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I found this topic on the Internet but it was originally in Bulgarian but you can make it out so have a read its really interesting

Why England do not buy properties in Bulgaria

In most cases, foreign property owners have themselves to blame for lost money

The first reason is the crisis. The second is that Bulgaria went bad name as a place where British and Irish people are scammed. In forums and in the Western press circulated to the complaints of people who lost money in the country. Such stories as "
horror stories"
. In details not vnikva and that buyers are innocent victims, it seems obvious, because our country is known for corruption and iniquity.

Causes

But I already four years working on these same Englishmen and not see it that way. It is true that Bulgaria is corrupt, but the reasons for lost investments are in themselves buyers. Recently, consult one of them what his views are to regain the one hundred and fifty thousand euro. My conclusion was that they had none. Having heard this, he said literally the following: "
Bulgarian legislation is bad, because it protects buyers by themselves."
A similar idea is in sharp conflict with the Roman maxim that the law is sighted, and not sleeping. In other words, if the buyer is not vigilant, is his own fault that he lost money. And these are the same Romans, whose successors in law are both we and the British.
This man had done anything reckless. Had given a proxy to a stranger to pull its deposits from fully and to spend the money as it sees fit. And not only was not considered any collateral, but even contract was not concluded. He was very surprised when he explained that the attorney only grants rights but does not create obligations. So this same Englishman I find no fault in their actions and was convinced that the reason we lost money in Bulgaria.
Another was convinced that he has bought a house and when he realized that it would receive non-built space, wanted to sue the seller. The contract, however, who stood in his signature, was clearly written that only purchased the land, not building. And that contract was written in their native language, but apparently this guy was not bothered to read it.
One woman complained for months on the forums about what a terrible place is Bulgaria, contacted me to advise her how to return the money. After I read the contract which it was concluded, and found no wrongdoing. It happened precisely what was written in black and white.

Mentality

Westerners come from a different world where everything is settled, calm and where the government protect them from dangers such as small children. Once you give money, it is understood that they will receive what is given them. When people buy apartments there, they worry whether they will be not deceived, but what will be the color of bathroom tiles. You can not lose them, for them is so obvious that they never think about the issue of preventive measures. In Bulgaria, these people are like farm animals removed from farm and thrown into the jungle. They are not accustomed to looking and when they hit just can not understand where they come.

Agents

To this should be added that the West people do not do everything yourself and pay for professionals from the field to do the job. In these real estate professionals are called "
agents"
, so their first job, when they decide to buy in Bulgaria is to raise that term in the search engine together with the name of our country. Immediately leaving many companies are called "
agents"
. They can not imagine a world without such people and I see a familiar word, decide they have found what they want. Their assumption that there are agents in Bulgaria is confirmed. If it does not like to go deep into details and explore how it actually is the issue. Prefer to view color pictures instead of reading thick books. Once something confirmed their expectations, you can not help but be so! English in Bulgaria come to buy property with the mood of tourists who are seated to order in a restaurant rather than serious investors. So they expect the menu instead of the book's instructions.

Differences

Under the Commercial Code, however, the country has firms, not agents. The difference is substantial. The mediator does not represent the parties and shall not be liable if one has not fulfilled its obligations to the other. The mediator only them "
svatosva. The deal is between the buyer and seller of the property. He takes money from both sides and thus protect the interest of neither one nor the other. In England, the agent is paid only on one side and he is responsible if its too expensive to sell property or if it lost money in other ways. Therefore, Westerners who have found the Internet entrepreneur who calls himself "
agent"
are left trustingly in his hands. For them, the story ends. They pay him and therefore no need to think about anything.
Englishmen go even further in its stupidity. They rely on the firm erroneously called "
agent"
to them and choose a lawyer. So instead of an independent and competent counsel, they appear to be the most illiterate lawyer who in some cases not even a lawyer. But even is it necessarily loyal to the firm which he found a job, not the client who is. Customers are changing, the firm remains. Customer is a fee, the firm - many fees. Therefore, those dependent on lawyers do what they want the mediator. Collateral no avail, and contracts are concluded in the most rapid and easy manner, which in turn means that the shuffle.

I totally agree with the renting side of things. I'd already bought, but decided to rent until I was ready to renovate and in the end I rented in four very differant locations, learnt a bucket load, it took nearly 2 years before I started to renovate as it took that long to find a builder I trusted.

Due to having rented from 1, a bulgarian, 2, a brit 3, a german 4, my boyfriend :-)I leant many things that I took forward into my new home that I liked or didn't like about the rented places. It confirmed that I had bought the right house in the right location too,, (thank god), but I was prepared to cut my losses and buy somewhere else, if I felt I'd made a stupid mistake, before renovating.

