Bulgaria/turkey slammed over ‘fraud’

Investors in Bulgaria and Turkey need to be extra vigilant when buying property…

According to David O’Donnell, a partner in Tom McGrath & Associates People, property in Bulgaria and Turkey are encountering legal difficulties from local agents.

Mr O’ Donnell said: ‘The current boom in buying property abroad is resulting in some people being scammed out of money as they deal with unscrupulous agents. Developers and real estate agents have a more arrogant approach to property sales and the firm has dealt with hundreds of people who have encountered problems when buying property abroad”

"A Bulgarian contract is hardly worth the paper that it is printed on. In some cases, buyers are signing contracts where the property is valued at much less than they are paying, in order to avoid more tax, at the behest of property agents.

Tax fraud

Mr O’ Donnell continued: "If you have a property worth €130,000, they will ask that it is registered at between €20,000 or €30,000, for example. On paper, when you sign the title deed, the property is only worth €30,000. It does save you a bit of tax but obviously it is tax fraud and a lawyer could never advise you to go down that route."

"If there was any problem with the property and you had to sue, you can only recover the amount that is on paper, so you are already down €100,000.

"The developers in Bulgaria and Turkey are that arrogant that they are putting it out there to say, 'sue me'. Nobody wants to go down that route and issue proceedings in Bulgaria or in Turkey because it is very lengthy and expensive.