Risks for the owners of properties in Bulgaria

Dozens of people become victim of the so called real estate mafia in Bulgaria every year, losing their properties in their desperate need to get money cash as soon as possible. But the results are shocking - the owners pawn flats or houses, whose value is set at hundreds of thousands Euro to receive some half of this sum immediately. Besides such "services" are at a high rate of interests.

Of course, everybody, who takes such a risk, hopes he is to get his property back right after he pays off his debts. But often that is not the case... At least not in Bulgaria...

Police probes proved that some owners of pawnbroker's have up to 15 properties registered in their names. Contracts however show that these flats have actually been pawned and according to the law they should not be transferred to the "brokers".

Suspicious foreign jobbing-houses, taxi drivers, change bureaus or Bulgarian nationals, who work abroad often play the roles of such "brokers". They even use forged documents to sell to ordinary people mortgaged properties.

Only 500 out of about 1400 jobbing-houses are legally working. The rest perform such activities without paying any taxes or insurances to their employees.

In most of the cases, police authorities and prosecutors could do nothing to help the situation when a fraud is uncovered as the cheats enforce their rights through misleading contracts, signed by the victims themselves. There follow endless lawsuits, which take no effect. Meanwhile the properties are sold to one or more other buyers.

The scheme that works flawlessly on this "market" is as follows: a cheat takes on a flat in a big residential building in the capital city of Sofia and pays in advance the rent for the next few months without signing a contract, which contains his personal data. In a while, an advertisement is published in the press, saying the flat concerned is for sale as the price is extremely low. The sell of course is to be carried out without the help of an estate agent. The false "owner" receives 10% of the property's value as a deposit from each of the candidate-buyers and nobody is able to find him anymore.

The other way of committing such frauds is to take on a real estate property, prepay the rent for the following few months without signing any official papers, taking the notarial act from the owner, making a copy, which is later used for "letting out" the house to other people.

Every year Bulgarian authorities are being tipped off on more than 20 cases of frauds related to sales and purchases of real estate properties, Economy police Inspector Gratsiela Petrunova announced recently.

"There are several organized rings that commit such crimes in the country," the official added.

Economy police experts found out that notaries are often involved in such crime schemes.

The criminals usually get the personal data of the potential victims in advance, authorities reported.
by "Darik Radio", Nikolay Hristov