I know that many brits want to a move into rural bulgaria, but it isn't an easy life anywhere in the world, let alone in a country with a worse infrastructure than the UK, saying that there is a better bus system in my hamlet here than the hamlet i lived in, in the UK... There is one here :-).

I also waited a while before I brought my stuff over form the UK.. cost money in storage, but again took pressure off.
What is costs in storage and rent I saved in getting conned in builders and lawyers..

When my solicitor had documents translated into English she wanted me to take them away to check that they made sense before bringing them back to sign. I spent a few hours going through them and found half a dozen or so minor errors such as the word soul where it should have said sole. I took them back with the errors marked and the solicitor was amazed. Apparently she always instructed her British clients to check the translations but I was the first one to point out any mistakes.

fido wrote:

When my solicitor had documents translated into English she wanted me to take them away to check that they made sense before bringing them back to sign. I spent a few hours going through them and found half a dozen or so minor errors such as the word soul where it should have said sole. I took them back with the errors marked and the solicitor was amazed. Apparently she always instructed her British clients to check the translations but I was the first one to point out any mistakes.

Likely story I'm sure your wasn't the only one I think it depends on the translator? one translator will use one translated word but another will use something different so it a case of what is acceptable as far as the law is concerned but it can be worrying if something important gets lost in translation.

The truth is that the Laws in Bulgaria don't defend even the bulgarians. Police, judges and court defend people who have money.

Bulgaria Lawyer

What a complex topic this is and very thought provoking too. It puts me in mind of a series of "
Grand Designs"
about people building or renovating/rebuilding in France, Spain, Italy and other countries. It was striking how those who came with an open mind and reasonably humble attitude, listening to the advice and opinions of the locals, their builders etc and treating them with deference and respect, seemed to get the permissions they needed, and with only a a normal amount of difficulty and delay, ended up with some superb properties.

Conversely, those who arrived with fixed ideas and dismissed or 'corrected' local suggestions, bossing around their contractors and criticising the work, methods, materials etc, seemed to meet with endless delays and frustrations! In some of these cases the first and even the second builder quit, work had to be undone and re-done, and costs spiraled way beyond original expectations. It was quite fascinating from a psychological point of view.

To try and put myself in a senior rural Bulgarian's shoe I imagine how I'd feel if bunches of millionaires from a foreign country now taxing too exorbitantly, with living standards and prices way above anything I was familiar with, started coming and buying in my Home town? Buying up houses like mine and writing off kitchens and bathrooms just like mine, replacing everything with exhorbitantly expensive and extravagant equipment I could never aspire to! Dismissing my 'normal' standards as beyond the pale and unthinkable for them.

Would I feel well disposed towards them? If they were polite and friendly I'd give them the benefit of the doubt, I expect. But if they acted thoughtlessly, oblivious to my feelings, what then? Would I feel patronised, humiliated? How does an elderly country Bulgarian really feel about us buying up homes such as they find familiar and normal, and pulling them apart, ripping out fascillities they find acceptable as if it were so much dross, unfit for our use?

Tearing down venerable outbuildings that long provided shelter for a neighbour's stock which had helped support him, sweeping away all the familiar and creating out of it a gleaming alien mansion that seems to have no connection to it's environment, could not sustain the life of the occupants from it's own surroundings, and requires inputs of capital from elsewhere to run it? Would this seem wonderful to me, or some strange folly? Who knows what wise old Bulgarians really think?

OK I'm exaggerating, modern Bulgaria is not at all behind the times and certainly surpasses the UK in things like local bus services and no doubt many other departments, but there are big contrasts still.

I wonder how many of the property developers in the resorts for instance started out as impoverished rural dwellers who suddenly found themselves with an amazing asset which, instead of selling it to some foreign entrepreneur to take advantage of, they decided they could develop for themselves, aping these exploitative incomers without actually having the first idea about building and selling apartments, simply picking it up as they went along and glossing over what they didn't know? If you come from a background of subsistance small-holding, scraping a hard living from your bit of land, how would you feel about the foreigners who buy your neighbour's plot for a pittance and rapidly make undreamed of riches from it by throwing up these blocks of acommodation and selling it all on to other foreigners with more money to throw around on their holidays than your family earned in a lifetime?

