Cost of buying a house and the law
For an English person to buy a house with land in Bulgaria you need to register a Limited Company, open a business account and deposit £1. To register the company with the tax office and courts and to set the bank account up it costs £ 640.00. Once the company is registered with the tax office and courts you may buy and sell houses in your company name of your choice. We can arrange all this for you with the solicitor.
You need to have an accountant to do the books on a yearly basis and the cost for this is £65.00 per year for one property and an extra £35.00 for each additional property. If you put monthly receipts into your accounts such as building work receipts, an extra £35.00 will be added to your bill as accounts must be done on a monthly basis. To anyone who is buying and selling property as a business, a price will be given by the accountant and the books will be done upon both parties agreement. Bulgariavillasartcove.com are not responsible of keeping records of tax returns or doing clients tax returns. They are mediators between clients and accountants and will not charge for this service, but will give free advice on tax laws and running a business in Bulgaria.
Some more about the Limited Company and the business account you must set up
Some companies which sell houses say you do not need to register a company to buy a house. We strongly advise our clients never do this. As it stands at the moment a foreigner cannot buy land in Bulgaria but can buy, for example, a flat. If you open an account in Bulgaria with £1.00 it is also a business account and is a LTD company. like in England. The law may be changed so that foreigners can buy land as well as houses without registering a Limited Company and opening a business account. It's been passed on two stages and there are one more stage to go to. We expect it will pass within the next 2 years. We will keep you informed about this. We give free advice on the above, so please get in touch.
The cost to you once you decide to buy:
- £1.00 for the opening of the account.
- £640.00 for setting up your company and business account
- Commission is 2% of the sale not less than £350.00
- Solicitor's cost for buying the house is £350.00 - this includes court charges.
- Stamp duty or notary charge 2% on the property price.
- All documents are translated before signing. After the purchase, if you want your deeds translated, this will cost you £20 per standard A4 page.
Once you see the property you want you may secure it with 20% plus costs. The 20% deposit goes to the seller, they sign a contract and cannot pull out of the sale. Once you see the property you want you may secure it with 20% deposit plus costs. Once the deposit is paid we advertise the property as Reserved. The 20% deposit cannot be refunded so please have this in mind before any money is sent. Once the 20% deposit has been sent the solicitor will need a name from you to register the Limited Company. This can be done in your name or a name of your choice. This is when you need to go to Bulgaria to sign the paperwork or, if you wish, it could be done in the Bulgarian Embassy in London. It takes up to 4 weeks to get the company set up. At this point the solicitor can go ahead and buy the property and this takes up to eight weeks depending on the buyer and seller on what date they want to sign the deeds over. This can be done in 7 days if both parties agree but the seller must sign a contract on receiving the 20% you sent that it will not take any longer than 12 weeks. Once the business account is open and the seller is ready to sign this is when you need to send the rest of the money - the 80%. Once the money is received, the property is marked as Sold. But we will inform you once the solicitor has got all the paperwork ready. We advise you step by step, so no worries. Just get in touch and we will do the rest.
Once you have bought the property we just don't forget you. We can advise you on any aspects you have in the future. Many of our clients look for builders and so on to do work on their property. We can advise you on all matters of this kind. And if you wish we can arrange for a builder to do the work. We do not charge anything for this service and we wish you all the best for you and your family when buying in Bulgaria.
If there's anything you need to know, get in touch so we can help.
If you buy a real estate in Bulgaria, you must know there is a tax estimation price and a purchase price. Some Bulgarian vendors may want the tax estimation price on the deeds for tax purposes and not the selling price. The tax estimation price which goes on the deeds is much lower than the purchase price. www.Bulgariavillasartcove.com cannot be responsible for this. We can negotiate with the vendor if you give it us in writing before the 20% deposit is paid to the vendor. We give free advice on the above, so please email us
