The Wendy House

I seem to have become a sort of unofficial "Agony Uncle" for the Facebook "Moving to Bulgaria" group. Here are a few words of advice I recently gave to a lady called Wendy. Originally this post had some photos of Wendy's house, but she and her hubby are rather private people and so I took their photos out and put in some of our house instead.

My comments are in italics, as usual. 

Hello. You might like to read my blog. Here are a few photos of our country house near Elena, about 50kms from Veliko Tarnovo. If you are interested in buying a property in the VT region, then I would recommend having a look at the YANTRA HOMES website.

Thanks, Simon.That's a lovely house, really lovely. Is it for rental? I will check out Yantra Homes.

No, I am sorry, it is not for rent. The good news is that there are LOTS of properties for sale in Bulgaria, at very affordable prices.

If you really want a bargain, then look around for a property that someone has lovingly restored. Then they have to sell it because of their job situation or family circumstances. Then you can buy a lovely property for a low price. Yes, you can buy something fairly derelict and restore it yourself. That is the hard way of doing it!

Thanks! We have done six years of juggling jobs and back-to-back house renovations, so we would rather something more polished.

Well, you will find many, many properties on the YANTRA HOMES website, so you should get a good idea of what you can buy for your money.

Wow.. that's like paradise! Bet it's expensive !

This house was recently for sale near Polski Trambesh, north of VT. Not bad for 65,000 euros. The swimming pool looks nice.

What's the area like? We are definitely coming over to rent before we buy. We can't wait!

I do not know much about Polski Trambesh, as we live near Elena, which is way to the south of VT. Andy at Yantra Homes will tell you a bit about the area and of course you can ask him to show you round as well.

Elena was an area my husband was looking at. Possibly more expensive, but it looks lovely there too.

You will hear some people talking about GYPSIES. On the whole, Bulgarians are not big fans of gypsies. To be brutally honest, yes, it is true that some gypsies (especially the ones in the larger cities) are not trustworthy and some of them are probably criminals. In the countryside, most gypsies work hard, get on with neighbours and are not a problem. Well, that is what we have found. Elena is a nice little town, with some rather pretty historical bits.

So much to discover!

There are LOADS of properties for sale, so please do not be in a hurry. How is your spoken Bulgarian coming along?

It's on the “to do” list.

You can download something called uTalk. It costs about twenty pounds, I think. It is a really good way to get started with Bulgarian! The sooner you start, the sooner you will be fluent! You can read about uTalk on my blog.

Thanks. I will check it out.

The other HUGE estate agency in Bulgaria is called BULGARIAN PROPERTIES. They are everywhere. Our experiences with Bulgarian Properties have been somewhat uneven. Yes, let's just say that some things were good and some were ... not so good. If your husband is keen on fishing, then you should buy a house next to a lake!

He has a car and he can drive to the lake.

Hello. How are things going? Did you have a look at the YANTRA HOMES website? Maybe they might also be able to find you something to rent for a month or so.

Yes, we looked at them all. There has been a slight delay on the Irish passport, so we are back in the UK for hopefully only two or three months. Then we will go full steam ahead to Bulgaria for rent, residency permit, hopefully job in IT and buy a house.

I hope that it all works out for you. My guess is that Yantra Homes might be able to help you to find something to rent for a couple of months.

Thanks, Simon. We will keep checking regularly.

By the way, I was at the hospital in VT this morning, to see my GP. No, I did not have an appointment. I just turned up. Well, I did have to wait for about an hour. He prescribed two medications and their combined cost was just over six leva. That is about three pounds. Can you imagine going into a pharmacy in the UK, buying two medications and paying less than three quid?

Sorry to hear that but yes, it sounds like they treated you well.

How is the house-hunting going? As for your question re. security companies, I would recommend SOT for your peace of mind. They're probably worth the money.

Thanks, Simon. I think people didn't read my post or I haven't posted it right.. It’s more for my husband to find some work in Bulgaria. I work in IT, but he would need to try and find some work in those areas, property maintenance, renovation or keeping an eye on someone's house or gardening.

Oh I see. My misunderstanding. Yes, I think that your hubby might be able to find some work here in Bulgaria. The only problem with jobs in Bulgaria is that the PAY is usually awful. That is why a lot of expats work for themselves or start their own business.

Mark will be starting his own business. My Facebook post was really to see if there is a requirement for what he does. We have stopped searching for houses to purchase and now we are focusing on rental, before we buy.

