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Foreign nationals from Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, the United States and even Australia regularly contact Black Sea Law Counsel after a relative who was a foreign citizen has died in Bulgaria. Behind each enquiry is a family facing both a personal loss and unfamiliar legal questions. The relatives need to understand who inherits, which country’s law applies, how they can prove ownership of a Bulgarian property and whether a surviving spouse can continue living here.
Having handled numerous inheritance and related property cases of this kind, we have prepared this detailed guide to the consequences of a foreign national’s death in Bulgaria. Our work connects succession, property, company and immigration law because the family’s position often depends on several of these areas at once. Obtaining a document confirming the heirs, for example, may be only the beginning when the home belongs to a company or a widow’s residence permission depended on the marriage.
⚖️ Black Sea Law Counsel can assist with the following matters.
- We establish which authorities can deal with the estate, which inheritance law applies and who is entitled to inherit under that law.
- We obtain and coordinate death records, foreign succession documents and, where appropriate, a European Certificate of Succession.
- We advise on accepting an inheritance, using acceptance under inventory to address liability concerns, or making a legally effective renunciation.
- We establish the documentary chain of title to Bulgarian property and prepare applications for declaratory notarial deeds where they are useful.
- We challenge competing ownership claims, protect possession and represent clients in disputes between co-heirs.
- We deal with inherited OOD or EOOD company interests, paying particular attention to cases where the company owns the family’s Bulgarian home.
- We resolve questions concerning address registration, foreigner identification numbers and the documents needed to establish a person’s identity and residence status.
- We assess a surviving or divorced spouse’s independent right to remain in Bulgaria and prepare the appropriate application.
Who is a foreigner for the purposes of Bulgarian law?
Does the same definition apply to inheritance and immigration?
Under Article 2 of the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act, a foreigner is a person who is not a Bulgarian citizen, including a person without nationality. A person who also holds Bulgarian citizenship cannot simply be treated as an ordinary third-country national because they use another passport.
This distinction becomes practical when the same person appears under different documents in different countries. A Bulgarian property deed may contain an old passport number, while a later residence document uses a personal identification number. We must connect those records to the same individual before drawing conclusions about citizenship, ownership or family relationships. A difference in spelling or document number is a matter to investigate, rather than a reason to assume that the underlying right has disappeared.
For immigration purposes, however, nationality is only the first question. EU citizens and certain family members fall under a separate free-movement regime. EEA and Swiss connections also require their applicable arrangements to be considered. Most British nationals now fall under the third-country framework, although rights protected by the Withdrawal Agreement must be checked separately. Temporary protection, refugee status and other forms of protection constitute further distinct situations.
Must an heir have Bulgarian citizenship or residence?
A foreign national can inherit assets in Bulgaria without first obtaining Bulgarian residence. A child living in Australia, for example, does not need to relocate to Bulgaria merely to establish an entitlement to their parent’s estate. Conversely, a residence permit does not itself establish that somebody is an heir. The deceased’s nationality, the heir’s nationality, the deceased’s habitual residence, the location and nature of the assets, and any will each have a distinct role in the legal analysis.
Being entitled to inherit, being entitled to own a particular kind of land, and being entitled to live in Bulgaria are three separate questions.
If a foreign national dies in Bulgaria, does Bulgarian or foreign inheritance law apply?
Does the place of death decide the answer?
The place of death does not, on its own, determine the law governing the inheritance. A tourist who dies during a short stay in Burgas does not acquire a Bulgarian succession regime merely because the death occurred here. Equally, the foreign passport of a person who made Bulgaria their settled home does not automatically require their national law to govern the estate. The circumstances of the person’s life must therefore be examined alongside the circumstances of their death.
For deaths on or after 17 August 2015, the starting point in participating EU Member States is Regulation (EU) No 650/2012. Article 21 generally identifies the law of the deceased’s habitual residence at death. Article 20 permits that law to be the law of a non-EU country. An exceptional, manifestly closer connection with another state can alter the answer under Article 21(2), but this is not a general invitation to select the most convenient system.
