Until 2012, after Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, as a foreign national in order to be able to buy a house with land you need to set up a Bulgarian limited company. This is because foreign nationals are not permitted to own land in Bulgaria prior to EU membership.

This may seem a lot of hassle but there is no need for concern. Over the past years we have helped hundreds of our clients set up Bulgarian limited companies and we would like to briefly present you the most important steps of the process, now. The established company will buy the property and will own the land. You will be the owner of the company and, respectively, of the land. Our,solicitors will assist you set up the company and will complete all the necessary procedures to obtain the property on your behalf.

NB: Not required when purchasing apartments – as you are not purchasing the land, just the apartment

The process steps are listed below:

1. With our expert help and support you will set-up your Bulgarian company. You may do this in person or by authorising us to do this through signing a Power Of Attorney. (This would need to be signed and stamped at the Bulgarian Embassy in London or in Bulgaria)

2. 5000 BG Lev needs to be deposited into a company bank account - this is the starting capital of your company. It stays there until registration – for about 4-5 days. After that the 5000 BG Lev can be withdrawn .

3. 600 Euros are the fees related with setting up of the limited company. These charges include lawyers’ fees including expert check and preparation of all the documents for the company, go to different services to register it and arrange all procedures and documents, plus all papers officially translated and stamped into English and posted back to you.

4. 100 Euros - bank fees and charges to open, close and to withdraw payment from your account.

Once they are successfully completed your company is prepared and started. Now you are ready to buy your Bulgarian dream property. We will then proceed and acquire the property ownership rights for you, checking all the legal documentations and ownership papers and then you become the new owner.

Once you have registered a Bulgarian company you can use it in the future for different business activities or for other property purchases.

-RE-REGESTERING COMPANY Ltd-

If you own property or land in Bulgaria through a registered company the Bulgarian government now requires that you re-register the company by the end of 2010

Failure to re-register will result in the loss of the company and its assets (property, land etc.) and you will also incur a fine and will have to pay for the procedure to close the company.

THE RE-REGISTRATION PROCEDURE OPERATES IN 2 STAGES

The first stage:

Requires proof of the existing company, and the correct Power Of Attorney to have a certification issued with the current company status. Also a 'Request Application' form, signed by the manager of the Bulgarian company, for the Bulgarian lawyers to implement the legal process.

The second stage:

Requires that all company documents be processed to the Trade Register to be re-accepted and the company re-registered. This will need a second Power Of Attorney to be prepared.

The procedure will be as follows:

We will take care of the administration procedure on your behalf, through the following process:

1. You will need to sign an agreement for Be Friend in Bulgaria to proceed with administration management and legal requirement for the re-registering of your company. Return to our UK office.

2. Forward the legal and administration fee of £340 for the company re-registration process.

3. The manager of the company must sign an official, English/Bulgarian copy of the Power Of Attorney and a 'Request Application' form for the completion of Stage 1 of the process. Return the documents to our UK office.

4. These will be passed to our Bulgarian office and the first stage of company re-registration will be implemented.

5. We will create and forward to you the second Power Of Attorney which will need to be signed by the manager of the company.

When all correctly signed documents are in Bulgaria we will action and administrate the 2nd stage of re-registration.

Once your company re-registration is complete we will inform you of the new details from our UK office.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Power Of Attorney

A Power of Attorney is a legal document that you sign to authorise us to carry out on you behalf the re-registration process. None of the Power of Attorneys required for re-registration of a Bulgarian company need to be notarised.

Also required is a 'Request Application' form, signed by the manager of the Bulgarian company, for the Bulgarian lawyers to implement the legal process.

Company papers and Company stamp

The secondary and as important issue relates to the papers of your company and your official Company stamp.

Company papers held in Bulgaria:

If your company papers and Company stamp are held by us on file in Bulgaria there is no problem for us to prepare these for representation to the authorities.

Company papers and Company stamp held personally by yourself in the U.K. or with an agent in Bulgaria:

If you hold your papers personally here in the UK then we have to be able to have these papers sent to Bulgaria for processing the re- registration.

If another agent, either in the U.K. or Bulgaria, holds your papers we will require a letter of authorisation from you to enable us to obtain your papers from them. Depending on their location, this could incur an additional charge.

Please be aware that copies of the original papers are acceptable, but the official Company stamp will be required and this will incur a secure courier service charge.

If we did not originally register your company for you, we will also require up-to-date copies of the manager's and all shareholder(s) passports and a copy of the original BULSTAT card.

Lost or misplaced papers:

Lost or misplaced company papers can be replaced but will incure additional lawyers fees.

Company auditing

Please do not confuse this re-registering with your annual company auditing. However it is important that the re-registration is all in place before the processing of the annual audit at the end of the year.

Our fees for re-registering a Bulgarian company are £340.00.

The fees cover the following procedures:

Lawyer fees, application for processing, creation of P.O.A.’s, documentation collection from regional municipalities, translations, collection and return of all documents to and from municipal/trade register offices, bank charges and transfer of currency to Bulgaria.

Please note that additional costs will be incurred if you require name changes and share holding status.
Special delivery by DHL for late payment/return.

The procedures detailed above are our understanding of the Bulgarian Company re-registration process as of July 2008. We will endeavour to keep the details up-to-date, but Homes in Bulgaria will not be liable for any additional costs that might be incurred due to changes in the procedures that are made by the Government of Bulgaria.

Please contact us: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by phone +359897254232