria highly valuable place for outsourcing of company services.

Remote Management

Almost anything in Bulgaria can be done remotely, by using certified Power of attorney.

You can register a limited company remotely, by authorising Bulgarian solicitor, who will deposit the company capital in a local Bank for you and open for your company business current account in any currency you want.

Compulsory company liquidation procedure to be changed (again!)

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 22:19:37 +0000

October 2012 has come and there is no sign of the lists containing all un-reregistered companies which had to be produced by the Regional Courts of Bulgaria. The lists were necessary for initiation of the compulsory company liquidation.

As solicitors who actively work in the company law area, we have tried many times to contact the courts and have asked when the lists will be available. Normally the chairman of the court couldn’t tell us anything in particular. In other words they didn’t know or even worse - they haven’t started making the lists at all.

Maintenance companies mislead condominium owners

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 15:11:43 +0000

Last week we were instructed by a client to represent him and attend an Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the condominium apartment hotel at the Black Sea. The AGM was convened by the maintenance company, which claimed also to be the Manager of the complex. The invitation didn’t indicate any details, such as, who represents the maintenance company in its capacity of Manager or even how a third party, not owner, can be a Manager at all.

Notary services in Bulgaria

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 15:26:34 +0000

The Economist has a great article about the current role of the notaries all over the world. Their services vary depending on the jurisdiction and the local laws in effect - certification of various documents, exclusive conveyancing services etc. In general, notary role depends on whether the practice is located in common law legal system or in the continental legal system.

UK vs Bulgarian Notaries

Unlike in the UK, where solicitors can certify documents along with the notaries public, in Bulgaria solicitors registered in the Bar, can not certify documents. Only notaries public has been granted by the state to provide certification services. There is only one exception - solicitors can certify documents that are used in the litigation process only.

Owning property on personal name in Bulgaria

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:16:33 +0000

After Jan 2012, EU citizens are allowed to own regulated land property on their personal names. I have covered this topic few times in the past months, so I’m not going to enter another useless dispute with yet another notary, scared to apply the law.

The purpose of this post is to inform the property buyers what they are obliged to do after they actually purchase the regulated land and/or house.

Condominium Maintenance and Management Wars

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 10:20:57 +0000

Summer season is in its peak and property management and maintenance companies are already rubbing their hands for the new season maintenance fees. There is still room to business expansion since there are still apartment complexes in ski and sea resorts which doesn’t have a proper maintenance and management company.

The Maintenance Battle

Usually the developer of the building has been “converted” to a property maintenance and management company. That is the normal evolution of the “wannabe” builders. They had one or two developments and after the property market bubble burst, they saw the new business niche of the property maintenance and management of their own buildings.

Unpaid health insurance contribution won't influence property deals after all

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 15:53:53 +0000

After the Health Insurance Bill has been passed to the Parliament for voting, the controversial obligation for payment of all health insurance contributions upon selling a property was waived. After discussions in the Bulgarian Parliament, the MPs voted against the suggested amendment. Most of them considered it as unconstitutional and as restraining the right of private property (e.g. freedom of disposing property).

This amendment was suggested by the Ministry of Health as a measure for collection of the unpaid national health insurance contributions. The idea behind this suggestions was to increase the collection of health insurance contributions. However this would have burden the property deals with additional bureaucracy and wasted time for obtaining documents from NRA.

Moving office

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:40:50 +0000

We have moved our office to e better location. Our new address is Varna 9000, 12 Konstantin Velichkov Str., floor 1, office 8

[map w=“940” z=“16” address=“Bulgaria, Varna, ulitsa Konstantin Velichkov 12” marker=“yes”]

Dangerously ignorant property agents

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 23:04:53 +0000

Property deals during summer increase, so is the greed of property agents. Britons who buy for first time in Bulgaria usually trust property agents as the profession of the property agent is very well regulated in UK. However it is not the same case in Bulgaria.

Legal Status of Agents

Currently anyone can become property agent - they just need a website and an advert on some of the biggest property portals. Enquiries will start coming in a while. In their pursue of more closed deals, property agents shovel the buyers with offers and push them to buy. This is not good for buyers in any case. The agent thinks “that his only job is to connect the buyer and the seller” and possibly hide as much information about the defects of the property as they can. Often they don’t explain the conveyancing process, what defect the buyer should watch for etc. The bad thing here is that they often discourage buyers from using solicitors too. The agents want to be self sufficient, as they know that most of the properties sold on the market are full of defects. Involving solicitors would mean thorough property checks and subsequently - less deals.

Notaries in Bulgaria not aware of the regulation on buying land by EU citizens

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:38:53 +0000

It has been half an year since EU citizens are allowed to buy regulated land on their personal names. Initially notaries in Bulgaria, refused to certify deals at all. Their fear was of how one can interpret the EU Accession Treaty if there is no explicit article in the law. By “explicit”, I mean one that a 1st grade child could understand and explain. Well, there were no such thing, so notaries were very cautious (groundlessly). I’ve heard people complaining that notaries have denied certification of regulated land deals even after 1st Jan 2012.

Paid health insurance (NHS) contributions will be required upon selling personal property

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 12:28:37 +0000

Sale Restrictions

A bill, adding new bureaucracy requirements to selling property, has been voted on first hearing in the Bulgarian Parliament. The amendments to the Health Insurance Act and Tax and Insurance Proceedings Code set a requirement that the seller of a real estate property and/or vehicles needs to present to the notary public a certificate from the National Revenue Agency, proving that all outstanding NHS contributions have been paid. If such certificate is not presented or it contains evidence of unpaid NHS contributions, the notary can refuse to certify the deal.

Trade Register not working in crucial moment

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 22:43:20 +0000

The deadline for announcing the company financial reports on the Trade Register reports will be over in 3 days. As usual, the Registry Agency is not prepared for the massive load of application that will follow. Not that they didn’t expect it. It’s the third year of the obligation for announcing the company annual financial reports, so the Agency apparently has a real short memory not to remember the bad experience from last year and the year before.

Buying Bulgarian property on Ebay

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 19:56:09 +0000

Why It’s So Cheap

Yes, this is why Britons buy Bulgarian rural properties on Ebay - because is insanely cheap. One can get a rural house with 2000-3000 sq.m. land for about GBP 2000. Of course the latter would require huge renovation, as it is often a mud brick house in the middle of nowhere.

These properties are preferred by either retired couples who want to spend their retirement years where their state pension will be enough to have a normal life, or by entrepreneurs who buy wrecks, renovate them and sell them for double or triple the initial purchase price.

Condominium General Meetings in Aparthotels

Sun, 27 May 2012 15:07:35 +0000

One of the hottest topics in all Bulgarian ski and sea resorts is the problem of maintenance and management of the condominium. At the time the apartment complexes were build, marketed and sold, no one told the buyers how would their condominium investment be managed and maintained actually. Many were mislead.

Condominium Specifics

The truth is that the complexes consist of separate buildings, which according to Condominium Ownership Management Act (COMA), need to be managed and maintained separately. This leaves the question as of how those complexes will operate as a one single unit? there is no straightforward answer to this question.

Liquidation of the unreregistered companies. What's the hurry?

Mon, 21 May 2012 15:32:35 +0000

Once again, the Ministry of Justice proves to be existing in some other legal realm. So are the Bulgarian Courts. As you probably already know, the companies which have not re-registered by 31 Dec 2011 are subject to compulsory liquidation. The proceedings of this liquidation have been “patched” to the Trade Register Act just before the deadline was in effect. Naturally, as everything done in the last minute, this seems to be an unfinished work.

Changed construction plans for already sold offplan property

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:05:33 +0000

I don’t know what the builders are thinking when they change the construction plans and don’t update all off-plan purchase agreements?

Imagine the following situation. You have bought a relatively cheap apartment in an off-plan development.The estate agent have shown you some fancy 3D graphics of how the building would look like. Nice gardening around, happy people walking on nice alleys.

The reality is slightly different. Builder didn’t have any experience, hasn’t done any legal/technical research but have started selling off-plan. He had applied for construction permission, but the chief architect required changes to be made to the initial construction plans. The builder needed to change building plans. Some real examples: cutting off whole floor, changing roof shapes by creating sloping ceiling on top floor apartments, cutting off each apartment’s area, so they can fit within the architect’s requirements.

Farmland the new trap set by the government

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:06:24 +0000

New amendments were introduced to the Ownership and Use of Agricultural Land Act on 27 March 2012. All agricultural land owners or lessees are now obliged by 31 July each year to submit declarations to the local offices of the Agriculture Municipal Service. The declarations need to point out how the farmland they own or use will be used.

Art 37b. (1) Each owner shall submit a declaration form in the local Agricultural Municipality Service, where the land is located. The Form shall state the possession type and the type of long term usage of the land…

Forging distribution of common areas in apartment complexes

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:30:32 +0000

We have been warning apartment owners that developers use incorrect calculation of common parts, in order to gain majority in the condominium General Meetings. Thus they set their own decisions about which will be the maintenance company and how much that maintenance company will be paid. It’s out of question that they form their own maintenance companies and get the maintenance fees.

