Taking care of your property in Bulgaria while living in the UK
Stara Planina Properties, a real estate company specialising in property in Bulgaria, provides advice on how to take care of your property in Bulgaria while living in the UK.
If you have purchased property in Bulgaria which you visit a few weeks every year while you continue to live in the UK, it is important to make sure that your affairs are taken care of in Bulgaria.
So what are the issues relating to your property which require regular attention?
Maintenance
If you are not visiting for long periods you may need someone to check your house or apartment, air it, check for leakages, cut the grass, and so on. Properties which have been neglected are more likely to become a target for criminals and can depreciate in value even without any incidents occurring.
You may engage a neighbour or a specialist company depending on the particular situation. There is always a way to find someone to look after your property and this is important in the long run.
Security measures such as alarm systems can be one idea but again you have to have a local contact to react to the alarm and to communicate with the police or the security company.
Insurance
It is essential to have property insurance to cover your property and protect it from the basic risks. Insuring your property is relatively easy, especially if you are equipped with sufficient information about the property insurance products which different companies provide. Some insurers are less cooperative than others and it’s good to bear this in mind when choosing between the offers.
It is important to have someone to check your house regularly as insurance companies may not accept your claim if they are not informed about an insurance event within a certain time after its occurrence. Remember that renewing the insurance is not done automatically.
In the case of a robbery, you have to have an authorised representative to file a complaint to the police and submit your documents to the insurance company. You need a protocol from the police in order to claim money from the insurance company for damages caused by a robbery. Bear in mind that most insurers will cover the risk of burglary if there is an alarm system installed.
Utility bills
You may need to pay bills while you’re away and this can be done electronically or by a local representative. In any case, you want to avoid the situation whereby you arrive for a week’s holiday at your property in Bulgaria only to find that the electricity has been cut off due to unpaid bills because it will take a few days of your holiday to sort the problem out.
Annual property taxes
This is simple but takes time and has to be done each year by law. The taxes include annual council tax and a rubbish collection fee which is also paid to the local municipality. The payment has to be made either with one payment (deadline is 30 April and you will receive a 5% discount) or in four installments (deadlines are 30 April, 30 June, 30 September and 30 November).
Paying utility bills and taxes online
Although paying utility bills is straightforward, it can be very time consuming. When you live away from your property in Bulgaria for most of the year, it can be difficult to monitor and you may need to engage someone to help with this.
There are alternatives which can help to save you time and effort. Most banks offer direct debit services for paying utility bills, however, in most cases, you receive the information about the payments made some time after the transaction has been completed and require online banking to check the balance of your account.
An alternative is to pay for various services through the electronic payments system ePay. The ePay.bg site, which also has an English language version, is user-friendly and offers a variety of services.
For more information, visit: https://www.epay.bg/en/
Stara Planina Properties are specialists in the sale of Bulgarian property, being the first British-owned company of its kind in the country, servicing the needs of foreign property buyers.
Browse Stara Planina Properties’ range of Bulgarian properties for sale now.
Information courtesy of Stara Planina Properties.
© PropertyIndex.com 2009 | Last Updated: 13th May 2009
