Bulgaria Ski discussion board

1hrs 45 mins drive. There are so many options in Bansko. It is a town where Boro is a ski resort. But it was a massive overbuild at the time. You can get some great bargains here at the minute. 2beds that were 80k now around 25-30k. The property market just crashed about same time as reccession hit UK 3-4years ago. This is the time to buy if you are looking. Russians that were coming looking to buy 1 apartment are going back with 3 or 4 in some cases.
And if you buy resale normally all the furniture is included. Just dont buy if you good rentals prospects as their is so much competition here. Unless you are buying in a very well run complex and nearer the top of town rentals are very difficult to achieve.

I am just trying to be helpful to this potential buyer and am not in any way suggesting any forum user is dishonest.
I feel we may be missing the point, which is quite simply is the seller(agent or owner) the actual person listed on the registry as the owner? The other question is that when making the payment for the apartment, is the money going to the correct account in order for your payment to be classified as paid?
There has been a case where the agent despite telling the buyer there is nothing to worry about as the payment will go to an Escrow account. The problem with this is the account the payment initially goes to is not the correct Escrow account but the agent/developers account. Then rather than transferring it to the previously mentioned Escrow account the payment goes to the agent/developers personal Escrow account. In this case people had been making payments of n excess of 40,000 Euros, thinking as they had a receipt from the agent/developer, they were safe. This was not the case as I have an email from a Sofia based lawyer who is a member of the Sofia Bar Association, stating they were not the legal owners of their apartments, despite having receipts from the agent/developer for a payment in full. The interesting thing is they though by paying 100% of the price they would get the notary deed. In this case they did not as the developer had mortgaged the apartments to a Greek bank and not told them.
I suggest you get a Sofia based lawyer to check the registry of the apartment. It could have already been mortgaged, sold or there could be a foreclosure on the registry.
Do not under any circumstances use a lawyer recommended by the agent/developer. I suggest you find one in Sofia who is a member of the Sofia Bar Association and then also do other checks.
Also do not think by getting an email from the agent/developer stating important facts as emails cannot be used in a civil court case in Bulgaria.
I hope this helps.
I am not in any way saying Steve C or BTI are not honest. I am sure they both are but are not to know about the finer details of ownership etc.

following on from what Rob said you should get a lawyer to oversee everything. the main checks you want to do are

1. check who is the current owner - this can be done by the lawyer or buy a notary
2. check there are no loans/mortgages on the property. To do this you should get a "certificate of encumbrances" . this should say that there are no encumbrances on the property. again the lawyer can get this and it should be a close to the date o the transfer as possible. Ideally get the certificate on the day of the transfer.
3. If you really want to be careful you should structure the notary deed so the the main payment is done after the deal. this means that the property is transferred to you before you make you main payment. There should be no valid reason for the seller to refuse this because in the notary deed you can write that the deal is invalid should be payment fail to be made within 5-7 days. This protects the seller. I would strongly recommend you structure the purchase this way. There should be no need to pay more that 10% deposit before the actual notary transfer.

hope it all goes well for you

The recent changes (last January) have had widescale effects on the purchase of property in BG, the responsibility now landing squarely on the shoulders of your lawyer. It is his/her job to determine all the problems relating to any prospective purchase, to do searches with local and national authorities, to determine mortgage status, ownership, and ultimately to oversee with a judge the payment of funds to the correct party...
We have recently gone through the same with our house and land, flawlessly... unlike many in the past. I have no involvement with the sale or advertising of property, nor the purchasing of property, but have spent almost 8 years watching those who have, and have heard many horror stories.... A 8200 euro property is only a good deal if you actually end up with it, and with an independant lawyer its fairly simple to find out whether you will or not