For the past year we have been fighting such developer in Bansko. He had built three apartment blocks and have used only the initial common areas calculations for selling the apartments and consequently defining how big is the voting right of each apartment owner. The problem was that the plans of the building were changed 2 times during the construction. This inevitably changes the distribution of the common areas percentage and the subsequent voting rights. However that was never written in the table of common areas. This enabled the developer to “blackmail” the rest of the owners and outvote all General Meeting decision which were not in his own favour.

Buying regulated land in Bulgaria 2012

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:20:10 +0000

Because of the speculations, I decided to write this small post. I will try to clear out whether an EU citizen can buy regulated land directly in Bulgaria as from January 2012.

A common misunderstanding is that foreigners cannot buy regulated land directly if they own primary home in their native country. This was valid until 2012, but not any more. The legal grounds are Art. 29a of the Ownership Act:

Full text of the Condominium Management Act

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:44:05 +0000

Many people wanted to see the full text of the Condominium Management Act 2011 in English. This is particularly useful for all foreigners who have bought holiday apartments in Bansko, Pamporovo, Borovetz and the Black Sea resorts. The Act can be downloaded from here [PDF 178kb].

Maritime transport in Bulgaria

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:31:45 +0000

Transportation of passengers and goods by water is regulated by Order No. 82 of 15 July 2002, Ordinance No. 4 of 9 January 2004 on Recognition of Organizations for Surveys of Ships and Ship Owners, Order No. 87 in accordance with article 362, paragraph 1, section 3 from the Merchant Sea Shipping Code. The domestic regulation of transportation services can be found in Merchant Sea Shipping Code and Maritime Spaces and Inland Waterways and Ports Act of the Republic of Bulgaria. Sea shipping transport in Bulgaria is coordinated and controlled by Executive Agency “Maritime Administration”.

Railroad operation certificate in Bulgaria

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:32:29 +0000

The transportation of passengers and goods by railway is regulated by the Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail(COTIF) from 9 May 1980, Regulation (ЕО) № 1371/2Transportation of passengers and goods by railway007 REGULATION no. 41 of 27 JUNE 2001 and REGULATION № 54 from 2 June 2003 accordingly. The domestic regulation of transportation services can be found in the Railway Transport Act.

In Bulgaria Railway transport activities are coordinated and controlled by Executive Agency Railway Administration (EARA). The railway infrastructure elements and the land on which these elements are built is public property of the state. Those elements can be used by the National Railway Infrastructure Company (NRIC) or by traders to whom a concession has been granted.

Air Carrier certificate in Bulgaria

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:21:18 +0000

Air transportation in Bulgaria is governed simultaneously by EU legislation e.g. Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008 [PDF 113Kb], international aviation law and the domestic legislation, such as the Civil Aviation Act and secondary legislation ordinances. The authority which supervises civil air transport is Directorate General “Civil Aviation Administration”.

How to establish an air carrier in Bulgaria

Air carriage is subject to licensing by the Directorate General “Civil Aviation Administration”. Each company applicant needs to match certain requirement before the license is granted:

Compulsory liquidations delay for unknown reasons

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:58:23 +0000

The Commercial Register Act was clear enough “all companies which don’t re-register by 01.01.2012 are subject to compulsory liquidation by the state”. 1st Jan has passed and there’s no sign of the Registry Agency to have initiated any liquidation. There is even no official statement, neither to the public, nor to all the liquidators who are listed with the Agency.

Naturally the Agency don’t respond their officially announced phone numbers (more than 10!), nor they reply to official emails. Now that’s what I call public service. That comes with no surprise, having in mind the 6th Feb 2012 Interim Report from the European Commission where EU criticises the Judicial reform as lacking any progress. The Registry Agency is part of the Ministry of Justice so no wonder there is no sign of applying the law..

Liquidation of Bulgarian limited company

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:04:16 +0000

The biggest issue with the compulsory liquidation of the Bulgarian limited companies is the communication with the state appointed liquidator. Since the Registry Agency appoints liquidators from their liquidators lists, no one considers whether the company owner is foreigner or does he speaks Bulgarian. Some liquidators are not diligent enough when they see that the company owner is not Bulgarian. Sometimes they will not make efforts to contact the latter. One a separate note, this is difficult because the company owner address is spelled in Cyrillic letters and it is very difficult to restore the right English spelling.

Bulgarian courts should accepts/send papers online

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:43:59 +0000

This week we have achieved a small victory. We are representatives of a client on a case, heard in Stara Zagora District Court. We have asked the judge to send by email copies of the latest hearing minutes. The judge refused, grounding her decision with “the court doesn’t have that practice”. We’ll that was not quite true. Art. 42 para 4 of the Civil Proceedings Code allows the court to send notices and subpoenas by email. We claimed that the court can use that to send copies of court documents too.

If your company is subject to compulsory liquidation

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:29:06 +0000

The deadline for re-registration has passed. Now all companies that have failed to meet the deadline will be liquidated. Most Britons have registered companies as holdings of their property in Bulgaria. the compulsory liquidation will put their properties on tender and will sell them before the company is closed. So what they can do?

Make sure you have someone to check your company file on a regular basis. This way you can find who is appointed by the Commercial register as a company liquidator. Once you know his details, you can contact him and discuss with him the options to transfer the property to the company owner without actually putting it on tender. This is one of the options the Commercial Act gives to the company owners i.e. instead of cashing the company assets, the liquidator can distribute the assets to the shareholders after he has paid the liquidation expenses, taxes and liquidator’s remuneration. you need to be persistent on this, since not every liquidator will agree to do it. Therefore it is advised that you hire a solicitor to negotiate on your behalf.

Smartpartners-BG Ltd. declared bankrupt by Sofia City Court

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:00:02 +0000

Smartpartners-BG Ltd. - the developer of The Orchard, Bansko- have been declared bankrupt by Sofia City Court on 18.01.2012. The court resolution is sent by the court to the Commercial Register for announcing. It will be officially announced probably next week.

You can download the court decision in Bulgarian language from this link [PDF -1.1 MB].

As from the moment of announcing the court resolution, all creditors will have 1 month to present their claims to the administrator (through court). The court will review and decide whether to join the creditors or not. If they are allowed to join, they will benefit from all assets that are cashed by the administrator.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:05:04 +0000

Balchik Golf Heights woes

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:12:46 +0000

[NB]: Please read Mike’s comment below for more accurate information.

Since the developer of Balchik Golf Heights was forced to insolvency procedure, the developer continues to struggle. It turns out that even the sole owner of the capital of Varna Estates Ltd. - KMB Best of Bulgaria Properties and Services Ltd. (company No 131280900) - has also entered bankruptcy procedure. This makes collection of any creditor’s money difficult since the court fees for the bankruptcy administrator for both companies has to be paid by its creditors. Both procedures have been stalled because neither the insolvent companies, nor the creditors are able to pay the court and administrator fees. The proceedings will be stalled for 1 year. If they are not renewed accordingly, the companies will be dissolved automatically by the court and nobody will get refund. Unfortunately this is just the beginning of mass bankruptcy wave of property developers that will follow.

Developer of Balchik Golf Heights enters bankruptcy procedure

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:27:35 +0000

The developer of “Balchik Golf Heights” apart complex - Varna Estates Ltd- has been declared insolvent by Varna District Court. The proceedings have been initiated by a group of apartment buyers whose title deeds hasn’t been transfered to them. The procedure is in its beginning because the creditors need to pay the court fee. The case is suspended for indefinite period of time, but all Varna Estates Ltd assets has been seized and cannot be disposed. Creditors are encouraged to hire a solicitor and join the insolvency procedure in order to get a refund from the current assets of the company.

Check your contractor's diligence

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:27:22 +0000

A new service is offered by the Bulgarian Chamber Of Private Enforcement Agents. The Chamber maintains a register of debtors in Bulgaria. It contains names of all companies and persons who have been sued successfully and enforcement proceedings has been initiated against them. In short there is a public register of people and companies who don’t pay their debts.

Access to the register has every law enforcement agent. They can provide information on particular company/person if you provide company number for companies and personal number for Bulgarian citizens. In order to check a foreign person, you need to provide just a name. The fee for this service is EUR 5 per person/company. More information can be found here (in Bulgarian only)

Benefits of joining a property Owners Association

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:46:43 +0000

First, I need to say some words about why Owners association is so important. If you read this you have probably bought at least one property in Bulgaria. May be 80% of you have communication problems and other legal difficulties with the seller of your property. Since the property bubble was quite huge, almost every “construction entrepreneur” in Bulgaria got greedy when they saw the cashflow. Construction quality got poor, client-seller relation got poor. The result is angry property owners constantly opposed by the developer.

Preliminary agreement for purchase of property

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 21:55:01 +0000

This type of contract has been singed by almost 80% of all Britons and Irish who have bought properties(mainly apartments) in Bulgaria. Many of them think that once they have signed such agreement, they own the property. This is a common misunderstanding among the foreign property investors in Bulgaria. The preliminary contract is regulated by only one article in the entire Bulgarian legislation(Art 19 of Obligations and Contracts Act):

Art 19. A preliminary contract preceding the conclusion of a final contract for which a notarial deed or notarial certification is required shall be concluded in writing.

