The contract is not a formality. It is the only thing left when the other side stops answering the phone. And when it goes wrong, it will be interpreted by a Bulgarian court under Bulgarian law, regardless of where you signed it or what you understood it to say.
What this covers
Before signing. Drafting and reviewing contracts. Checking what is missing, not only what is written.
Renovation and construction. Contracts with builders and firms: the schedule of works and costs, deadlines, penalties for delay, staged payments and warranties. This is where foreign owners lose the most money, usually after paying in full up front.
Commercial contracts. Supply, distribution, agency, leases.
When it is not performed. Formal demand, penalties, rescission, recovery of what you paid, and damages.
Consumer protection. Rights when goods or services are defective, and where a contract was signed in haste.
When to instruct a lawyer
Before you sign anything. Your signature is the strongest evidence there is that you agreed to the terms.
Or when you have already signed something you now regret.
Every contract should be reviewed before signature. The review costs a fraction of what the dispute costs afterwards.
One thing people get wrong
They assume that with no written contract there are no rights. There are. An agreement without a signature still creates obligations, if it can be proved.
The problem is never the rights. It is the proof, and proof is arranged before the dispute rather than during it. Keep the correspondence, and pay in a way that leaves a trace.