Bulgaria Ski discussion board

Hi All,
I have seen postings about owning apartments previously on this site and thought this might be of interest. I own with other UK,Irish, Russian and Bulgarians, an apartment in Pamporovo Palace (nr Ski Stn 1) fabulous place and great position - shame about the management. It got so bad - as we were being ripped off by the developer/management that this year we revolted (no puns please) and the owners formed a "Pamporovo Palace Owners Association" now a legal entity in Bulgaria where we now run it ourselves, collect the fees, pay the staff and bills - and its great! I just wonder why others have not done it this way. We have our own web site where we post accounts talk to each other and sort out our own problems. If there are any owners who are in a similar situation to how we were, feel free to get in touch and will be happy to tell the full story and maybe others can resolve the misery of owning an apartment - we are now a much happier bunch of owners knowing we cannot be ripped off any more!

Hi Jim,
I have said most of it in the original post but we as a group forced the management into giving us control by not paying maintenance (which was not being spent on the common parts or utilities) and formed our own association. We now have our own bank account and pay the Staff, utilities, common Parts maintenance such as lift servicing, TV internet etc ourselves. We have apointed our own Manager who we pay and who we control. It was hard work to get going but worth every penny as the complex is now totally in our control. No more being ripped off!! regards Ronnie

Question for you.
Do you pay the rubbish collection for all Appts?

The two places I won at different locations just refuse point blank. Instead for say a charge of E80 they want E160 just to go to Razlog and pay it????

Also they never send through the communication from the Notary about how much the rubbish collection fees are nor any correspondance?

It seems so logical all of those council costs into the maintence charge job done its efficient and Im sure the notary would appreciate it. Plus why can you not pay it online thus avoiding the need to waste a day going to Razlog and waiting to see the Notary.

Question for you.
Do you pay the rubbish collection for all Appts?

The two places I won at different locations just refuse point blank. Instead for say a charge of E80 they want E160 just to go to Razlog and pay it????

Also they never send through the communication from the Notary about how much the rubbish collection fees are nor any correspondance?

It seems so logical all of those council costs into the maintence charge job done its efficient and Im sure the notary would appreciate it. Plus why can you not pay it online thus avoiding the need to waste a day going to Razlog and waiting to see the Notary.

Hi Gareth,
Its very difficult if you dont have communication between the management and the owners which is why we started up our own web site. The council fees are sent to the residence and they have not upped their game to send stuff out by email so we scan it and either put it on the owners site or email it to them. Because we have a manager on site and our own bank account, the owners can pay for local Tax, Electricity etc and the Manager will pay it for them. But you are right many of us were wasting valuable skiing time having to spend a day down at the council offices!!

The changes to the condominium act that have bought benefits to oversea owners are many, the main one being that it is now possible to oust your management if you have control in agreement with other owners of over 51% of the area of the complex. It would require the forming of an owners association to establish contact, lawyers (notory) to enable proxy voting for non-present owners, a lawyer to serve application to the court, and obviously if successful the forming of a new management company.. The threat alone of this being possible is normally enough for the old management to stop putting petrol in his S500 Merc and taking trips to the coast (which your paying for) and start doing their job.. but if not, then you take control.. sounds easy, it ain't.. takes time and money and most importantly, someone with energy and determination.......