Buying land in Bulgaria without registration of limited company

Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:08:48 +0000

The Bulgarian legislation have set a restriction for buying land by foreigners directly. This was changed when Bulgaria was accepted as EU member state in 2007. However, the accession treaty allowed Bulgaria and Romania to extend the restriction for few more years. Naturally both states took advantage of this option.

The right for extending the restriction is set in Annex 6, part 3 (movement of capital), point 1 to the Treaty for Accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU. The annex to the treaty for accession provides the right to Bulgaria to keep up to 5 years the restriction for the right of foreigners to directly own land in Bulgaria:

Major amendments in the Condominium Management Act

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:45:16 +0000

New major amendments have taken place in the Condominium Management Act. If one reads them carefully it is obvious the the lobby of the property developers has passed regulations in their favour. Here is a brief description of the major changes (not a complete list):

1. Previous wording of “closed complexes article” didn’t provide who is responsible for filing the registration of the management contract to the Land registry. The new wording is clear: the developer is responsible for this. The lobbing is crystal clear. The so called “closed complexes” are basically a tool for blackmailing and “milking” the buyers. Basically if you buy apartment in such complex, you are bonded to the developer forever. He can charge you whatever maintenance fees he likes. Be careful with this. (Art. 2 Para 2 )

Old rural houses require special certificate upon selling

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:45:13 +0000

If you want to sell or buy an old rural house in Bulgaria, you need to know when this house was built or if it has construction papers. One of the rare documents that is required by the notaries in Bulgaria upon notary certification of sale/purchase deals is the certificate for construction tolerance. the legal grounds for it is § 16 of the Bulgarian Spatial Development Act:

§ 16. (1) (Supplemented, SG No. 65/2003) Any construction works constructed prior to the 7th day of April 1987, in respect of which a construction file is lacking but which were permissible under the effective detailed urban-development plans and under the rules and standard specifications effective during the time of performance thereof or according to this Act, shall be tolerable construction works and shall not be subject to removal and to ban on use. Any such work may be subject to a transfer transaction upon presentation of a certificate issued by the authorities which are empowered to approve the relevant development-project designs, to the effect that the said construction work is tolerable.

Distressed Bulgarian Property - how to find and buy one

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 23:48:13 +0000

Few of the foreign property investors know that one can buy really cheap distressed property in Bulgaria. Moreover there’s a search option, by using different criteria (location, limit by price, property type etc.). The distressed property catalog can be found on the website of the Bulgarian Chamber of the Private Law enforcement Agents. The particular catalog is only in Bulgarian, since it’s generated by all private enforcement agents in Bulgaria most of which doesn’t speak English. However you can use Google Translate service to do a basic translation.

Are management fees still owed after you sell your apartment

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:17:42 +0000

In our lawyer practice in Varna and Black Sea region we face various types of property management contracts. Some of them are drafted professionally by other lawyers and others are done pretty bad by the property developers themselves. Generally there are two types of property management contracts:

Property management contract for the common areas of the condominium and
Property management contract for the individual apartment or other commercial premises in the building

The first type of contract (#1 above) has to be signed by the Management Committee or the Manager of the condominium. The Condominium Management Act stipulates that contracts for management of the common parts of the building are signed by the representative of the condominium BUT ONLY after the contracting party is approved by the General Meeting of the condominium. In case of such contract all owners of apartments and other individual premises in the building are obliged to mind the General Meeting’s resolution. Also in this case “the management contract follows the ownership of the apartment” i.e. if you sell your property the new owner will be obliged to pay any outstanding management fees.

Propery deals for over EUR 5000 will go through bank wire only!

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 19:15:10 +0000

Another “kick” on the free trade has been adopted by the Bulgarian government. As from July 1st 2011 an amendment in the Notatrial Act regulates that property deals worth more than 5000 Euros has to be paid through the notary trust account or dedicated bank account. The full text of the ridiculous Art. 25 is here:

(9) (New - SG. 41 of 2011, in force since 01.07.2011) Upon performing transactions, which set up, transfer, amend or terminate real estate rights, participants in the notary proceedings declare that the amount stated therein is effectively agreed.

General Meetings of the Condominium at Black Sea resorts (Varna, Bourgas etc.)

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 11:16:47 +0000

It appears that the builder’s lobby in the Condominium Management Act has prevailed. The Act was adopted during the property bubble, when all builders had plenty of work and clients. They were trying to predict who they can benefit their further business and how to squeeze more out of the foreign buyers. They were trying to find loopholes and adjust the legislation in a way so their business can be run smoothly. In my opinion one of the loopholes is the ban for convening General Meetings during the summer season.

Online gambling license regime in Bulgaria

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:19:29 +0000

When we talked about Internet gambling license will soon be available in Bulgaria, we thought the Parliament will pass the bill really quickly because of the big interest, the real gambling companies have in Bulgaria. Now, as some of the comments pointed right, companies holding non-EU gambling license don’t care about getting an EU one, because they can operate on-line virtually anywhere.

We can see some “non-gambling” websites which offer free poker games, but they also offer paid membership where you can actually gamble. It appears the Gambling Commission is unable to sanction them, or at least nobody urged them to.

Land lease - not so common in Bulgaria

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:50:34 +0000

When foreigners buy apartments or studios in Bulgaria they are explained that they can buy that property without forming a limited company. This is true, because they are buying only the individual premises in the building and not the land beneath the building. Usually the builders keep the land for themselves by “extracting” the right for building from the land ownership. This enables them ti build (or even sell the right for building to third party) on the land while keeping the land ownership for themselves. Consequently they can sell the building (or individual premises in it) without affecting the land ownership.

Condominium problems - common areas calculation often forged

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:36:10 +0000

[styled_box color=“grey”]Important Update: We are pleased to inform all owners that we have made a precedent in Razlong District Court, concerning three apartment complexes in Bansko. We have successfully proven in six court cases the discrepancies between the common parts calculation used on General Meetings by the builder and the actual common parts area that is built. You can read more here.

[/styled_box]

The most recent rip-off scheme used by the Bulgarian (Varna, Bansko, Bourgas etc.) developers is “blackmailing” the foreign investors through property management fees. So how does it work?

Commercial Register failed!

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:21:52 +0000

For the past couple of days, the Commercial Register of Bulgaria is not working. According to an official government announcement, the computer cluster, serving the register system failed to take the huge load of connections from users/government employees. Today the Registry Agency in Varna was not working due to the system failure. This is also a huge embarrassment for the Ministry of Justice, part of which is the Registry Agency.

Court Resolution Enforcement Explained

Fri, 27 May 2011 11:38:04 +0000

The current articles is following up the first stage a typical civil lawsuit goes through. Assuming the plaintiff has won the case and the court has awarded him with full refund (+ penalty and legal expenses recovery), the plaintiff is waiting the lost party to pay. It is common in Bulgaria that debtors don’t pay willingly. Therefore the creditor need to enforce the court resolution.

Law Enforcement Agent

The law enforcement agents are the only state authorized persons who can enforce court resolution in Bulgaria. Generally the enforcement agents are private ones and state ones. Private enforcement agents have their Private Enforcement Agents Chambers, which is also their regulatory body. Private agents are more capable due to the monetary stimulation of debt recovery - they charge both flat fees for initiating the enforcement case and percentage based fees upon collection of funds.

Bulgarian Civil Court Process Explained

Tue, 24 May 2011 16:20:58 +0000

We receive many complaints about the slow civil court proceedings. Since it is a complex issue, rooted deeply in the judicial system, I’ll try to outline the main causes of the delay. Below I’m explaining in details how a typical court process does and the concerns of a typical plaintiff’s lawyer.

1. After the claim application is filed, the court’s Chairman distributes the case on random principle among the judges (time frame 3-4 days as from the claim filing)

Survey on the public trust in the Bulgarian Courts

Thu, 12 May 2011 16:49:49 +0000

A recent Survey of the Center For The Study of Democracy showed that less than 20% of the Bulgarian actually trust the Bulgarian court. This result is both curious and also shows how deep is the judicial crisis in the courts. The lack of reforms is causing the system to struggle and to go more sluggish each year. The corruption takes enormous scales and unfortunately nobody from the government is engaged with new reforms.

New changes introduced to the Commercial Register

Tue, 03 May 2011 22:42:03 +0000

On 29th April new changes to the Commercial register proceedings were introduced. Most of them are good and fix some of the misunderstandings in the law. The most major amendments include:

Reducing the state fees by 50% if the applications are submitted online

The previous text of the law required 75% of the state fee if documents are submitted online. The new amendment is reducing the fee even more. This will encourage the people and lawyers to submit application online and will reduce the queues in the offices of the Registry Agency. At last some 21st-century-strategy by the Ministry of Justice.