Can somebody choose their national law in a will?
Article 22 allows a person to choose the law of a state whose nationality they possess when making the choice or at death. A person with several nationalities may choose the law of any of those states. The choice must satisfy the Regulation’s requirements and be examined together with the will. Ownership of an apartment in Bulgaria does not, by itself, allow an unrelated law to be selected.
Where the relevant state has several territorial legal systems, Article 36 must also be considered. “British law”, “American law” and “Australian law” are not sufficiently precise substitutes for identifying the relevant legal system. England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have different succession rules. American and Australian succession questions commonly depend on state or territory law.
A will should therefore be read as a complete legal document. A clause identifying beneficiaries is not necessarily a valid choice of the law governing the whole succession, and a choice of law does not itself prove that every disposition in the will is effective. We also consider the Regulation’s transitional provisions before dismissing a will simply because it was signed before August 2015.
Can a Bulgarian court apply foreign law?
A Bulgarian court can be required to apply foreign inheritance law because jurisdiction and applicable law are different matters. Article 4 generally gives the courts of the participating Member State of the deceased’s habitual residence jurisdiction over the succession as a whole. Articles 5-7, 10 and 11 contain additional routes and conditions. Bulgarian assets consequently do not invariably establish Bulgarian jurisdiction over the whole estate, and Bulgarian jurisdiction does not invariably require the application of Bulgarian substantive inheritance law.
Where a third-country law is designated, the rules on renvoi in Article 34 may bring the analysis back to the law of a Member State or onward to another qualifying third country. Renvoi is excluded in specified situations, including a valid choice under Article 22. This matters particularly where a foreign system distinguishes between movable assets and immovable property.
What remains outside the EU Succession Regulation?
The Regulation does not decide every issue arising from death. Tax, the underlying matrimonial property regime, company-law provisions governing what happens to membership on death, the nature of rights in rem and registration requirements are among the matters excluded by Article 1. Before calculating an inheritance share, we may therefore first need to determine what the deceased actually owned under a separate matrimonial property or company-law analysis.
Suppose the documents refer to a family home in Bulgaria, a bank account abroad and an interest in a Bulgarian company. We first identify the legal owner of each asset, then determine the succession rules affecting the deceased’s rights, and finally examine the procedure required to establish or register the heirs’ entitlement. Treating all three questions as a single issue can produce an apparently simple answer that fails when the family approaches a bank, notary or registry.
Can a bilateral treaty change the result?
A bilateral treaty can change the analysis because Article 75 preserves relevant pre-existing international conventions with third countries. Each treaty must be read individually. A legal-assistance treaty may facilitate the use of documents without containing rules that determine the law governing succession. It is therefore unsafe to assume that the rules of one country’s treaty with Ukraine apply to Bulgaria’s treaty with Ukraine.
The 1975 treaty between Bulgaria and the former USSR requires particular attention in cases involving the Russian Federation. Article 32 connects movable succession with nationality and immovable succession with the property’s location. Article 35 addresses jurisdiction. Bulgaria’s 2004 legal-assistance treaty with Ukraine does not contain equivalent succession choice-of-law provisions.
In OP, C-21/22, 12 October 2023, the Court of Justice confirmed the relevance of Article 75 to a third-country treaty. That judgment concerned the Poland-Ukraine treaty, so its particular treaty rules cannot simply be transplanted into a Bulgarian case.
When is a European Certificate of Succession issued, and what does it prove?
Who can use the certificate?
The European Certificate of Succession (ECS) is the instrument established by Articles 62-73 of Regulation 650/2012. It can be used by heirs, legatees with direct rights in the succession, executors and estate administrators who need to demonstrate their status, rights or powers in another participating Member State.