Regular property developers in wealthy countries are used to handling deposits and stage payments that pass through their hands in the course of building. I wonder how much temptation it represents to a newly elevated tycoon who has no thought that it might represent someone's life saving that they've work years to accrue? Of course they should be honest and use it for it's intended purpose, but what a clash of extremes! Like the lottery winners who spent it all and now have nothing to show for it, because they'd no experience of handling money.

This is no consolation when you've been defrauded of all yours, and of course there are those who set out with criminal intent to fleece the unwary, this is why I started the thread on scams and thankfully we've been given some very sound and valuable advice on there outlining how to go about things and the steps we must take.

Another aspect that strikes me about Brit vulnerability is that in countries where property is so cheap (to us) it can also be bought by those who can't afford to own in the UK, and therefore have no experience of property buying at all. You can watch these relocation programs on TV and it all goes forward smoothly and reliably, leading to very unrealistic expectations. They only show us the fun bits, they don't introduce the solicitors and the contacts and the nitty gritty of actually checking what you're signing and negotiating the final exchange date, let alone showing us the deeds.

It's a thorny problem with no obvious solution, and no doubt new people will continue to be cheated until such time as property everywhere costs about the same.

I

:Thank you:How well put Fruitlover and everything you have said I totally agree with. I now class myself as an Anglo/Bulgarian villager and feel exactly the same about my property as you have said a Bulgarian villager would feel. We have only basically restored, rather than renovated our property and the land is still for growing vegetables and free-ranging chickens. The barns are still in use for hay and wood storage plus a night-time home for our chickens. We have just added a few modern touches to the existing property where the owners were obviously totally self-sufficient even down to making their own shoes and beds. We have kept many of the artefacts that we have found in the basement and returned a lovely old photograph to the ex-owners who have visited us since we came here to live. I think this is one reason we have been so accepted in our village and have had none of the bad experiences with the property buying. We are open, honest and understanding people who have learnt some property lessons along the way in both UK, Spain and Greece. Each country has its rules and regulations which must be adhered to.
We wish to move to another property soon and I do not want prospective British buyers to look at my lovely home in disgust because it is not up to the standard they expect for a fraction of the price they would pay in Britain. It would sadden me to see my home pulled apart when it has been quite comfortable and serviceable for us the last 7 years. One agent told us that he had just sold a property with a beautiful garden and bbq area hinting that our basic land with fruit trees and crops would not be good enough to sell quickly. Well, we will keep it then is my answer. So I can understand exactly what Fruitlover is saying about how the villagers must feel.
If Brits want that high standard and have the money to renovate to that standard then why are they wanting to only spend 10,000euros on a ruin just to rip it apart when for 20,000-40,000euros there are many very good village houses able to live in immediately if you watch how the locals manage? We lived in our property through our first winter with no restoration at all and made ourselves warm and cosy using the old petchka etc that the ex-owners had used. Maybe thats why we got so much respect.

Two peas in a pod then. Be nice to think wisdom comes with age wouldn't it - or do we just remember folk who lived similarly in Britain once! I remember our first time in Turkey in a beachside restaurant being brought a plate with a huge flattish and delicious fluffy bread trailing off it and hanging over the edge of the bare wooden table. I felt so glad not to be in the EU where health and safety would be appalled! Alas I can't eat wheat now, but the conversations all around me then from fellow Brits was about what Turkey would have to do to get into the EU and how they'd have to pull their socks up etc, while I sat quietly feeling so glad they're not, and wondering why ever would they want to be? It seemed that everything I enjoyed so much about Turkey was possible precisely because they were not in the EU. It's always flummoxed me why folk go somewhere different because they don't like what their home area has become - and then proceed to try and make the new place as much like like their former home as possible (and even complain about what they can't change!) Oh well, there's nowt so queer as folk, as they say. Barring thee &
me!

Absolutely spot on Fruitlover. Peas in a pod indeed. The British have gone soft and worse than that, don't realise it. Now folks will say that there has to be progress. I ask, why? If things aren't the way you like them, then think how you can personally change things in your life and not inflict your needs and desires on others. I loved Greece the way it was 24 years ago and I have been told that I would hate what has happened to my little island and not to go back. I knew the rot was setting in and that it would be too expensive for me to stay when I retired, so I moved on. I cannot believe that Bulgaria actually wants to go euro! Already there are signs of health and safety interference. If folks don't like the look of a place don't go in! If you are up for an adventure and a bit of risk, go for it and you might be in for a surprise. If you insist on MacDonalds, don't be surprised if it tastes different. Bulgarians have no idea about British food tastes (or American!)
I don't find much wrong with Bulgaria and it really bugs me when Brits write on forums about what they don't like in Britain and then proceed to try to make Bulgaria just like it from food to health to roads to services etc etc etc. I know a lot of people will not like what I have just said, but its how I feel about the 'new Brits'. Its not everybody I know, but I do hear so many complaints about Bulgaria which is just not fair on the country. Every country has its good and bad points.