Understanding Bulgaria's Judges Thinking

Sun, 01 May 2011 13:17:37 +0000

Almost half of the legislation of Bulgaria is outdated. Most of the laws have been adopted in the 50s of the last century during a communist society organization regime. Almost none of them is compatible to the free market and economics of the current society. An exception from that are the new laws adopted under the pressure of the EU legislation conformity requirements (such as competition and consumer protection legislation).

How's court decision taken in Bulgaria

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 07:22:44 +0000

We’ve just found a great article in The Economist about scientific research of what influences judges for taking a particular decision. It turns out that “Justice is what the judge had for breakfast” indeed. In our litigation practice we can confirm that this is indeed true. Moreover, we can add some additional factors pushing the course of the court resolution - this is:

judge’s attitude towards the parties lawyers;
if the judge is overloaded with cases;
if the previous case parties have made him angry;
if the judge was sleeping well the last night etc.

It’s all human factors which influence court decision in Bulgaria and which sometime breaks a party’s life. Last but not least (even more significant than the previous ones) it’s the corruption. The judicial system of Bulgaria is sill encapsulated and if you’re close friend to the judge you can get whatever court resolution you want - the judge will always find a legal way to justify their resolution.

Wealthy companies 'benefit' of speed in Commercial register

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 13:11:22 +0000

A recent journalist research showed that a major Bulgarian newspaper publisher has changed shares ownership. The new and the old shares owner are contradictory entities, but the most interesting thing about this shares transaction is the speed that the change was registered in the Commercial register. To be absolutely objective here is an excerpt from the Internal regulations of the Commercial register:

Art. 90, para 2 (Amended - SG. 111 of 2007, in force from 01.01.2008, am. - SG. 6 of 2009, in force since 23.01.2009) The distribution of applications, requests, acts of the court,public authority and private enforcement agents for consideration by officials in the registration is performed by the information system on random selection basis.

Lawyer Milen Hristov talks about the property bubble in Bulgaria

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 01:32:39 +0000

Varna is not only property but also IT business destination

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:47:01 +0000

Varna is known among foreign investors as a cheap sea property destination. Since the property bubble has popped up, Varna is offering a sustainable business opportunities, supported by the local city council. The municipality has adopted a strategic plan for development of Varna area. You can read an excerpt from the strategy further below. As you can notice, one of the main locally supported industries is the IT business and business clustering. Normally the IT business is focused in Sofia, but Varna is also a good undeveloped IT investment destination since there is a Technical University - a reputable IT university. Many young programmers tend to search for a job in Sofia, but would like to stay in Varna if a job opportunity opens.

Winding up (liquidating) a Bulgarian company

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:52:16 +0000

2014 Update

Many liquidation have started and some of them even finished, but you need to check what we at MH Legal recommend to look when you have your company dissolved.

2013 Update

A recent changes to the NRA and NSSI internal ordinances, have affected the liquidation terms. The applications and the respective documents, needed for the liquidation and issued by those two government authorities practically increase the company liquidation with about two months! This is not in help to the solicitors and liquidators who have to explain the delays to the company owners.

Balchik Golf Heights - another struggling development?

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:46:20 +0000

Varna region is one of the last one standing against property developer’s bankruptcy. However more and more of them are having financial difficulties and thus causing failure on development deadlines and breaching buyers contracts. Balchik Golf Heights seems to have been affected by the financial difficulties too.

Buyers have been purchasing and legally guided by a big Spanish law firm. Normally it doesn’t make sense Spanish law firm to deal with Bulgarian laws. This has negative consequences to the buyer, namely preliminary purchase offplan agreements that have bad clauses for the buyers. Buyers were not provided with proper information and regular update on the development. There is huge lack of communication between the parties. Now the credit crunch have been suffocating the Balchik Golf Heights developers, buyers are thinking of fighting for their right fore refund. The deadline is way back the scheduled completion of the buildings.

Investment property calculator

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 17:30:25 +0000

Following our intention to provide the best legal services to our clients in Varna region and the rest of the Bulgaria, MH Legal law office is happy to provide the visitors of our website a calculator for property purchase expenses in Bulgaria. You can find the calculator and instructions how to use it HERE. Comments and recommendation are welcomed.

Illegal constructions next to water sources

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 13:21:10 +0000

If you are rural investor in Bulgaria and have bought a house next to a dam, you need to check if your property has been built according to the regulation of building next to water sources. During the past few days the National Directorate for Construction Audit is initiating a check in all properties built next to water.

In case of penalty set by the state authorities, be sure to hire a lawyer who will appeal the penalty. There are two big dams in Varna region - Tzonevo and Ticha dams. In case of penalty set, our lawyers can assist you in dealing with state and municipal authorities.

Top ways Varna property agents use to scam foreign buyers

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 15:24:00 +0000

In our lawyer practice in Varna, we have discovered several ways, used by the property agents and developers to deceive the buyers. You should look for such signs in the preliminary actions of the seller/agent and that should ring the bell for you.

First method

If the agent asks you to open a bank account on your/your company name and require you to transfer the purchase price/installments for the property there. Along with that they ask you to issue a power of attorney to their employee who would have the right to withdraw money from your account.

Scam property agents in Varna region

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 13:09:58 +0000

Varna is one of the last places where the property scam didn’t appear until now. The development companies have been looking secure and reliable, until the recent months. Our lawyers in Varna started to receive complains about developers breaching their contracts, failing to provide completed property withing the agreed term, according to the preliminary purchase agreement.

The typical contract breach is the delay in completion of an apartment and ownership transfer. This is where our Varna lawyers come to place. Upon clients request and engagement, our Varna lawyers contact the developer and establish the reasons for the breach and the reason for lack of communication between the buyer and the developer. Usually, the reason is the lack of funds for completion the property. The developers, however, don’t explain that in plain English (even don’t bother to explain at all) this tot the clients. They just ignore the communication and hide like criminals. This criminal behavior is due to the fact they can’t fulfill their obligations and of course they think since the buyers are living abroad, they will just forget about the money they have spent on the particular investment.

Investment profile of Varna, Dobrich and Constanta region

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 15:36:32 +0000

Having Bulgaria and Romania as members of EU opened new opportunities of business cooperation between the two countries. EU funding stimulated a lot of small and medium enterprises to for trans-border business ventures . The companies are mainly from Varna, Dobrich (Bulgaria) and Constanta (Romania).

Investment climate

Bulgaria attracts investors with its low tax regime (10% flat rate fro corporate tax) - one of the lowest in EU. Furthermore a lot of Romanian companies benefit from Bulgaria’s low tax and they register limited companies in the border Bulgarian cities (such as Dobrich and Varna), but their business operates entirely in Romania. Furthermore, foreign investors can benefit both the Bulgarial low tax regime and simultaneously can benefit from both Bulgaria’s and Romania’s infrastructure, industry facilities, local services. The beauty of EU is that it allows free movement of people and goods. This enables investors to take advantage of both Romania and Bulgaria labour force, tax regime and infrastructure connections.

Re-registration deadline extended to 31 December 2011

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 17:02:15 +0000

Yesterday the official amendment of the law was promulgated and subsequently entered in force. Now the new deadline for re-registration of companies in Bulgaria is 31 December 2011. This amendment came by surprise preceding the actual bill of amendment of the Commercial register Act.

This extension is actually done by amending the Trade Act, rather than amending the Commercial Register Act itself. This is rather unusual way of the parliament to do it as it confuses the people who expect the actual law which regulated the re-registration process to be amended. In the end, this amendment will cause the actual bill for amendment of Commercial Register Act to be amended to match the new re-registration term. Once again we can see the legal ignorance of the ruling party’s members.

Re-registration of companies deadline extended to 30.06.2011

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 12:29:21 +0000

The Bulgarian parliament has extended the deadline for company re-registration. The new deadline is 30 June 2011. The bill for extension is not yet voted on the second hearing and not yet promulgated in State Gazette . However it is a matter of time this to be done.

This is good news to all companies that hasn’t been re-registered yet. However it is not a good idea for company owners to wait to the end of the new deadline. Ask your lawyers to prepare all necessary documents and re-register your companies. In our practice we face various obstacles for re-registration like missing documents, deceased shareholders, shareholders’ disputes etc. So generally it is a good idea to start the re-registration as soon as possible, because you never know if the process will go as smooth as you thought.

Another case related to Bulgarian Dreams is won by MH Legal

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 19:18:50 +0000

We are pleased to announce that MH Legal has won a milestone case on behalf of our clients against Museum House Ltd., the developer of Museum House residential building, Sofia. The apartments in that building were sold through Bulgarian Dreams. The former owner of Museum House Ltd. was Maria Georgieva, also a co-founder of Bulgarian Dreams. Our clients have been awarded with about EUR 14,500 by the court.

The bill for extension of company re-registration deadline still pending

Sat, 06 Nov 2010 12:14:38 +0000

The bill for extension of company re-registration deadline is still pending. The parliament website bill section (English Google translation) shows that the bill is still in discussion stage with the Legal commission of the Parliament. The Bill was submitted to the Parliament on 18 October 2010.