Some Brits focus on property development, buying old places and renovating them. Well, there are LOTS of country houses for sale in Bulgaria. Some of them are wrecks, some need a lot of work and some are completely restored. We paid 81,000 euros for our house near Elena. It came with 3000 sq metres of land.

That's what we need and want. Yes, that would be the perfect area for us.

You could focus on buying something really cheap and then your hubby would have plenty of work to do! 

Stacking this little lot in the woodshed kept me busy for a few hours.

Hi, Simon! I have had approval on my Irish passport, so I'm looking very good for travelling in March to Bulgaria. Just wondered if you could point me in the right direction of the following questions.

Firstly, we have a UK pickup on UK insurance. How long can you be in Bulgaria under UK insurance whilst we property search and apply for residency? We intend to keep the truck as its ideal for the roads and weather being a 4x4

Secondly, what other estate agents are there? Do you know of anyone who does property rentals around VT? 4-6 months whilst we explore areas we have been researching?

Thanks, Wendy.

If you are going to be driving a RHD vehicle on country roads in Bulgaria, then probably you will have no problems, but I would NOT want to drive a RHD vehicle in Sofia or any other big city. You might also have some issues with spares and repairs and re-sale with a RHD vehicle. As for renting a property for four or five or six months, my advice would be to do most of your research online, before you arrive in Bulgaria. Then it should not take you long to find a suitable property, as you have already done a lot of research. If you really want to rent a property, then yes you could do this through an estate agent. Or else you could simply put up a few posts on some FB groups and see what happens. Generally speaking, renting is "dead money" and so you want to buy something sooner, rather than later. There is no shortage of properties for sale in Bulgaria. On the whole, it makes a lot more sense to buy a second-hand vehicle in Germany or Austria and then bring it into BG, rather than bringing a RHD vehicle from the UK. It is not sensible to buy a second-hand car in Bulgaria as they are a load of rubbish.

Thanks, Simon. In the middle of January will put up a post on Facebook for anyone with a rental. We will only rent for a maximum of six months, but this will give us a chance to settle on the area.

Well, we came from Kalotina, north of Sofia, to the VT region and it took us three or four days to find what we were looking for. Of course, it does help if you have a good estate agent. I am sorry to have to say this, but a lot of agents want to sell you what they want to sell you, not what you want to buy! Another major problem is that some agents put lots of very attractive photos of properties on their websites, but when you actually go and visit the properties they look rather different to what you saw in the photographs.

As for this business of selecting an area, what can I say? You can only buy a property if there really is one for sale in this or that area. I would therefore suggest that you spread your net as widely as you possibly can and do not say to yourself, "Oh, I will only look at properties in Gabrovo and I won't look at any in Polski Trambesh (or wherever)". There are lots of wonderful bargains to be had, but you have to be a bit flexible, I think.

We have some lovely neighbours at our country house in Daveri, but very often you will not know anything about the neighbours until you have moved in and then it will be too late!

I really do not think that it will take you six months or even one month to find a suitable property, if you do your homework before you leave the UK and come to BG. And it also helps if you have a good agent and that is why I am recommending Yantra Homes.

BULGARIAN PROPERTIES is a huge estate agency and of course they have offices all over Bulgaria. Our experience with BP have been rather mixed, putting it mildly.

My friend Adrian often drives from Bulgaria to the UK and then back again and he always goes through Ruse and then Romania, NOT through Serbia.

Thanks, Simon. Is that one of your houses?

I saw this four-bedroomed property for sale on the YH website. Reduced to 60 thousand euros from 118,000. It is near Sevlievo, not far from VT. It is quite a big house for the money and 1300 sq metres of land. You can still find a bargain in Bulgaria.

Wow! I will have a look.

Yes, it certainly is worth having a good look! Sometimes what happens is that family circumstances change, someone dies or is ill and so they want to sell quickly. In those circumstances, you can get a bargain, especially if you are in a position to buy immediately.

And of course it does make a big difference if the property has been on the market for a while.

Thanks! Just on the Yantra website now…

The Yantra Homes website will give you a very good idea of the kinds of properties that are available in the Veliko Tarnovo region and what sort of prices you might pay. But remember that Yantra Homes only covers the VT region, not all of Bulgaria.

I can't find that property on the Yantra website... Found it!

Well, is that the sort of property you want? If you told most people in the UK that you can buy a four-bedroomed house for sixty thousand, they would probably not believe you.

This one is more our cup of tea!