It is optional and does not replace every national succession document. A Bulgarian municipal certificate listing heirs, a death certificate and an ECS perform different functions. None should be described simply as an interchangeable “European inheritance certificate”.
For example, an heir may need to establish the same succession rights before an authority in Bulgaria and a bank in another participating Member State. An ECS can make that cross-border proof more manageable. Its usefulness depends on where and for what purpose it will be presented, however, rather than on the fact that a relative happens to live abroad. A connection only with the United Kingdom, the United States or Australia does not automatically create a need for an ECS.
Where and how is an application made in Bulgaria?
A Bulgarian application is made to the competent district court under Articles 627e and following of the Civil Procedure Code, read with Article 64 of the Regulation. Territorial rules identify the district court by the deceased’s last permanent address, then the last address in Bulgaria, and, where no Bulgarian address exists, Sofia District Court. Those domestic rules do not dispense with the prior requirement for Bulgaria to have jurisdiction under the Regulation. The competent authorities and appeal rules are set out in Bulgaria’s official notification on the European e-Justice Portal.
The applicant must substantiate the death, relationship or testamentary entitlement, relevant family circumstances, applicable law and the rights to be certified. Foreign wills, marriage and birth records, decisions and succession documents may be required. An actual dispute over the elements to be certified can prevent issuance under Article 67. A certificate procedure is not a substitute for deciding every contested inheritance claim.
The preparation should make the relationships between these documents clear. If a will uses one spelling of the deceased’s name and a Bulgarian deed uses another, the court needs sufficient material to connect them. If somebody asserts that another child or spouse has been omitted, that issue must be investigated rather than concealed behind an apparently complete application. A carefully assembled file helps distinguish a missing document from a genuine dispute over entitlement.
Does it transfer ownership or remove registration requirements?
Under Article 69, the certificate produces its prescribed effects in participating Member States without a special procedure and carries a presumption concerning the matters it certifies. It can support registration, but local requirements for identifying the property and recording the right remain relevant. In R.J.R., C-354/21, 9 March 2023, the Court of Justice confirmed that registration may be refused where an ECS presented as the sole supporting document does not identify the property concerned. Certified copies are normally valid for six months under Article 70. This is not a deadline for accepting the inheritance or the expiry of ownership.
The United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark do not participate in this Regulation. An ECS is consequently not an automatic substitute for an English grant of probate, an American court order or an Australian grant. Conversely, a foreign grant does not become an ECS simply because it has been apostilled.
Does permanent or extended residence determine habitual residence in Bulgaria?
What evidence establishes a person’s real centre of life?
A residence permit is relevant evidence, but it is not conclusive. Recitals 23 and 24 of Regulation 650/2012 call for an overall assessment of the deceased’s life, particularly the duration and regularity of their presence and the conditions and reasons for it.
- Where did the person actually live over the relevant years?
- Where were their family, employment, business and social connections?
- Was a Bulgarian property a home, a seasonal holiday apartment or an investment?
- Did prolonged absence arise from medical treatment, work, displacement or another exceptional circumstance?
The Court of Justice addressed the need to determine a single habitual residence for succession purposes in E.E., C-80/19, judgment of 16 July 2020. A migration file, utility bills and an address registration can be useful, but the assessment cannot be reduced to whichever document is easiest to obtain. There is no universal 183-day or 185-day test for habitual residence under this Regulation.
A seasonal stay illustrates why the context matters. A person may spend substantial time in a seaside apartment while maintaining their family home, professional activity and ordinary personal life elsewhere. Another person may have moved to Bulgaria more recently but established their settled family life here. Neither example can be resolved by counting days in isolation. The evidence should explain what the residence meant in the person’s life and why it had that character.
Can a short-term resident nevertheless have a strong Bulgarian connection?
A person with a shorter period of residence may have a substantial Bulgarian connection, although a short visit will usually point in the other direction. The reverse situation also deserves attention. Somebody may retain a Bulgarian permanent residence document after moving their real life elsewhere. Immigration permission and habitual residence answer different legal questions, so neither the printed address nor the expiry date of a card settles an international inheritance dispute.