Normally Bill discussions take more than 2 months, however this Bill needs to be voted as soon as possible since a lot of companies will be liquidated because they will fail to re-register.

Deadline for company re-registration might be extended

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 16:37:06 +0000

The Ministry of Justice have drafted a bill for amendment of the Commercial Register Act, proposing extension of the deadline for reregistration of the Bulgarian companies. The new proposed deadline for reregistration is 30 June 2011. Along with the deadline extension, the other major amendment is that the applicants don’t lose the state fee if they have made mistakes in the application or in the enclosed documents. The current practice of the Commercial Register was to withhold the fees if the applicant has made mistakes to the documents. This was considered by the Bulgarian court as illegal and ripoff of the local business. In spite of the court practice, the Commercial Register continued to withhold the state fees. Hopefully, the new amendments to the Commercial Register Act will make the register follow the logic, court practice and the law.

The Orchard - almost two years later

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 20:56:16 +0000

Here are some pictures of The Orchard development in Bansko taken one week ago. As you can see, there is not much difference since January 2009 - almost two years later. All investors need to decide for themselves if the promises given by the developer will ever come true.

115 days until all unregistered companies will be liquidated!

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:10:05 +0000

Once again, all Brits that have companies and still are not re-registered, please do it by the end of the year. If you don’t do it, your company will be liquidated and they will lose all company’s assets.

The re-registration takes about couple of weeks, depending which is the registration court of the company.

Easy and quick EU residency

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:50:03 +0000

A company that will get for any non-EU national European residency for as quick as three months. Very neat! See the residency application contacts. The information is very useful and they have regularly updated residency news blog.

Some media reactions on the Property rip off by Bulgarian Dreams

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:56:05 +0000

Last Tuesday one of the most respected Bulgarian business newspapers Capital, published an article about the Bulgarian Dreams rip off. The articles is only in Bulgarian and you can find it here. A basic translation done by Google Translate can be read HERE Edit: I now see that “The Sofia Echo” has translated the articles from Capital newspaper into proper English. You can read it here

Echo of the Bulgarian property crisis

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:22:54 +0000

Yesterday I found an article in the Independent newspaper talking about how Irish are blaming the property journalists for misleading the investors for investment locations like Bulgaria. Indeed, I’m sure that there were a lot of paid publications (Articles) which presented Bulgarian properties as quick and easy investment return. However I hink most of the negative influence was made by the UK and Irish estate agents. Pursuing quick middle-man fees, they have convinced thousands of investors to put their money into something that was not quite right. On the other hand, very few investors, have made the mandatory due diligence of what they actually buy.

Liquidation of company in Varna

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 10:53:07 +0000

There are many disappointed UK investors in Bulgaria. Some of them are leaving the country and want to sell their investment and recover at least some of the money they have put in property or business. The problems each foreigner is facing are:

How to sell the property at a decent price so that at least 70% of the investment is recovered and
What will happen to the Bulgarian company

As the first problem is connected mainly to the market demand, the second problem can be resolved with a help of a lawyer. Usually when you sell you property the company is becoming dormant and you are not trading anymore. IF you intend to leave the country for ever it will be not so good idea to leave a company with your name in it. Sooner or later the National Revenue Agency might want to make an inspection and will find out that you haven’t submitted annual tax declarations. This will be quite suspicious so your company will be marked as one to be surveyed. The tax and financial information in the EU is quite easy transferable. It might turnout that you will be charged with the Bulgarian fine in UK, which is quite unpleasant experience for your UK tax record.

The mass liquidation of companies in Bulgaria

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:43:35 +0000

The mid year passed and the deadline for re-registration all Bulgarian companies is fast approaching. January 2011 will become nightmare for company owners who haven’t reregistered. Their companies will be forced into liquidation by the court and the all company assets will be sold on public tenders. Moreover, the court will appoint a liquidator and the company owner will have to pay their monthly salary. IF the company assets are not enough, the company owners will be liable for both company debts and for liquidator’s salary.

Company registration getting slower

Mon, 31 May 2010 18:01:32 +0000

I just wanted to update all who are still to register/re-register their companies. The Commercial Register now is 18 days behind the normal deadline for application processing. As the end of the year comes closer, the company registration will take longer. The solution would be that the Commercial Register to hire more people to process the applications.

British expats in Varna will benefit MHLegal solicitor services

Mon, 31 May 2010 09:42:53 +0000

As of 15 June 2010, Varna will benefit from the legal services of solicitor Milen Hristov. The Varna office will be fully operational then. All English speaking clients who need solicitor help regarding company registration,property purchase/sell, visa issues etc. See more details how to find the Varna solicitor office here

Registration of companies Commercial register overloaded

Sun, 16 May 2010 18:12:58 +0000

The registration, re-registration and changes in the files of the companies is delaying again. The reason is that the Commercial register receives more applications than they can handle. The result is one and a half weeks delay in processing the applications. This is valid for all type of applications, no matter if they are for registration, re-registration of companies or just application for filing changes to the companies files. I wonder what will happen in the end of year 2010, when thousands of companies will file their applications at once. The Commercial register will suffer a lot and most probably the business will suffer too. that’s why they need to change their management and hire more employees who will process the applications and the documents. The lawyers will need to explain the situation to their clients, as the deadline for re-registration is coming and this issue will arise.

MHLegal is opening branch office in Varna

Sat, 15 May 2010 12:19:44 +0000

We are pleased to announce that as of June 2010, MHlegal will have an office in Varna, Bulgaria. This will ensure easier access to our legal services for the clients residing in Varna and the area around Varna. The contacts will be announced at the day of the official opening.

Court case against Bulgarian developer won by MHLegal

Wed, 05 May 2010 09:45:52 +0000

Our law office has initiated more than 10 similar cases against Bulgarian developers. The cases are at different stages and proceed with different speed, depending on the court workload. However last week we got the first court resolution. The court awarded our British client with the amount of EUR 35,000 plus expenses, penalty and interest on the awarded amount.

Another client of ours also claimed his money back (almost 80,000 pounds) and we were at the middle of the court proceedings, when the defendant -developer- agreed to reimburse our client with a finished house at the Black Sea coast (act 16 included). The current market price of the house is estimated to be around 80,000-85,000 pounds)

Processing of company re-registration documents

Tue, 04 May 2010 16:18:43 +0000

As the deadline for re-registration approaches, the Commercial Register is likely to suffer by greater workload. Still thousands of companies haven’t been re-registered. If they apply in the end of the year it’s likely the clerks in the Register to delay the processing of the documents. Even more, now the company documents are processed for about a week. This is to show that more employees are needed in the Commercial Register administration.

Business clusters in Bulgaria

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:25:28 +0000

Business clusters have been developing in Bulgaria rapidly during the recent years. The main reason is that there are many small companies and sole traders who cannot stand the competition of the big companies. The small business in Bulgaria is not protected, as the government doesn’t care about family, small and medium enterprises. Although the Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency exist just for the purpose to support the small companies, they virtually do nothing.

Deadline for filing annual tax accounts

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:39:53 +0000

Tomorrow, 31 March 2010, is the deadline for filing the annual tax declaration of all companies registered in Bulgaria. The tax declarations have to be filed in the local office of the National Revenue Agency, in the area where the company is registered. Dormant companies also have to file nil tax declarations.

There is second accountancy obligation of all Bulgarian companies. Pursuant Art. 40 para 1 point 1 of the Accountancy Act a summary of the company accounts must be announced in the Commercial Register with the Registry Agency. A company which does not do that will be fined by the state.

Permanent residence in Bulgaria (EU member state)

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:17:30 +0000

The Bulgarian Immigration legislation allows foreigners who are not citizens of EU members states to obtain permanent residence directly. The ways to do that is by investing more than 1,000,000 Levs (About 500,000 Euros) or increasing the already made investment with that amount by acquiring:

shares in Bulgarian public listed companies;
financial instruments, issued by the state or the municipalities having their maturity date no less than 6 months;
ownership over a part of assets of Bulgarian company, having at least 50% state ownership, which has become such via the privatisation procedure;
shares, owned by the state or municipality in company, created pursuant the the Privatisation Act;
Bulgarian Intellectual property - items protected by Bulgarian patent, protected inventions, trade marks, industrial design etc.;
rights pursuant to concession agreements over the territory of the state

Another way of obtaining permanent residence in EU (Bulgaria) is to deposit at least 500,000 euros in Bulgarian credit institution(e.g. banks, pension funds etc.) on the grounds of fund management agreement with term no less than 5 years;

Internet Gambling License

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:35:15 +0000

The Bulgarian legislation currently does not allow issuing of Internet gambling licenses. However, an amendment to the Gambling Act is submitted to the Bulgaria Parliament. The new clauses of the Gambling Act will allow Bulgarian and foreign companies to obtain Internet gambling license. Some of the new license requirements will be:

all servers and electronic equipment has to be located physically in Bulgaria
at least one of the servers which receives the traffic data over the Internet, has to possess domain in .bg area.
the gambling software needs to collect records of the users, as well as to have the ability to provide data to the Gambling Commission upon request
each game, included in the Internet gambling license, has to match the requirements for the regular gambling, as described in details in the Gambling Act.

