Sat, Nov 21 2009

New law aims to clamp down on real estate fraud

Wed, Mar 18 2009 11:11 CET byNick Iliev 2107 Views 1 Comment
New law aims to clamp down on real estate fraud

To curtail real estate fraud, the public notary chamber has made a register to accredit all documentation and legitimise bequests for any given property, houses, parcels and others.

The documentation, which is regularly suspect to fraud and subsequently used for embezzlement, will be "subjected to public notary investigation" whereby every official will input the information in the mainframe "immediately, storing the property data". The data will be followed by a brief property appraisal, and specific document disclosure for the particular property. The amended legislation was accepted yesterday, as reported by Gradski Vestnik.

This way, "everyone can check whether the appropriate documentation is valid and applicable to the specific property, house or parcel, thus it will prevent the property from being sold without the knowledge of the public notary".

As much as the public notary is "concerned" about "customers' security" they are also ensuring that they will collect taxes from every future transaction between a seller and a buyer.

The public notary chamber has insisted that they will present government institutions with access to the new register for consultations.

propertywisebulgaria.

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Anonymous F Cameron Fri, Mar 20 2009 21:26 CET
Inappropriate comment?

I am one of about 200 buyers who have seen their developer at the Windows to Paradise site in Balchik disappear without trace. Is there an address which the group involved can seek information

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New twist in Bulgarian real estate fraud case

A fake document that alleged fraudsters attempted to use in an illegal property deal in Sofia was authenticated at a notary’s office linked to a ruling party MP. She says that there is no way for a notary to authenticate an identity card.

Bulgarian police bust organised crime real estate fraud group

Eight arrested while preparing to carry out an illegal property transfer using forged documents for an apartment in Sofia.

Land prices fell 30% in some areas of Sofia in 2008 -report

Parcels are used either for development or long term investments. In the first instance, the active party are supposed to be the construction companies, but given current market conditions, they are in a bad state. The latter case – long term investment – simply no longer exists.

New beginning

Starting in February 2009, the cadastral map and property register of the country will go online, Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said while speaking in the National Assembly on January 16. Yet Bulgarian media put a question mark over its effectiveness, since only 12 per cent of the land has been thoroughly accounted for and included in local cadastres. The rest of the country would supposedly be covered by 2015, according to governmental strategy.

Tales of the real estate mafia

A man died and had no direct heirs; only a sister survived him. Soon after his death, an individual of Roma origin appeared as a claimant in a notary public office in the town of Elin Pelin, 24km east of Sofia. He presented a will, supposedly signed by the deceased, which appointed him as the sole heir of an apartment in the capital's centre. Based on the will, a title deed was issued in the claimant's favour. The man also showed a promissory note stating that the deceased owed him a certain amount of money due immediately.

Bulgarian officials caught out on income declarations blame the law

The most common reason given by some of the 195 state officials caught by National Audit Office (NAO) with discrepancies in their income tax declarations was vaguenesses in the law and technical mistakes. As reported by sofiaecho.com, NAO head Valeri Dimitrov told a January 23 news conference that 195 public officials including 19 members of parliament, 14 deputy ministers, 33 judges, 19 prosecutors and 50 mayors and deputy mayors, failed to properly declare their incomes for 2006. In most cases, the state officials failed to declare income from their participation in the management of both state-owned and private companies, real estate ownership and motor vehicle ownership.

CASH PAYMENTS FOR BULGARIAN REAL ESTATE TO BE BANNED

Payments for real estate to be allowed only by bank transfer is an idea proposed by the parliamentary committee for the fight against organised crime in a meeting on November 13. The proposal was part of a package of changes for financial transactions, Dnevnik daily said. An idea which was renewed with the package was a limit on all cash payments to 10 000 leva. The package further included the formation of a financial police, which would enforce the new laws. The package of measures was prepared by the parliamentary committee on the basis of research by the UN development programme (UNDP).

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