One name on the deed
does not mean one owner.
The seller is usually not lying. They believe their notarial deed (нотариален акт), and their declaration is true in their own belief and false in law.
The buyer reads the notarial deed, sees one name and assumes there is one owner on the other side. Between that thought and the law stand a few sentences of the Family Code (Семеен кодекс) that nobody reads before paying the deposit.
Silence is also a regime
Art. 18(1) of the Family Code gives three options: the statutory regime of community, the statutory regime of separation and a contractual regime. Paragraph 2 says which applies when those getting married have not chosen: community.
Art. 19 creates a central electronic register at the Registry Agency (Агенция по вписванията), open to the public, and registration is ex officio, on notification from the municipality whose register holds the civil marriage certificate (акт за граждански брак).
And Art. 20, which is worth quoting in full: “In a transaction between one or both spouses and a third party, when no property relations regime is entered in the register, the statutory regime of community applies.”
An empty search result is not a green light. It is a sign to look for two signatures.
Separately, the register answers the question of what the regime is, not whether there is a marriage. It is filled in on notification when a marriage certificate is drawn up or amended, so a marriage in which nothing has happened for a long time has not generated such a notification. And under § 4(1) of the transitional provisions, the rules also apply to marriages that already existed.
“Regardless of whose name
they were acquired in.”
That is the whole subject in one sentence, and it is word for word from Art. 21(1) of the Family Code. Paragraph 3 adds that joint contribution is presumed until proven otherwise. The only personal rights are those acquired before the marriage, those acquired by inheritance and gift (Art. 22) and those acquired entirely with personal property (Art. 23).
That is where the three most expensive misconceptions come from.
“It is in my name.” It makes no difference. That is exactly what Art. 21(1) says.
“I bought it with a loan I took out.” The Supreme Court of Cassation (ВКС) holds that when a purchase during the marriage is made with funds from a loan taken out by only one spouse, there is no transformation: the borrowed funds are presumed to have been taken on for the needs of the family, and both are jointly and severally liable.
“My parents gave me the money.” Gifted funds are considered invested in the acquisition only if they can be traced to it, not when the gift was made several years earlier and on the day of the deal there is simply money in the account.
And one more, which closes the door from the other side too: under Interpretative Decision No 5/2013 of the General Assembly of the Civil and Commercial Chambers (ТР № 5/2013 г. на ОСГТК), transformation can be established even when the property was bought in the name of both spouses. So even two signatures do not settle the question of shares.
One has a clock. The other does not.
Jointly owned real property. Disposing of it requires the consent of both, always. Without it, the transaction can be challenged under Art. 24(4) of the Family Code within six months of learning of it, but no later than three years after it was made. The scope is wider than usually quoted: the provision covers the disposal of any right in rem over jointly owned real property, that is a house, an apartment, a plot, a garage or an undivided share.
A family home that is the personal property of one spouse. Here Art. 26 of the Family Code applies: consent is required only if the two have no other home, and if it is refused there is an alternative, permission from the district judge. The sanction, however, is different and harsher for the buyer.
Under Interpretative Decision No 5/2013, item 2, such a transaction is relatively void as against the non-owner spouse and can be validated by that spouse’s subsequent consent. Two consequences cannot be read from the text of the law. First, there is no time limit: the decision rejected the analogy with the six-month limit under Art. 24(4), and the claim can be brought for as long as the marriage lasts. Second, the transaction can be saved, but only with the signature of a person who has already had reason to refuse once.
This is also where the most common mistake in published articles appears: that a breach of Art. 26 makes the transaction null and void. It does not. The difference is not academic, because nullity can be established by anyone and with no time limit, while relative invalidity can be invoked only by the non-owner spouse and can be cured.
The definition is living there.
Not a registered address.
Under § 1 of the additional provisions of the Family Code, a family home is one lived in by both spouses and their minor children. So whether an apartment is a family home is proven with facts about living there. It is not issued as a certificate and does not show up in any search.
The legal nature of the “voidability” under Art. 24(4) is itself disputed, and case law gives three different classifications. The practical meaning is one, and it is unpleasant: the defendants in the claim are both the other spouse and the third party, that is, the buyer.
The buyer is not a spectator in a dispute between two former spouses. The buyer is a party to it, with a lawyer and legal costs, years after paying.
Five sources, each with a gap
The declaration before the notary under Art. 25(8) of the Notaries and Notarial Activity Act (ЗННД) is the main document, and it is a self-declaration. The penalty for a false declaration under Art. 313(1) of the Criminal Code (НК) starts from a fine of €51.13. The lower limit of the penalty for a lie that can cost a whole apartment is on a different scale from the loss.
The old notarial deed usually states the marital status, but as declared, and there is a cut-off in time: until 22 November 2010 the notary was not required to check the national database. Older deeds reflect only what the person said about themselves.
The national “Population” database (Национална база данни „Население“) contains marital status, previous marriages and divorces. The notary has access to it, as an obligation since 22 November 2010, and looks at it on the day of the deal. The deposit is paid weeks earlier. And even then the database gives information, not a conclusion: the conclusion requires comparing the acquisition date in the old deed with the period of the marriage, and that does not pop up as a warning.
The marital status certificate (удостоверение за семейно положение) costs €2.05 for seven days at Varna Municipality and is issued to the person it concerns. The data are given to a third party when they matter for that party’s legal rights and interests, but the assessment is up to the administration, and a buyer who has not yet signed anything will find that hard to prove.
A search of the register under Art. 19 of the Family Code costs between €0.51 and €5.11 and shows the regime, not the marriage. What else is checked before a deal: the property check.