That is a lovely traditional house. The furniture looks good too. 83,000 euros is about the right price, I think, but of course you could try to wangle a discount and knock a bit off the price. Yes, the house does seem to have some nice period features, if you like that sort of thing, and maybe the view is quite nice too.

The grounds are only 1400 sq metres, but maybe you do not want a huge garden. Elena is a nice little town and not too far from VT. Yes, while of course there are some shops in Elena, you really need to go to VT for some serious shopping.

The local authorities have upgraded some of the road from VT to Elena and when they are going to finish it all the way to Elena is anybody's guess. You have probably heard the rumours that the airport in Gorna Oryahovitsa is going to re-open. People have been talking about this for years, so do not hold your breath. Ditto the motorway from VT to Sofia.

If this really is the house you want, then I would fly over to BG asap and make an offer!

Morning, Simon! It's the style of house we like. Ideal Homes also have a few on there that are also quite lovely houses... We would never rush the decision and we need to both come and see if we even like Bulgaria.

Well, my wife and I love Bulgaria. You will not see the country at its best in the Winter, of course. VT is a beautiful and interesting city. We even have an IKEA!

Elena has some nice bits too. Not far from Elena is the Yakhovitsi reservoir, which is HUGE.

We can’t wait! It looks so beautiful.

Not far from VT is one of my favourite places, Emen Canyon. It is not quite as big as the one in the US, but it is rather nice.

Hi, Simon! Well, we only bought a house! We are coming over to sign end of March. Now we need to plan the road trip from the tunnel to Bulgaria!

It will be really great if you can get that Irish passport. We were lucky and managed to get our lichna carta (BG residency card) before that awful thing called BREXIT.

So did you really buy a house without actually seeing it? Brave souls! If you have not signed everything. then I suppose you could pull out of the deal, if you decide it really is not what you want.

No, we would never buy blind. My husband went to Bulgaria at the weekend. The right property came up with a free car and ride on lawnmower thrown into the deal, amongst several pieces of furniture.

My Irish passport comes on 22nd February.

Hooray! What about some photos? And how much, if you don't mind my asking?

I saw a Husqvarna tractor mower in one of the photos. They are damn cool things!

This is the house. We fell in love with it and it's renovated. We paid £66,000.

You got a sweet deal. The house looks lovely.

We hope to turn one of the barns into an annexe for my elderly parents to live in, so we need to find a builder or someone who can help achieve this.

Very good value, by the look of it.

Yep, we think so and all new windows and aluminium!

Well done you! (With a little help from the husband, of course).

Yes, I had to babysit the dog, so he went over on his own to view it. He knows what I do and don't like.

Popovo is about an hour from VT. The Targovishte region does produce a lot of very drinkable (and cheap!) wine, but if you want some serious shopping you will have to go to VT. It looks as though your new house is quite well furnished already, but there is an IKEA in VT and a second-hand furniture place in Dryanovo. Now you have to get working on your Bulgarian language skills. I recommend uTalk.

A Cherokee Jeep is a good car for Bulgaria. You will need something fairly large and chunky with 4WD if you are living in the countryside. One of the first words of Bulgarian that I learned was "dupki" (potholes).

Lol dupki!

Well, it looks as though you have just found yourselves a really good bargain. I am very happy for you! The theory is that one day they will finish the motorway from Varna to Sofia (it should go quite close to you). Well, that is the theory...

There was a rumour that the airport in Gorna was going to be open for passenger flights to the UK. Well, it was a rumour and so far it has never happened. You will therefore have to drive to Sofia, if you want a proper airport.

If you are coming to VT from Popovo, then you could make a day of it and combine a shopping trip with a bit of sightseeing and then have lunch somewhere. As you will have a big garden, you will have to get a doggie!

There are two big supermarkets in VT, Kaufland and Lidl.

There is also something called PRAKTIKER, where you will spend too much money... You will also get to know something called KAT (and no, dogs do not chase them). There is a KAT office in VT, but I do not think that there is one in Popovo or Targovishte. KAT is where you go to sort out things to do with your lichna carta, driving licences and cars.

Wow! I love your fantastic doggie photos. We have an Olde English bulldog called Lenny and hope to find him a companion, but a youngish rescue. We don't know what we intend to do yet with our Force Ranger, as we inherit a jeep with the house on BG plates, so we may sell it to fund a swimming pool is the kind of plan.

It all depends if it is Left-Hand Drive or RHD. On the whole, I would say that it is not worth bringing a RHD vehicle to Bulgaria. You will probably have problems with repairs and re-sale. Maybe it is okay to drive a RHD vehicle in the countryside, but NOT in a city. And there may also be issues with insurance for an RHD vehicle.

