St. James’ Park » Fees and other important stuff

An Alternative Campsite and Hostel in Bulgaria

Fees and other important stuff

Dont be alarmed by the strangeness of the process here - thats all it is - strange - especially to British people who buy and sell houses as a hobby! We are so familiar with our own system, that sometimes a different one can seem daunting. Its not. The process here is actually very straight forward. Its a bit scary, of course when everything is in a different language but we will try to ensure that every aspect of the process is translated and made clear to you at all times. So here’s what you have to do and how much it will cost:

Charges and Costs.

Our fee for connecting you with the right house and guiding you through the whole process of acquiring it is £500. This includes a solicitor’s check on the deeds and ownership, preparing and translating all necessary paperwork and negotiating on your behalf with the seller including establishing an inventory of what is being left in the house. This is payable when you sign the preliminary contract and pay the deposit.

If you do not already have a company, our solicitor will register a company for you. The fee for this will be £350.

There are also transfer taxes to pay – these relate to the value price that the Local Authority have attached to the property – they will be around £300 but that depends on the price.

Other costs will be small things like notary fees, bank taxes, stamp duty and purchase tax - this last varies in relation to the property.

You should allow around £1200 for all of the additonal expenses and charges.

The process.

You see the perfect house in Voditsa - you make an offer and its accepted.
Both parties sign a preliminary contract and a deposit is paid - a negotiable amount, usually around 10%.

Our solicitor does the necessary checks and you begin the process of setting up a company. Foreigners are not allowed to own land in Bulgaria but a company, ie a legal entitiy, can. This is not really admired under EU free trade ideas and the BG have until 2013 to get rid of the system but until then, you have to set up a company.

You decide on the name -dont make it too long and complicated as it has to fit onto a stamp! The required documents are signed with the solicitor and you must open a company bank account. The process at the moment takes a couple of days.

While this is happening, you ensure that all the funds necessary have been transfered to your Bulgarian bank account. Dont underestimate the time involved in this part of the process, especially if you’re transfering from non-EU countries.

When the company is registered, the company then buys the property. You exchange contracts with the seller and pay the outstanding amount- and the house is yours.

As a registered company, you are obliged to present accounts to the Revenue department at the end of every tax year. We can organise this for you - we are currently reviewing our fees and our annual company services - please contact me for details.

The Time Scale.
The whole process should take 5-6 weeks. If you have plenty of time to hang around getting a feel for the place, then there’s no problem, but, if like many people, you cannot actually be in Bulgaria for the whole of the process, you can sign a document giving us, or someone else of your choosing, power of attorny. We will then complete the sale on your behalf when the company is registered.

We will then either hold the documents for you until your next visit, or hopefully until you move in, or we can post them to you by DHL.

Viewing visits and other useful information.

A lot of people have bought houses straight off the internet without actually seeing them - sometimes this works but more often it doesn’t. We would hope that you’ll have the time to come and see why we think this is such a great place to live. Talking to your new neighbours is a really important part of the process- they are going to be a key factor in your life here. But we do understand that maybe you just can’t make the time and you really, really want to get a place in Voditsa. If thats the case, you should call us - we’ll discuss in detail what you are looking for and I can take extra photos and may even one of my famous and very amateur videos.

We dont run expensive viewing trips because we’re only really interested in houses in this and surrounding villages. Its actually a plan to get a horse to attach to my carotsa and then we could take you around the village to look at houses with the horse and cart What we will help you to do, is to get a feel for the village.

We can arrange somewhere for you to stay - St. James Park has camping facilities (tents with beds actually) or we could arrange for you to rent a self catering house in the village-not a posh holiday house but one owned by a former volunteer who cant be here right now. We can also arrange car hire or bike hire. We’ll tell you about life in this village, answer your questions and give you some idea of the plans and opportunities that are already on the go, or at least on the list.

We want you to come and live in this village so we’ll try to make this as easy and comfortable as possible.

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