And a sixth case, which is not exotic in Varna: when one spouse is a foreigner, the question is not decided under the Bulgarian Family Code. Until 29 January 2019 Art. 79 of the Private International Law Code (КМЧП) applies, and from that date Regulation (EU) 2016/1103. So whether an apartment bought by a foreign national during their marriage is community property is established under foreign law and with a document from a foreign country.
The divorce finds the property
paid for and undivided.
In 2025 Varna region had 1,490 marriages and 588 divorces, and the average length of a marriage until it ended was 14.9 years nationally (final data from the National Statistical Institute, НСИ). That is also roughly the term of a housing loan.
When the marriage ends, the marital community property (СИО) ends and the shares are equal (Art. 27 and 28 of the Family Code). From then on the property is ordinary co-ownership, and getting out of it is a separate matter. In the meantime nothing obliges the former spouses to divide it, and many of them do not for years.
And one detail that comes with the apartment. On divorce the court can grant the use of the family home to one spouse, in which case a tenancy relationship arises under Art. 57(1) of the Family Code. The judgment can be entered in the property register, and the entry has the effect under Art. 237(1) of the Obligations and Contracts Act (ЗЗД): the tenancy remains in force against the acquirer.
The buyer of such an apartment receives ownership and, along with it, an occupant with a court-given right to stay. If the purchase was made with a loan, the instalments run against a rent set by a court, not by the market. A related topic: inherited property.
One document, priced from €22 to over €1,200
A marriage contract (брачен договор) can be concluded by those getting married and by spouses during the marriage (Art. 37 of the Family Code). The permitted content is listed in Art. 38(1): rights over what is acquired and what is owned, management and disposal, including of the family home, expenses, consequences on divorce, maintenance.
Three prohibitions are regularly overlooked. One party’s premarital property cannot become marital community property (para. 2). The contract cannot contain provisions in the event of death (para. 3). And whatever is not settled is governed by the statutory regime of community (para. 4), so an incomplete marriage contract brings community back in through the back door.
The form is written, with notarial certification of the content and of the signatures, by the parties in person (Art. 39). And the contract cannot affect rights acquired by third parties before it was concluded (Art. 40(2)).
The price is telling in itself. The Tariff of Notary Fees (Тарифа за нотариалните такси) has no item for a “marriage contract”, and the applicable items depend on whether the contract has a determinable material interest. By our calculation, for a €200,000 apartment the same document comes to between about €22 and over €1,200 including VAT, depending on a classification made by the notary, not by the parties. A fiftyfold difference in the price of one document is a good indicator of how undefined the subject itself is.
Four scenarios
in which the buyer is the defendant.
The divorced seller with a deed in their own name. An apartment bought during a marriage, the deed in one name. A divorce, and the property was never divided. The shares are equal, so the seller is selling their own half and someone else’s. With a median for a two-bedroom flat in the Centre of Varna in the order of €280,000, the cost of the mistake is €140,000, plus a lawsuit over ownership.
“I bought it with my mother’s money.” Cash from six years ago, no bank statement, no deed of gift. The presumption of joint contribution is not reversed by a memory. If the proof fails, the property was joint, the sale was made by one spouse and can be challenged.
The family home with no clock. An apartment inherited by one spouse, that is, personal property. The family lives in it and has no other home. On paper everything is clean: there is one owner, the deed is unquestionable, the declaration is true. Art. 26 applies, there is no time limit for the claim, and the transaction can be saved only by a signature that may never be given.
The former wife who comes with the apartment. The use was granted by a court judgment, the judgment is registered, and the tenancy can be enforced against the buyer. A property bought to live in that cannot be lived in for as long as that right lasts. What is signed before the deed: the preliminary contract.
Frequently asked questions
The property is in my name. Does that mean it is only mine?
Not necessarily. Under Art. 21(1) of the Family Code, rights acquired during the marriage as a result of joint contribution belong jointly to both spouses, regardless of whose name they were acquired in. Joint contribution is presumed until proven otherwise. The only personal rights are those acquired before the marriage, those acquired by inheritance and gift, and those acquired entirely with personal property.
I bought the property with a loan that only I took out. Does that make it personal?
No. The Supreme Court of Cassation holds that when a purchase during the marriage is made with funds from a loan taken out by only one spouse, there is no transformation: the borrowed funds are presumed to have been taken on for the needs of the family, and both spouses are jointly and severally liable. The same applies when the money comes from parents: gifted funds are considered invested in the purchase only if they can be traced to it.
What does the register of spouses’ property relations show?
It shows what the regime is, if one has been entered, not whether the person is married at all. Registration is ex officio, on notification from the municipality whose register holds the civil marriage certificate. Under Art. 20 of the Family Code, when no regime is entered in the register, the statutory regime of community applies to a transaction with a third party. So an empty search result does not rule out community property; it presumes it.
Can a transaction without the spouse’s consent be challenged, and within what time limit?
It depends on which provision applies. When jointly owned real property is disposed of, the transaction can be challenged under Art. 24(4) of the Family Code within six months of learning of it, but no later than three years after it was made. For a family home that is the personal property of one spouse, where the family has no other home, Art. 26 applies, and under Interpretative Decision No 5/2013 of the General Assembly of the Civil and Commercial Chambers the transaction is relatively void as against the non-owner spouse, with no statutory time limit, and it can be validated only by that spouse’s subsequent consent.
Two dates, before the deposit
Open the old notarial deed and see when the property was acquired. Then ask the seller from when to when they were married. If the two overlap, the matter is not closed by one name on the deed, and the notary will only see this on the day of the deal.
Send us the year of acquisition and the seller’s marital status. We tell you which signature is missing, under which provision the transaction can be challenged and whether there is a time limit at all.
This material is not legal advice. A specific case should be checked by a lawyer.
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