The status of the bill can be reviewed in the website of the Bulgarian Parliament

Old companies have to re-register by the end of this year

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:35:11 +0000

Those of you who have companies registered before 1 Jan 2008 and haven’t done the re-registration, need to hurry. The Commercial Register Act regulates the deadline for re-registration is 31 Dec 2010.

If you fail to re-register on time, your company will be liquidated by the court and official state liquidator will be appointed. The consequence of this will be that your company’s assets will be sold on public tender and the liquidator’s salary will be paid out of that assets.

Happy New Year!

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 13:06:40 +0000

Happy new year to all readers of this blog. I will do my best to inform you of the latest trends and legal changes in the Bulgarian legislation. As a lawyer, I will try to give you best advice for your particular case.

Changing the property management company

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 18:22:47 +0000

If you are not satisfied with your current property management company, there is a way you can replace it with another, diligent one. The process is regulated by the newly adopted Condominium Ownership Management Act. First you need to know that if you are owner in closed apartment complex, the only valid form of the management agreement is written notarized agreement. Agreement which are simply signed are not legally valid. This agreement shall also be registered with the Land Registry. This is stipulated in Art. 2 of the act:

The 'trap' of the preliminary agreement

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:22:17 +0000

If you read this you have probably had experience with signing a preliminary agreement with Bulgarian developer. This agreement usually binds the developer with the obligation to finish the property and provide you with the title deed by certain deadline. Well, this seems too good to be true.

The preliminary agreement is regulated in only 1 article in the Agreements and Obligations Act and nowhere else:

(1) A preliminary contract preceding the conclusion of a final contract for which a notarial deed or notarial certification is required shall be concluded in writing.

(2) A preliminary contract shall contain provisions concerning the material terms of the final contract.

New company or off-the-shelf company in Bulgaria

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:12:45 +0000

Off-the-shelf companies are not popular in Bulgaria. This is due to the fact that additional accounting expenses are involved. Off-the-shelf companies are dormant companies with nominee directors/shareholders and a registered business address in Bulgaria. The additional expenses are for filing annual tax declarations and annual accounts in the Commercial Register. Having the baove in mind, foreigners and Bulgarians, prefer to register a brand new company, rather than buy off-shelf one. Moreover, registration of a new LLC in Bulgaria takes just about 2 days.

LTD minimum capital reduced to 1 Euro

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:41:51 +0000

As from 20th October 2009, the minimum capital for registration of limited liability company (LTD) in Bulgaria is 1 Euro. The amendment in the Commercial Act will allow easier and less cumbersome registration of companies in Bulgaria.

Interlink Management changed since 27 August 2009

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:46:06 +0000

Maria Georgieva is removed from Interlink’s management. The new management of the company promises that they will do their best to finish the projects that are already started. I’ve been in contact with them and they are far more cooperative than the previous ones.

Company financial statements should be announced in the Commercial Register

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:41:26 +0000

All companies has to prepare annual financial reports according to the Bulgarian and International Financial Reporting Standards. The reports of companies with turnover above EUR 1,000,000 are subject to compulsory audit.

Pursuant to Article 40 of the Accountancy Act all companies shall announce their financial reports to the Commercial register. You can read the provisions below:

Article 40 (Supplemented, SG No.96/2004, amended SG No. 105/2006)

(1) By 30 June on the following year, enterprises shall publish their annual financial statements and their consolidatedfinancial statements, their annual management report and their annual consolidated management report as adopted by thegeneral meeting of partners/shareholders or by the relevant body as follows:

New facts about 'Windows to Paradise' case

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:27:03 +0000

On 10th August 2009 a new record appeared in the Commercial Register. “Interlink BG” Ltd - developer of Windows to Paradise - has 1/3 of its shares seized by a creditor.

I warned several times that such thing can happen. The creditor is Raiffeisen Bank and they have seized Ivan Stanchev’s (one of the shareholders) shares in the company. Obviously, the reason for the share seizure is that Interlink BG hasn’t paid the mortgage loan (EUR 4 000 000) to Raiffeisen Bank. Therefore the bank sued Interlink BG and won the case. Studying the court documents, it’s clear that Ivan Stanchev acted as second debtor (a guarantor), since he guaranteed for the loan with his own property.

Bulgarian lawsuit guide

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:01:21 +0000

This article is aimed to be a short FAQ, explaining the “nuts-and-bolts” of the Bulgarian court proceedings. I’ve been asked these questions thousand times, so I decided to write a brief description of the claim process in Bulgaria.

Q: What are the court expenses? A: The court expenses are separated in several subcategories:

Court fee/State fee - the court fee in Bulgaria is fixed. It is calculated on the basis of the amount you claim. The usual fee is 4% of the claim amount. In rare cases,explicitly stated in the law, the court fee is 2% of the claimed amount. The court fee has to be paid prior filing the claim.

Bulgarian Debt Portfolios

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:51:19 +0000

Now’s a good time for buying debt portfolios in Bulgaria. Why is it a good idea? Remember the property baloon in Bulgaria. Yes, the one just like in Spain. Well, the situation is as follows:

Developers got big amounts of mortgage credits so they can build holliday homes. Well, the calculations were wrong and the developers are now short in money. The developments are almost finished but the mortgages are not paid. The result is over 300 hotels in Bulgaria are owned by the banks and are being sold.

Why some Bulgarian Dreams' properties will probably never be finished

Sun, 10 May 2009 10:20:38 +0000

A massive fightback of Bulgarian Dreams is taking place in the Internet. It’s conducted by RG Jenkin. The failure to complete Windows to Paradise development brought him the BBC Prime attention as well as the buyer’s anger. However now he convinces the same buyers, who he deceived with the completion dates, so they put more money in the “concrete pile” called Windows to Paradise.

In order to backup my words with facts, all of you should know that “Interlink BG” Ltd.’s loans owed to BG banks amount to over EUR 9,000,000. This fact is stated by Interlink BG Ltd. in its own annual financial report, submitted to the Commercial Register. The company’s General Meeting is blocked by the Court, so no convening will take place in the near future. The company is practically inactive. This means that unless major events happen, the company cannot operate and therefore cannot complete the building it has started.

My five cents to Bulgarian Dreams..

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:28:28 +0000

Orchard Development - is it ready for habitation?

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:15:23 +0000

Today I was passing through Bansko and decided to take some pictures of the Orchard Development. This is to show to the public what they should expect out of their investment:

This is the mandatory sign for each construction work in progress. Circled in red, is the deadline for finishing the development:
Building of the Orchard (probably only phase I). This is the scenery around the developments. Note that there is no suitable road. You can access the place only with off-road capable vehicle:

Financial status of a Bulgarian company

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:21:44 +0000

Recently I’ve been asked about how can one obtain details on the financial status of a Bulgarian company. This is not an easy task to do because of the following:

Companies don’t give away details on their financial status willingly
Banks don’t reveal details neither if certain company possesses bank accounts, nor the status of these bank accounts. Bank secret can be revealed only by court order
Police will present information on whether there are any vehicles registered to a company only upon presenting a court order for that
Due to decentralization of the Land Registry in Bulgaria, if you want to check whether a company owns properties, you have to check in each local Land Registry office (more than 40 offices)

Of course you can check the annual financial statement of the company in the Commercial Register, but usually you will not find any details there, just numbers. Moreover, if the company has good accountant the annual financial report will be useless for you.

Claims are being filed against 'Bulgarian Dreams' contractors

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 17:08:39 +0000

If you are reading this, you are probably one of the many English people who think that they’ve lost their life savings in off-plan properties, offered by “Bulgarian Dreams” in the UK. I guess it will be interesting for you to know some facts and tips about the “Bulgarian Dreams” saga in Bulgaria. I’ve acquired all that information during the preparation of several claims against Bulgarian developers.

Here are some legal remarks on Bulgarian Dreams’ commercial strategy:

Factoring market in Bulgaria

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:47:55 +0000

During the past few years, construction development boosted the economy of Bulgaria. Many companies were registered and trading not only in Bulgaria but within the EU too. Factor financing began to make its niche in Bulgaria. Several banks opened their factoring subsidiary companies, and taking their share of this undeveloped marked. UniCredit Group (Italy) shows:

The factoring market in Central and Eastern Europe is growing in annual increments ranging between 20% to 40% from country to country and should maintain this pace over the next couple of years.

About preliminary purchase agreements

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:30:20 +0000

As from my practice I see several common MISTAKES, made by property buyers:

Not reading your preliminary purchase agreement at all

That’s absolute nonsense, but believe me, some people buy without reading the clauses of their preliminary agreements. There are"traps" set buy the property developer which entitles him either to delay without paying a penalty or to decrease your chance of terminating the agreement.

Signing without being sure want you sign

Company setup now takes one day!

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:06:31 +0000

There are improvements in the Registry Agency at last. The company registration takes now up to one day! This is a huge improvement in the paper processing since the beginning of 2008. The Ministry of Justice seems to have understood that Bulgarian business needs faster Commercial Register.

