The first step in the Construction investment process is to find appropriate land to be built. Suitable land for building is the regulated land property. The regulated land property must comply with the requirements set out in The Spatial planning Act and the land must be included in the structural plan of the location. It must have limits and borders, a street, road or alley access, functional purpose and planning status. Often in the practice the contractors purchase non-regulated land property for a construction purpose. It is important here to set out that changing the status of a property from non-regulated to regulated one is a very long and expensive procedure. It is necessary before buying a non-regulated property to do a detailed research about the regulation procedure and the expenses for it. The acquisition of property appropriate for building may derive from selling, donation, exchanging, etc. But usually the most common forms of acquisition are: selling or receiving a building right in return for owning a property in the building. A very important step concerning property acquisition is to do a research about the parties. It is easier to find information about the Buyer here than the Seller. In case the Seller is a legal entity it can be checked in the Commercial register. If the Seller is the State or the Municipality then the procedure set out in The State property Act and The Municipal property Act must be observed in details, taking into account the variety of municipal and other regulations. Further, if on the side of the Seller there are one or more natural persons, certain difficulties concerning the legitimation of the parties may occur. When more than one person are contracting as a seller, each of them must participate in the deal, otherwise it will not produce the desired effect. The object of the contract will be the regulated property. One of the next but still very important steps is to do a detailed research about the history of the regulated property. It is very important to determine the urban status, the property area and size set out in the official documents and the real one , for what type of construction the land is intended and does the building intention of the buyer reconcile with the provisions of the plan. The next step is to observe the property for in rem burdens, third persons´ rights, mortgages, etc. This type of deals must be notarized and the contract must be concluded in notary form in accordance with the provisions of Art.18 of the Bulgarian Obligations and Contracts Act. The competent notary is the one licensed in the same region as the property. Further, under Art. 18 a registration of the contract in the Land registered is required. The notary form is not necessary only when the Seller is the Bulgarian State or a Municipality. In these cases, the contracts are subject to regulation by special laws.

Michaela Stamova
Attorney-at-Law
Michaela Stamova is attorney in Law Office Ruskov and Coll. She specializes in the field оf insurance and real estate law.
Email: m.stamova@ruskov-law.eu
84 articles
Real estate property or building right for regulated land property in Bulgaria
By: Petya AlexandrovaAfter we observed the main points in one Construction contract, now we will continue with the different stages during the whole Construction procedure. The first main and, I think, very important step is to find appropriate regulated land property for construction and to conclude the negotiations with signing the contract for ownership or to receive the building right over a regulated land property.