Lots of British expats drive back and forth from BG to the UK. Well, you can if you want to. It's not my idea of fun and what happens if you have a breakdown just outside Frankfurt or somewhere in France? It is not worth the bother, in my opinion.

We are in the RAC with Europe cover. We have to drive as we have a bulldog and we will be pulling a 10ft Box trailer

Good luck! Opinion is divided as to whether you should drive through Serbia or Romania and then cross the bridge at Ruse into BG. Serbia is NOT in the EU and therefore there may be issues at the Serbian border. The Kalotina crossing, on the road from Belgrade to Sofia, can have some awful delays, especially at weekends. If you are headed towards Popovo, then I think that the route through Romania is probably your best bet and I would stay at a hotel somewhere in Hungary. Book ahead if you are travelling at a busy time. There is nothing worse than to be tired out from a long drive, looking forward to a shower and a meal, and then you get to the hotel and it is full up.

Yes, I'm doing the route at the moment and we will be coming in from Romania crossing by the bridge into BG.

Opinion is divided as to whether or not you should have an inventory. If you have one, the border guards will not want to see it. If you do not have one, they will! You should not pay any tax or import duty on used personal and household goods.

We have an inventory prepared.

And don't forget the green card!

Car insurance?

Yes, but the green card shows that you have European cover.

There are also some delightful things called vignettes. They are basically a kind of road tax. Check with the RAC and find out if you need to pay for vignettes in Hungary and anywhere else. You WILL need a vignette for BG, but you can buy it online. If you get stopped by the Police and you do not have a vignette, then it can be very expensive.

Just checked on RAC and since 02/08/2021, a green card is no longer needed for taking vehicle into Bulgaria

I would get a green card anyway, just in case. Police and border guards are not always up-to-date with the latest changes in the rules. And of course you will be going through a lot of different countries, so I would get a green card anyway. You should not have to pay extra for it.

I do not think insurance companies issue them, but I will check.

Well, if they absolutely refuse to give you one, there is not much you can do. "Imam zaztrakhovka" is Bulgarian for "I have insurance"! How is your Bulgarian coming along? Malko po malko?

A long silence...

Our doggie is a very naughty Jack Russell. She is a greedy girl and not very obedient.

Sorry. I'm in a work meeting ATM, so I will chat to you a bit later.

No problem.

If you are doggie people, then you might like to know that on Wednesdays there is a group called the VT Walkers. We go for a walk in the countryside, with or without dogs, and then we have lunch together.

Sounds nice, but does this group venture more my way? lol

Well, maybe driving in BG is a lot less stressful than in the UK and yes, the VT Walkers do walks around VT.

By the way, rumour has it that you need to pay duty and VAT on a car, if you are importing it into BG from the UK. This is because of that silly thing called BREXIT. Of course, this only applies if you decide to keep your UK car in BG and get it registered here with BG number plates for it.

Yes, we are aware of that.

Morning, Simon! Here is a quick question for you. Do you have any ideas how you check a house on the cadastral? We have a map of the property and know its number, but we are not sure if we need an account to get information on cadastral or the immovable property reference. Thanks, Wendy.

Dear Wendy, I am not really an expert on this. However, I can tell you that we went to our local municipality office (not the kermit) and asked for plans of our property. We had to pay a small amount - it wasn't much. They gave us quite detailed maps of our property and the maps showed fairly accurately where the boundaries are. My guess is that most municipalities will give you these plans, if you pay for them. It is public knowledge, more or less, so they are not revealing any great secrets. And most municipalities will be happy with the idea of foreigners buying properties in that area.

How do you explain which property you are interested in? Well, that might be a problem and of course you will probably need the help of someone who speaks Bulgarian very well.

If you are going through an agent, then this is precisely the sort of thing that they should do for you, in order to justify the big fat fee that they will charge you when you finally buy the property.

Perfect! We have a map, but it is a drawn map she sent through, but I assumed all properties have to be on cadastral?

In the council office, they will have very detailed maps of the properties for that area. For a small fee, they will print a copy or copies for you. That is the way it works, as I understand it.

Thanks, Simon.

On the whole, it probably does not matter too much, but of course it is good to know exactly what the boundaries of your property really are. This might save you from having some disputes with your neighbours and it might be rather important if you are planning any sort of building work.

Even if you get detailed plans of the property, they probably will not show if anyone else has access over your property. We have a neighbour who is always driving over part of our land in order to get to some fields he owns. The plans do not show any right of access, but we really cannot be bothered to challenge him on this issue. Let sleeping dogs lie.