Nevertheless, you have to submit the registration documents online, in order to benefit the shorter registration term. If you submit the company registration documents by hand to the office of the Commercial Register, it will take about several days to have your company set up and running. The delay is cause by the clerks who scan you papers and input them into the digital Commercial Register.

Buying off-plan in Bulgaria Act 14, 15 and 16!

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:16:21 +0000

When buying second home in Bulgaria, be extremely careful when signing any preliminary agreements. Be sure to check when the property ownership will be transferred, at what moment exactly. The builders usually prefer that they get rid of the apartment/house at the moment of obtaining Act 15.

Act 14 This protocol (minutes) is to be drafted by the builder when the construction works of the building reach the so called “rough construction” or shell construction.

Bulgarian lawsuit procedure what to expect

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:03:36 +0000

If you happen to be a party in a lawsuit in Bulgaria, you should be aware of the following:

Don’t be impatient. Bulgarian Civil Proceedings Code regulates certain terms that have to be taken into consideration
The weakest part in a lawsuit is the delivery of subpoenas. All the papers which have to be delivered to the parties, are carried by employees of the court called “призовкари” (subpoena carriers) . The delivery employees are not limited to delivery terms, as the law assumes that there may be troubles finding the parties. That’s why a typical subpoena delivery may take about a month.
When a lawsuit is filed, there is one month period, which has to pass, before the judge sets a date for the first hearing. This is a period in which the defendant has to submit an answer to the claim. Please note that this period starts, as from the day the claim was delivered to the defendant.(See point 2 above)
The judge may “stretch” the lawsuit in several hearings, depending on how complicated is the case. Usually lawsuits have two or three hearings. The time between the hearings depends on the caseload of the particular judge. Usually its one or two months.
When the lawsuit is announced for resolving by the judge, there is a one month term during which the judge has to issue the court resolution.
If the resolution is not appealed, it enters into force and you may engage a law enforcement agent.

Of course the above is just a brief explanation of the lawsuit procedure in Bulgaria, but basically you don’t have to push your lawyer,because not everything depends on him/her.

Due diligence report of a company

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:34:43 +0000

Why should you bother ordering a due diligence report? Let’s say you want to buy a whole business (part of your M&A strategy to acquire a competitive company). You would not want to buy a business with debts, would you? The due diligence report is the legal service you need. It clears the “big picture” about what you are actually buying. The due diligence report, as you can see from it’s name, is a detailed report about the good standing of the company, in terms of company status, contractual relations, lawsuit status etc.

Easy company re-registration in Bulgaria

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:01:40 +0000

The new amendments in the Commercial Register Act allow easy and less cumbersome re-registration of your company. Now, a Bulgarian lawyer, who is registered in a Bar Association, can sign the application for you. You only need to provide scanned copies of few documents. Your presence in Bulgaria is not required, everything can be done via email, no notary certifications needed. If you need easy re-registration contact me and I’ll save you the hassle.

Company annual accounts report

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:55:51 +0000

If you have already re-registered your company, make sure you don’t forget to publish your accounts for the past years in the Commercial register. The accounts report is usually done by your company’s accountant. However it is preferable not to rely only on your accountant for publishing the report in the Commercial register. Usually accountants are not familiar with the Trade Act in details and you might receive a rejection for publishing the report from the Registry Agency.

Builders in Bansko are still vulnerable

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:57:24 +0000

Be sure to check whether your off-plan builder in Bansko is not in breach of your preliminary agreement. There is a general ban for issuing planning permissions in Bansko, issued by the mayor of Bansko. The ban is set for several areas of the town, so you should check whether your apartment is not in a to-be-building, located in the mentioned areas.

If your investment is still in the planning stage, it’s likely the builder doesn’t have planning permission. This situation will probably affect the deadlines in your contract. If so, it is your chance to get rid of your bad investment, by terminating your agreement unilaterally on the ground that the builder will not fulfill their obligation in the terms set in the preliminary agreement. Be sure to consult an independent lawyer, in order to get a clearer picture of the situation and independent evaluation your your case.

Finally the State Gazette is onilne

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 08:30:18 +0000

As from 1 July 2008 the Bulgarian State Gazette is uploaded online. Before that date it could be found only on a hard copy and with subscription. Finally we can read Bulgarian laws without paying for it and more environment friendly.

In the official website you can find the full content of the State Gazette starting from issue 30 (19 March 2008) till now.

Register a company online and pay less!

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:37:36 +0000

The Council of Ministers of Bulgaria has to adopt an amendment to the Tariff of the Commercial Register, in connection to the new changes to the Commercial Register Act. According to the recent changes, when you register a company online, the state fee is at least 25% less than the one paid when submitting a hard a copy of the application.

This amendment is to encourage people to submit their documents online and not to stay at the long queues at the Commercial Register’s office.

Online company registration in Bulgaria

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:39:57 +0000

The Commercial Register offers a service called “online submission of applications and documents”. The feature of their website is available from the very beginning, but was not working properly for a couple of months. Fortunately, now we can use it to submit all kind of company documentation including:

documents for (re-) registration of a company
documents for changes in a company
annual financial statements
winding-up and liquidation etc.

In order to use the online feature, you need a digital signature (DS) issued to you by an official certified DS provider in Bulgaria. The price is usually around EUR 50. The Digital Document and Digital Signature Act stipulates that the state authorities of Bulgaria have to accept DSs issued only by a certified Bulgarian DS authority. Using the DS with the Commercial Register is fairly easy: you must fill out a web form, attach scanned copies of the necessary documents (regarding the registration or to the changes you want to make in your company) and then the Java applet takes care of the digital undersigning of the application and the attachments.

Registration period goes to 60 days!!

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:58:35 +0000

The registration period of the new companies in Bulgaria grows beyond common sense!! If you want to register a new company you will have to wait about 2 months. This almost kills any startup business which is not backed up with a great amount of patience and capital.

People who want to start business and have already established business relations may lose their business partners because they can’t register as quick as the market requires. Absolute legislative madness!

Bill for amendment of the Commercial Register Act

Wed, 14 May 2008 08:38:39 +0000

On 19th March, the Bulgarian Government has drafted a Bill for amendment of the Commercial Register Act. It seems that finally the state is not blindfolded anymore. Some of the crucial amendments that are suggested are:

The application for registration of a company and the application for reservation of name can be signed and submitted by lawyer registered in a Bulgarian bar association. This means that there will be no need that the principal of the company to be present in Bulgaria and to sign and notarize the applications anymore. Most of the documents will be able to be signed by the lawyer himself, acting on behalf of the principal using a power of attorney.
When there is a change of the Manager or management body of the company, the new manager/management body is authorized by the law to submit the changes to the Commercial register. So far, there were problems, because the old law stipulated that the old managers obliged to submit the documents. Usually the old manager refuses to do that.
Reservation of the company name will be for 6 months, opposing for the current 3 months.
Reducing the required professional experience for registry clerks. So far the agency requires for the registry clerks to have at least 5 years of professional experience, but offers only 500(approx. EUR 250) Levs monthly salary, which is a kind of ridiculous for a person with professional experience more than 3 years.

Having this amendment effective will increase the personnel of the Registry Agency and it will process the documents faster. Let’s hope that this will significantly decrease the company registration timeline.

Commercial Register huge delays

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:57:02 +0000

Apparently the Ministry of Justice have not performed a successful reform in the Commercial register. The delays are growing huge! When you submit any documents, be prepared to wait at least 40 days, before your documents even get processed. It doesn’t matter if you re-register your company or forming a new one. The fact is that the clerks are processing documents which have been submitted 40 days ago. Prepare yourself to face the new growing EU bureaucracy.

Get rid of my company's debts

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:28:32 +0000

Banks in Bulgaria are competing which one will offer the best “bank product”. This is a result of the property boom during the last years. A lot of small and average sized companies are applying for bank credits in order to improve their market positions: increasing the production by purchasing high end technologies, bigger advertising campaigns etc.

There are, however, people who register companies just to gain quick but illegal profit. After foundation of their business, they apply for bank credit in several banks. If the company offers some kind of security (e.g. mortgage, promissory note) banks easily approve the credit line.

Purchase property never fully trust a developer

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:44:22 +0000

It seams that the so-called “construction boom” in Bulgaria begins to take its victims. Personally I have three clients that have similar cases. They all wanted to buy a property, either for investment or for a second home. The common between all the cases is that the developers have breached the agreement with the buyers: the built property is not what it was agreed on. In short, they got not what they expected. Probably there are other people out there who just accept the problems, but it shouldn’t be like that. The developers in Bulgaria are illegally earning money from cases like this.

Company registration process takes longer than expected

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:30:15 +0000

The new Commercial register started its work as from 1st January 2008 . Yet the registration process takes at least 15 working days. Although the maximum prescribed period is 2 days, the registration clerks can not catch up with the application submission flow.

