All or nothing
A Bulgarian estate consists of assets and liabilities together. You inherit the property and the obligations as one thing.
If you do not want the debts, you cannot keep the flat and refuse them. That single rule is behind most of the mistakes foreign heirs make.
The first step is to take no step
You can accept an estate without signing anything.
If you take money from the deceased’s account, sell something of theirs or transfer their car into your name, your actions show that you have accepted. After that, renouncing is no longer possible, and if there were debts, they are now yours as well.
So until it is clear what the estate contains, the safest course is to touch nothing.
Where it starts
The certificate of heirs is issued in Bulgaria and is needed for nearly everything that follows. Without it neither property nor bank accounts move.
Establishing what exists. Heirs abroad often do not know what the deceased owned. There are ways to check for property, accounts, shares in companies and obligations. That check is worth doing before the decision, not after it.
The decision. Accepting, renouncing, or accepting under inventory. These are three different things and two of them are difficult to undo.
When the heirs are in different countries
This is the normal position, not the exception. It makes matters slower, not impossible.
Almost everything can be done through a power of attorney, without any heir travelling. The obstacle is rarely the distance. It is that the power of attorney was prepared incorrectly. See the page on powers of attorney from abroad.
Where more than one country is involved there is also the question of which law applies. The answer depends on the case and is among the first things to establish.
Partition
Until the estate is divided, the heirs own notional shares in everything rather than specific things. That prevents any of them from selling or using the property with confidence.
Voluntary partition is done before a notary and requires everyone to agree. Judicial partition is used when they do not.
What to gather
- The death certificate
- Everything you hold on the property: title deed, plan, tax valuation
- Your identity document
- Details of the other heirs, so far as you know them
- Any letter received from a Bulgarian institution
When to call
As soon as you learn there is property in Bulgaria. Not once you have decided what to do with it.
Some of the options depend on your not having acted yet. A fifteen minute conversation at the start is often worth more than a year of work later.
This page provides general information and does not constitute legal advice on any specific case. Rights and deadlines depend on the facts and the applicable law.