We plan to covert one of the outbuildings to a small annexe,  so we do not know if we need to access the cadastral to check the property etc.

If you are converting an existing building to some other use, then you will find that you do not need to get any special permission or anything like that. Bulgarian regulations are pretty lax when it comes to doing things to an existing structure. However, it would probably be a good idea to have a word with the kermit, just in case. (And no, he does not have a girlfriend called Miss Piggy.) The kermit is the local mayor.

If you possibly can, AVOID getting any sort of plan drawn up by an architect. Bulgarian architects seem to think that all Brits are millionaires and so they will charge you accordingly.

Again, this is the sort of thing that your estate agent can help you with. The bad news is that many of them just want to take the money and run...

Will you be driving over to BG in March?

My husband is doing the annexe, not builders, and it has walls already to it. Yep, we have the route map done and we will have five overnight stops.

My guess is that your hubby will find one or two things that will require his attention, before he has time to get on with the annexe. We bought a house that was supposed to be fully furnished and ready to move into, but guess what? It wasn't. The central heating system was bust, the fridge was knackered, the cooker was dangerous and a boiler burst, flooding our utility room. Oh the joys of property ownership!

Just glad Mark does most things. He's very talented.

What a lucky lady!

Yes, I am. He's a reluctant DIY person. but this is the house we have been waiting for and a forever home, so it puts a different feel on it. It is not a house for us to climb the property ladder, so to speak. We have had enough with six years of back-to-back renovations in the UK.

Well, I am not sure whether we will be in VT or in our country house near Elena, come the end of March. Keep in touch and it would be nice to meet you and Mark. We have bought three different properties in Bulgaria, over a period of about twenty years, so we might be able to give you some helpful advice. And of course you can always read my blog!

Hello, Simon. Well, we are here and have now been in Bulgaria for just over a week, staying at a rental and we sign for our property on Tuesday at the notary. One question I have is, if we were to travel to VT for a day out, what us the situation like with street dogs? Are they a problem if you walk your dog around VT on a lead?

The short answer is YES, there are some stray dogs in Veliko Tarnovo, but they are not dangerous. People feed them and they are used to being with people. On the outskirts of VT you may come across some stray dogs, but not in the centre of the city.

Great news about you signing the deal for your property. Wonderful! Tomorrow we are going to our country house in Daveri for a week or so. I do not think that we will be in VT, alas. Stay in touch and I will help you, if I possibly can.

As well as VT, you should also go to Emen Canyon. It is an amazing place (and not far away).

In VT itself, good places for doggies are Sveta Gora, the huge park near to the university, the spring on the way to Silifor and the walk from the Arbanassi road to the Love Swing. Amazing views and doggies like it too. In Arbanassi there is a very dog-friendly restaurant called “The Wine Club”. Anyway, we are going to our country house tomorrow, but stay in touch!

It is great that AT LAST you are in Bulgaria and I hope that you will move here permanently, asap. I also hope that you have been reading my blog and you should also watch Susan Ashwell's lovely Bulgarian-themed videos on YouTube ("Escape to a Simpler Place and Time").

It is all very exciting, buying a new property and starting a new life! God bless you and I hope that you will be very happy here in Bulgaria.

Thanks, Simon!

Did it all go to plan with the Notarius? Are you now the proud owners of an elegant property / country mansion / renovation project / total ruin in Bulgaria? I bet that you are going to be PRAKTIKER's best customers...

Nope. We are proud owners of a renovated project..

Hooray! The best value property is one that someone else has recently renovated. Well done you! Congrats! Are you in VT now with your doggie?

Oh and by the way there is a rather good second-hand furniture place at DRYANOVO, not far from VT. They have some nice things. Of course there is also an IKEA in the Mall. It is rather small, alas, but you can order things from them.

Nope, we may venture down next week as we wanted to pop into the furniture store down there at Dryanavo. We get the keys on Saturday, so we possibly may venture down to VT 

I seem to remember that you can find the Dryanovo second-hand furniture place on Facebook. Not quite sure how to do that.

It's okay I found them and also there is one closer to us.

We bought a lovely leather sofa and two armchairs from the place in Dryanovo. They have some nice things.

Lol, Now we are off to Praktiker next week... We need a king-size bed and matress. They are at the top of the list.

There is an IKEA in the Mall in VT. It is quite a small IKEA, much smaller than the one in Sofia, but you can order things and they will deliver.