I suppose one way to get accepted in a village is to shop locally as much as possible for groceries, firewood etc. I would agree that renovations should be in keeping with the best of the Bulgarian homes in the village and some of the stuff we have in UK would be OTT in Bulgaria. I tend to go for antiques and traditional decor rather than ultra modern stuff and I think this blends better in a rural setting

Before we get ticked off for going off topic can I just add that whatever your tastes I really appreciate the kindness and helpfulness of people on this forum giving their time and thought to post helpful answers to our questions, it will be thanks to you all that I am able to avoid some of the potential mistakes I might have made!

It's true that many people won't buy in Bulgaria now because of all the horror stories they've heard, but look on the other side - if this hadn't happened there might have been a mass invasion - more Brits in Bulgaria than Bulgarians!

fruitlover wrote:

I remember our first time in Turkey in a beachside restaurant being brought a plate with a huge flattish and delicious fluffy bread trailing off it and hanging over the edge of the bare wooden table. I felt so glad not to be in the EU where health and safety would be appalled! Alas I can't eat wheat now, but the conversations all around me then from fellow Brits was about what Turkey would have to do to get into the EU and how they'd have to pull their socks up etc, while I sat quietly feeling so glad they're not, and wondering why ever would they want to be? It seemed that everything I enjoyed so much about Turkey was possible precisely because they were not in the EU. It's always flummoxed me why folk go somewhere different because they don't like what their home area has become - and then proceed to try and make the new place as much like like their former home as possible (and even complain about what they can't change!) Oh well, there's nowt so queer as folk, as they say. Barring thee &
me!

I could never understand why Brits would like Turkey or any other country to end up being like the UK. Here in Turkey there is no filling letterboxes with unwanted mail, no-one phoning me on a Sunday when I am half way through my Sunday roast asking if I want some Double glazed windows and no Jehovahs Witnesses pestering me at the doorstep. We have all left the UK for various reasons, for us of pensionable age it is not the country we know and used to love any more. The UK pensions are the fourth lowest paid in all of Europe and the UK is supposedly the fourth richest country in the world, the pensioners of Britain are expected to subsidise the benefits system so others can reap the benefits, rightly or wrongly, legally or illegally. As for Turkey joining the EU, no chance, they haven't got the faintest idea of what they are supposed to do and are also unwilling to make any sacrifices like the rest of us. They also have to sort out the Cyprus situation and that will never be achieved.

For myself, the only thing I miss about the UK is food and real ale, can't stand the Turkish stuff. We have not regretted our move here and after 4 years we are ready to move on, possibly to Bulgaria. The last thing we will do is move into a holiday resort, we want some peace and quiet in a rural part of BG.
After having lived here for so long , we consider that we have an understanding of being "
streetwise"
, from moving originally from a sleepy hollow in the middle of Surrey. Here in Turkey we are expected to live by their rules, if the same applied in the UK maybe a lot more of us would still be there. We have learnt to respect the country we are living in and would hope that others do the same wherever they live.

Hi,
I know many british citizens were crooked from british companies, that offered properties in Bulgaria. That is a big turn off

It is nice to see new members joining in on topics. But can you (mason) Introduce yourself in New Member Introductions please. Nice to see you here. Sorry for going

Lost in translation I find even after seven years it still happens. We saw a fantastic hand carved double wardrobe in a Bulgarian friends house and asked where he got it and how much was it?

He gave us the number we rang up and ordered the same as his, two weeks later it arrived at our house. Something wasn't right- it had no mirror in the middle door, no hanging rails inside, no handles on the doors or drawers and no shelves however it was beautifully carved.

When we asked where they were he replied you asked for a wardrobe thats what I made you. I rang our friend and told him what had arrived he replied I bought them bits seperate and fixed them on?

We fitted it out, just waiting for the mirror [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]


Vic S

To me, there is no excuse for people not buying at these ridiculous prices, it's pretty clear that there are no more than 2% of the UK buyers scammed, I am not sure if this percentage won't be significantly higher elsewhere in the world.

Main thing here is they thought they were wise buying in a market that marked price increases every year with 15%, but appears that Russians are wiser waiting for the prices to come back to normal levels, there are also scams to Russians BUT they can easily return their investment at any time as prices are at their very bottom unlike prices in 2005-2007 which are unachievable these days and can't see them up in the next 5 years.