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Bulgaria amends real estate Registration Rules

Tuesday, Feb 10, 2026

In one of its most significant legislative acts relevant to real estate transactions, Bulgaria has amended its property Registration Rules, which govern the requirements and procedures for registering transfers, encumbrances, claims, and other legally relevant circumstances, in the Real Estate Register, and the provision of information, references, and certificates issued by the Register. These controversial amendments came into force on 15 January 2026.

Reason for adopting the amendments
The amendments address the problem of property fraud in real estate transactions, provide better guarantees for the protection of property rights and prevent interference in the private lives of citizens. Specifically, the following changes were adopted:

Issuing uncertified copies of title deeds

Until 15 January 2026, any person could obtain information about entries, notes, and deletions regarding real estate, certificates of the existence or absence of an entry, and uncertified copies from the acts registered in the Real Estate Register. The amendments, however, have significantly restricted this free access to information and documents. Uncertified copies and extracts from registered deeds, notes, and deletions are now issued only to:
- Interested private parties – the parties to the registered act, their direct or indirect successors and predecessors, and their duly authorised or statutory representatives;
- Legal, enforcement, and judicial authorities – notaries and their staff; lawyers, junior lawyers, and registered legal assistants; private enforcement agents and their employees; and the courts, prosecution, and investigation authorities and any additional authorities or persons expressly authorised under the law or the Registration Rules; and
- Other persons with legal interest.
Regarding point 3 above, the amendments provide that the registration judge assess the legal interest of these persons individually and that the applicant must substantiate its legal interest with specific documents. The new Registration Rules list examples of persons with legal interests (e.g. a person negotiating the acquisition of real estate, a person providing intermediary services for the acquisition of real estate, etc.).

Automated access to information

The Registry Agency now provides specialised services to persons with rights over real estate, enabling automated access to information about inquiries made on their personal account in the Property Registry, and information about issued copies of and extracts from deeds, notes, and deletions in the registration books. These services are provided for a fee specified in the Tariff for State Fees Collected by the Registry Agency.

Practical significance of the amendments and potential problems
In essence, individuals and legal entities can freely obtain only references about the status of titles and encumbrances and relevant registrations made with respect to real estate properties, as well as certificates of the existence or absence of such registrations. The references provide information confirming that a deed concerning rights over real estate does in fact exist, together with its identification details (i.e. volume number, act number, year).

This limitation arises because the Bulgarian registration system is personal and regulates the registration of deeds, whereas the property batch serves only an auxiliary function (i.e. the references it contains serve to establish the description of the property). In practice, however, a property batch often does not exist. Nevertheless, it is the content of a given deed that is of interest, rather than information about its registration number or the volume in which it is filed. An additional problem that existed before the amendment of the Registration Rules is that references are not subject to verification by an employee of the Registry Agency (i.e. there is no guarantee that the content of a given reference corresponds to the information in the registered deed). This creates conditions for numerous errors and omissions in the references issued.

The above also applies to widely used certificates of encumbrances. To obtain a certificate of encumbrances, the applicant must submit a set of documents, including a title deed. If not the owner or a lawyer, however, the applicant cannot obtain copy of the title deed. Hence, the legislator has provided the opportunity to obtain certificates of encumbrances while creating an obstacle to doing so.

The new automated services of the Registry Agency also pose a concern for creditors. The first matter a creditor examines when assessing the financial status of a debtor is real estate ownership and any real estate transactions that might be challenged. If the debtor uses the automated services, they may discover that their creditor (or their lawyer) is about to act in enforcement proceedings. This can give the debtor an advantage, enabling the debtor to dispose of property before the creditor can undertake protective measures.

Source: CMS Law-Now