How can a foreign national accept an inheritance in Bulgaria?
What should be checked before accepting?
The first step is to establish the applicable succession law. Where Bulgarian substantive law applies, Articles 48-61 of the Inheritance Act govern acceptance and renunciation. Before making a binding decision, the family should investigate the estate’s assets, debts, mortgages, guarantees, company interests and pending disputes. A valuable-looking property may be heavily encumbered, while a bank balance may be accompanied by liabilities that are not immediately visible.
Bulgarian law permits express acceptance by a written declaration to the competent district court, recorded in the special register, and tacit acceptance through an act that unequivocally shows an intention to accept. Purely protective or management steps do not all have the same meaning. Selling an inherited asset, withdrawing money or signing documents as owner should therefore be assessed before acting.
This is why we ask what the family has already done, as well as what it intends to do next. A person may believe they are still deciding whether to inherit while having taken an action that is legally relevant to acceptance. The purpose, wording and surrounding circumstances of that action need to be examined before a later renunciation is considered.
When does the heir become owner?
Article 48 provides that inheritance is acquired by acceptance, with effect from the opening of the succession. Once valid acceptance has occurred, the relevant succession takes effect ex lege, by operation of law, retrospectively from death. The deceased does not sign a new conveyance, and a notary does not create the inherited ownership merely by issuing a later document.
In our practice, we frequently prepare the documentary case for declaratory notarial deeds for foreign heirs whose relatives owned Bulgarian property. The practical difficulty is often that the heir has inherited ownership but lacks a convenient Bulgarian document identifying them and their share. A declaratory deed can make that ownership easier to demonstrate when dealing with another person or institution. The inheritance remains the legal source of the right, while the deed provides a means of establishing it.
Is there a universal six-month acceptance deadline?
No universal six-month period for ordinary acceptance should be imported into Bulgarian law from another legal system. Article 51 nevertheless permits the court, on an interested person’s application, to set a period for an heir to declare whether they accept or renounce. Failure to respond within that court-set period has serious consequences.
Acceptance under inventory, which limits liability to the value of the inherited estate, has its own requirements. Article 61 generally requires a declaration within three months after learning of the opening of the succession, with a possible judicial extension of up to three further months. Protected persons are subject to special rules. Acceptance or renunciation cannot simply be limited to the attractive assets while excluding the debts.
The distinction matters when the family knows about a home but cannot yet establish the deceased’s financial position. Inventory protection should be considered before the uncertainty is resolved through actions that may already amount to ordinary acceptance. Its deadlines and continuing obligations require active attention.
For children, Interpretative Decision No 1/2021 of 23 January 2024 is especially important because a minor’s renunciation is inadmissible, and the protective inventory rules cannot be replaced by presumed tacit acceptance. Inventory protection also carries continuing duties concerning disclosure and disposal of inherited assets.
Who inherits when there is a spouse, children or no children?
If Bulgarian intestacy rules apply, children inherit equally and the surviving spouse shares with them on the basis prescribed by Article 9. With a spouse and two children, each normally receives one third of the deceased’s estate. The estate must first be distinguished from the surviving spouse’s own property.
For example, if a home belonged to the spouses in an applicable community-property regime in equal shares, the survivor’s existing half is not inherited. If the deceased’s half then passes equally to the spouse and two children, the spouse ends with two thirds of the home and each child with one sixth. This example assumes the relevant matrimonial and succession rules and no will or other complicating facts.
A spouse does not necessarily inherit everything when there are no children. Parents, other ascendants, siblings or their descendants may be relevant, and the duration of the marriage can affect the spouse’s statutory fraction. If the competing classes identified by Article 9 are absent, the spouse may take the whole inheritance. An unmarried partner has no automatic status as a surviving spouse.