The first Registry Agency’s strategy was to simultaneously accept and digitize (scan) the application and the enclosed documents. This strategy have raised enormous public dispute, because of the huge queue which grew in front of the Registry Agency’s office. The second (current) strategy of the Agency is to accept the registration applications and the enclosed documents, but not to give an entry number. This have reduced the queue but not the registration process period. The application are stored in piles and later digitized (in submission date order) and later reviewed by the clerks. This, by the way, did not reduce the registration term, which remains at least 15 working days.

А shorter term for company re-registration

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:54:50 +0000

The three years re-registration period set by the Commercial Register Act seems to be in collision with the provisions of the Accountancy Act. The latter obliges each company, registered in Bulgaria, to announce its annual accountancy report in the Commercial Register. The announcing deadline is 30 June 2008. The problem is that your company cannot announce its accountancy report without re-registering. Consequently the re-registering deadline happens to be 30 June 2008.

Freelancing in Bulgaria

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:50:50 +0000

If you are a freelancer (writer, programmer etc.) Bulgaria is an attractive place to do your job. Pursuant to the Employment Encouragement Act, being a “freelancer” means that you both:

don’t work for an employer and
you are working in your capacity of a person (not through your company).

Then what type of agreement you are obliged to have signed? Easy, the type of agreement which is required you to have signed is the assignment agreement. The Bulgarian legislation sets a distinction between the employment contract and the assignment agreement. Sure, both of them entitles you to receive certain amount of money for the work, but if you have an employment contract : (inexhaustible)

The promissory note securing your money

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:45:33 +0000

The promissory note is a common legal security tool in Bulgaria. Usually it is used by the banks, when providing loans to companies and persons. This way they increase the money payback, because both the loan agreement and the promissory note are used as securities of the debt.

The advantages of the promissory note are:

You can obtain a court order for execution within 20 days. This way you will skip the long and cumbersome civil litigation process.

Choose an independent solicitor

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:06:55 +0000

Usually when buying a property you have to trust the Agent’s own solicitor. A notorious practice in Bulgaria is just one solicitor to represent both parties when a purchase deal takes place. Almost 50% (unofficial data) of the property agents take advantage of the foreign buyer by increasing the legal services fees up to five times!! If you are a buyer, you can save yourself further troubles by hiring an independent English-speaking solicitor.

Notary fees in Bulgaria

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:47:38 +0000

Dear friends, I suppose each of you had been to a Bulgarian notary’s office: a property purchase took place, a certification of a power of attorney etc. You should be aware that as from the 2007 notary services are charged additionally with VAT (20%). This have increased the expenses, especially when buying property (the notary fees are calculated on the grounds of the property value).

Although there are regulations for the application of notary fees (the Tariff of notary fees in Bulgaria and an Ordinance of Ministry of Justice, which interprets the notary fees application), not all notaries treat the same cases in the same way.

Failing to re-register your company

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:39:38 +0000

Many non-Bulgarians buy property in the country by registering a company. If this is your case and you fail to re-register your company under the new Commercial Register Act in three years’ term, your property may be jeopardized.

If you fail to re-register your company within the said period, the court will initiate a liquidation procedure. A shareholder will be appointed as a liquidator. If none of the shareholders could be found, the court will appoint a liquidator at its discretion.

Web outsourcing to Bulgaria

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 19:39:17 +0000

Although Bulgaria is already an EU member state, you can still find here fairly low-wage and yet well educated employees. Many western companies outsource their software routines to Bulgaria: development of stand alone application, web applications (php, .NET , java, ajax etc.), ERP. Usually the software companies choose to establish a separate business in Bulgaria. This means that the subsidiary company will be independent in its relations to any business partner, but yet subordinate via its capital owner - the mother company.

New to Bulgarian rural life ask the mayor

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:55:09 +0000

If you are a newcomer to Bulgaria and a proud owner of a rural house deep in the country, soon you will face the differences between the Bulgarian and the western type of life.

The most important thing to keep in mind is the structure of the Bulgarian local governance. Each settlement which has population over 500 people has the right to elect its own mayor. In settlements with population less than 500 people: a deputy-mayor is appointed by the Municipal Council.

Married to a Bulgarian a residence paradox

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:49:19 +0000

The Bulgarian Migration Directorate misapplies the Directive 2004/38/EC of the European Parliament. The Directive regulates the regime of free movement of EU citizens and members of their families.

The particular rule that has been misapplied is that the citizens of EU member states are under the same regime as the members of their family in other EU host country. The only difference is that, in some EU member states, the family members may be required to apply for entrance visa. NO other requirements are set in the directive.

Company Re-registration what a fuss!

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:11:31 +0000

If you happen to be involved in the company re-registration fuss in Bulgaria, you would probably know how necesary is to keep a stiff upper lip. The first step that you have to make is to acquire a certificate for re-registration from the court. The Commercial Register Act specifies that the latter certificate shall be issued within three days after the application is submitted.

Instead of three days, the court administration issues the certificate five days after the the application is submitted. Only two clerks process the paperwork therefore a fifty-metres-long queue is formed infront of the submittion desk.

The new Companies register entered into force on 01 January 2008

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:35:12 +0000

As from 01 January 2008, a new Companies register started in Bulgaria. Pursuant to the Commercial Register Act each company registered in Bulgaria have to re-register. The latter action is necessary because the company information have to be moved from the Court Register to the new Companies Register. There won’t be any due state fees if the companies don’t make changes to their status. If you, for example, want to increase your capital or replace your Manager: that will be treated as a change in the company’s status and a state fee will be due.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:51:23 +0000

We wish all our clients and prospect clients all the best. May the New Year 2008 brings a lot of joy and happiness to everyone. Happy New Year!

Unconscientious Bulgarian workers take advantage of the British expats

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:05:47 +0000

The British community in Bulgaria expands very fast. Most of the family couples buy countryside houses in poor condition and usually major (re)construction works are necessary before one can live in such house. The new owners hire local construction workers to do the rebuild but do not realize that sometimes they can be taken advantage of.

The British (or any other) expats must keep in mind that each assigning of construction works should be in writing. This shall secure the owner of the house in case of any unconscientious actions taken by the worker. And even more, if any damages are caused by the worker, the owner may require not only a reimbursement, but even a penalty if agreed.

Free access to Bulgarian legislation

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:45:40 +0000

The Bulgarian Parliament is now hearing a draft law which stipulates that the Bulgarian State Gazette shall be published on the Internet. For the time being, the State Gazette is published only on a hard copy which costs 0,80 Lev (approx. 0,40 EUR) per copy. The above fact is in collision with a principle stipulated in the Bulgarian Constitution: each Bulgarian citizen has the right to access state information in case not explicitly marked as classified.

Residence certificates for EU members' citizens

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 11:53:50 +0000

Every citizen of an EU member state who wants to stay more than three months in Bulgaria has to notify the Migration Directorate for that stay. The latter issues a long-term residence certificate (“the Certificate”) and an Unique Citizen Number (“UCN”) is assigned to the foreigner.

Prior to Bulgaria’s accession to EU, ID cards were issued to every foreigner who resided for more than three months in the country. Now, as Bulgaria is an EU member state, the citizens of other EU countries don’t have to obtain such ID cards. They can use their own passports or ID cards. But in order to identify themselves before Bulgarian authorities (e.g. the Police Department, municipalities etc.) it is necessary that they have the Certificate.

Securing Creative Commons website content legal actions

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:24:27 +0000

Regarding my previous post, now I want to outline some details about obtaining evidence for copyright of website content licensed under Creative Commons.

There are certain difficulties when applying the method mentioned in my previous post, because of the nature of the Creative Commons license. A CC-ed content may have more than one author either initially or later on, when the content is distributed via the Internet. If the original author(s) have put the content under by-nc-nd clause or under by-nd clause of the Creative Commons, no derivative content is allowed and therefore the author(s) may take advantage of my explanations in the later post here in the Legal Blog.

Go Eastern Bulgarian country houses

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 18:17:27 +0000

Over the past three and four years, foreigners have come to Bulgaria searching for a peaceful place to relax or to spend the retirement years. Most of these foreigners come from the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany. So many people couldn’t be wrong about their impression of the slow-paced life in Bulgaria’s countryside: it’s relaxed with breath-taking natural beauty. There even are villages in Bulgaria, where nearly half of the households are English (eg. Beliakovetz, near the city of Veliko Turnovo).

How to protect my copyright over website content

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:26:21 +0000

No-one is ultimately protected from website content theft. Every kid with knowledge in HTML and PHP would succeed in stealing your web-site’s articles. Of course, if you have put the (c) sign, there is copyright over the content. But the difficulties come when you undertake legal actions to protect this copyrighted content. Here in Bulgaria, the litigation proceedings are not so clear. I mean that the court will take into consideration each document evidencing who is the author of the content. While this is fairly easy with web software applications, the theft of website content is not so easy to prove. Software applications are not so dynamic and one can register a patent over them. The latter registration will give the author a certificate which, subsequently can be used in court as an evidence for copyright.

Welcome to our legal blog

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:34:28 +0000

This is a new feature of our site. We hope it will be as useful to you as we hope. Any comments regarding the posts here will be highly appreciated. Thank you for your visit!

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