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Legal Advice The Bulgarian legislation is one of the liberal legislations in Europe at present, giving the opportunity for foreign legal and physical persons to acquire real estate on the territory of the country, with one exception - one cannot acquire direct ownership of land. This restriction is imposed by the Constitution of the Republic of Bulgaria. "Article 22. (1) Foreigners and foreign legal persons cannot acquire ownership rights on land, except in case of inheritance by virtue of the law. In such a case they must transfer their ownership. (2) Given the conditions defined by way of law, foreigners and foreign legal persons can acquire usage rights, building rights and other property rights. There is no restriction as to apartments, houses, garages, ateliers, shops and the like, and the foreign physical and legal persons can acquire direct ownership on these objects. Here we have to mention that according to the Bulgarian legislation foreign persons are considered all physical and legal persons with permanent residence or seat abroad, as well as Bulgarian citizens permanently living abroad with the intention to become residents of this country, and local persons are considered all physical and legal persons with permanent residence or seat in R. Bulgaria, independent of their citizenship, and all foreign citizens with permanent residence permission on the territory of R. Bulgaria. To this category refer also companies registered according the Commercial Law with 100% foreign participation. When the case is purchasing land on the territory of R. Bulgaria by foreigners, the above-mentioned restrictions can be avoided with the registration of a company on the territory of the country, which according to law is considered a Bulgarian legal entity and there is no restrictions for it as to acquiring ownership on land. In this company both only foreign persons, and Bulgarian and foreign physical and legal persons can be associates. The company can also be owned by one foreign person only. Usually our clients choose the option to register a Limited Liability Company, as some of them prefer the manager of the company to be a Bulgarian physical person (a confidential person recommended by us), with minimum share participation (1%) and familiar with the Bulgarian legislation. This facilitates to a great extent the formalities in registering the company, purchasing the property and the following registrations in the administrative services, as well as the eventual accountancy of the company. The purchased real estate in the name of the physical or legal person, as well as the share participation in commercial companies is considered foreign investment according to the law and it defines the following principle proclaimed in the Law on encouraging investment -"Article 4. For foreign investment made before amendments in the legislation and which establish normative restrictions to the foreign investment only, the law provisions operating during the procedures of the investment are applied." Foreign investment is considered also - "Foreign investment is each investment or increase of the investment of a foreign person or his branch in: a) shares in commercial companies; b) ownership rights on buildings and restricted property rights on real estate; c) ownership rights and restricted property rights on movable property with the character of long-term material assets; d) ownership rights on independent branches of commercial companies with more than 50% state or municipal participation in the capital according to the Law on privatization and after-privatization control; e) securities, including bonds and treasury bonds, as well as the derivative instruments issued by the country, the municipalities or other Bulgarian legal entities with remaining period to the date of payment not less than 6 months; f) credits, including in the form of financial leasing for a period of not less than 12 months; g) intellectual property - objects of copyright and the related rights, patent-capable inventions, useful models, trade brands, brands of services and industrial design; H) rights on concession contracts and contracts of assigning management. If you show interest, our lawyers can give you more detailed consultations concerning your particular plans. Also they could, given the desire on your part, give you written reports on some questions raised by you, they could participate in negotiations about specifying the parameters and finalizing deals, preparation of documents for the registration of companies on the territory of R. Bulgaria and in case necessary they could carry out eventual legal services, rapid registration of companies from distance (without your physical presence in the country being obligatory) and many other legal services. Our legal experts have rich long-year experience, profound knowledge and capability which allow them to be maximum helpful to you in your initiatives. Our fees for professional legal assistance and advice are based on how much time a certain activity takes and how complicated is the posed problem, and respectively a legal advisor with what qualification takes up its solving. Taking in mind the above mentioned, we present to your attention a sample of some of the fees for the most frequent legal services connected with purchasing a property in the country by foreigners. For the registration of a company:
contact us: office@bulgarian-properties-online.co.uk |
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