- With ascendants or siblings or their qualifying descendants, the spouse generally receives one half if the marriage lasted less than ten years, and two thirds after ten years.
- With both the relevant more distant ascendants and siblings or their qualifying descendants, the corresponding shares are one third and one half.
- Living parents exclude siblings from that competing class. The family tree must therefore be established before applying a fraction.
A final divorce also changes statutory spousal inheritance rights. Separation, a pending divorce and a final divorce must not be treated as identical situations.
Can an heir be disinherited by a will or lifetime gift?
Articles 28-30 protect reserved shares of qualifying descendants, parents and a spouse. A will or gift exceeding the disposable portion may be reduced through the proper procedure. This differs from the assumption that a person has unrestricted testamentary freedom. Statutory unworthiness under Article 3 is a separate concept requiring its specific grounds. Family disagreement alone is insufficient.
How does this differ from probate in English-speaking countries?
In England and Wales, section 1 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 and the probate framework give personal representatives a central role in administering an estate. A beneficiary’s entitlement is not the same as the executor’s authority to deal with assets. Official probate guidance also expressly distinguishes Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The California courts’ probate guidance describes court administration and circumstances in which simplified procedures may be available. In Australia, the Supreme Court of New South Wales explains grants authorising executors and the potential need for additional grants or resealing. These are jurisdiction-specific comparisons, not a single “Anglo-Saxon inheritance law”. A foreign executor’s powers must be analysed before they attempt to sell Bulgarian land.
What is a declaratory notarial deed, and what are its limitations?
Is it mandatory for every inherited property?
A declaratory notarial deed, commonly called a konstativen notarialen akt, is an instrument by which a Bulgarian notary recognises ownership established through the appropriate evidence under Article 587 of the Civil Procedure Code. Its purpose is to record a right that has already arisen. A deed documenting a sale or gift has a different function because it records the transaction through which the parties intend ownership to pass.
It is not universally compulsory. An heir may be able to prove the chain of title using the deceased’s deed together with adequate succession documents. We recommend a separate declaratory deed where it will clarify the position, support subsequent dealings or address fragmented foreign documentation, after checking whether it is legally and practically justified.
The competent notary is determined by the property’s location. The witness-based procedure under Article 587(2) concerns proof of acquisitive prescription. It is not a general shortcut for replacing missing foreign inheritance evidence.
The underlying file must still explain how the deceased acquired the property, how their rights passed to the applicant and which share the applicant inherited. An incomplete translation or an unexplained change of name may obstruct that proof even where the family’s substantive entitlement is sound. We address those gaps before seeking the deed so that the document rests on a coherent chain of evidence.
Can the deed cure a defective inheritance claim?
The deed cannot make a non-heir an heir, erase another heir’s rights, validate a defective will or extinguish an existing mortgage. Its value depends on the underlying ownership being established correctly. Where the parties genuinely dispute that ownership, a notarial procedure cannot conclusively settle a matter that requires adjudication by a court.
Interpretative Decision No 11 of 21 March 2013, interpretative case No 11/2012, of the Supreme Court of Cassation addresses the deed’s legitimating effect and its challenge. Recognition by the notary is significant, but it remains open to rebuttal in proper proceedings. Consequential cancellation can follow under Article 537(2) of the Civil Procedure Code.
Can a foreign heir always keep inherited land?
Article 22 of the Bulgarian Constitution, Article 29 of the Property Act and the special rules for agricultural land require a separate nationality-and-asset analysis. Buildings, apartments, ideal shares of land, agricultural land and rights to build are not interchangeable. Acquisition through intestate succession is specifically recognised. Under Article 3b of the Agricultural Land Ownership and Use Act, certain foreign heirs outside the relevant European or treaty exceptions must transfer inherited agricultural land within three years from the opening of the succession, subject to the special rules where restitution is involved. That rule is not a blanket three-year restriction on every apartment or residential plot.
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