We have recently spoken to an Irish owner of Bulgarian property who issued their Power of Attorney to complete the sale of their Bulgarian property in 2012. Giving Power of Attorney for selling property in Bulgaria is perfectly normal.
Over the past year they have been told that their sale was happening but that there were some delays.
They have recently learned that their property was in fact sold in 2012 and is no longer in their name. As you can imagine this was a huge shock to them as they were under the impression that the sale had not yet happened.
They are currently trying to resolve this issue and collect the money they should have received when the property was sold and we hope that they are successful as this is a shocking thing to happen to anyone.
We are highlighting this because we do not want to see it happen to anyone else.
If you are in the process of Giving Power of Attorney for selling property in Bulgaria to a company or an individual we would advise the following:
Establish the closingdate, it is OK if this moves by a few days but not by a few months.
Establish the approx figure you are to receive when the sale closes. If you have paid your property taxes and your management fees up to date this figure can easily be established. If you do owe some money on either of these then contact your management company and ask them to verify what you owe them and ask your agent or lawyer to confirm how much you owe in annual property taxes. Once you have these figures you can then be clear how much you will receive from your sale.
Once you are clear on the figure you are due to receive you should then ask to speak to some other people who have given their Power of Attorney so that can ask them about their experience.
If the person or company cannot give you the names and contact details of previous clients then you should think very carefully about giving them your Power of Attorney.
If you have already given your Power of Attorney and the time frame to close your sale has already come and gone please don’t worry as sometimes sales do get delayed.
What you do need to is to ask the person or the company currently in possession of your Power of Attorney to guarantee in writing that your property still belongs to you and to send you the results of a Bulgarian land Registry search.
If there is even the hint of problem with either of these requests please contact us immediately and we will carry out a land registry search for you free of charge.