YARD Law Co. · Reviewed August 2026 · YARD Law Legal Team
Foreign nationals who own property, company shares or other assets in Bulgaria often assume that Bulgarian inheritance law will govern those assets because they are located here.
That is usually the wrong place to start.
In a cross-border estate the first question is not where the apartment, bank account or company sits. It is which law governs the succession. Only once that is settled can the heirs, their shares, the effect of a will and the rights of family members be worked out.
For estates within Regulation (EU) 650/2012 - the EU Succession Regulation, often called Brussels IV - the general rule places the succession under a single law. There are important exceptions, and one of them is particularly relevant to British estates.
The Regulation applies to the succession of persons who died on or after 17 August 2015. Earlier deaths are governed by the previous conflict-of-laws regime, subject to the transitional rules in Article 83 for certain earlier choices of law and testamentary dispositions.
Under Article 21, the starting rule is that the succession as a whole is governed by the law of the State in which the deceased had their habitual residence at the time of death.
Habitual residence is not the same as nationality, formal residence registration or property ownership. It calls for an assessment of the deceased’s actual life and connections around the time of death.
The Regulation also allows a person to choose the law of their nationality to govern the succession as a whole, under Article 22. For planning purposes that choice should be stated clearly in the will. Strictly, the Regulation permits a choice to be demonstrated by the terms of a disposition upon death, but relying on an implied choice creates unnecessary uncertainty.
The law identified by the Regulation determines who the heirs are, their shares, the rights of a surviving spouse and children, liability for estate debts, the disposable part of the estate and, where the applicable law contains them, reserved-share rules.
The fact that an asset is situated in Bulgaria does not by itself make Bulgarian inheritance law the governing law.
A foreign national may own an apartment in Sofia while having their habitual residence in another country. The starting point under Article 21 may therefore be the law of that other country.
That does not make the location of the property irrelevant. Bulgarian property law still governs the nature of Bulgarian rights in rem, registration and the effect of entries in Bulgarian registers. Bulgarian procedural, cadastral, tax and registration steps remain relevant when heirs establish or record their rights over Bulgarian assets.
An inherited Bulgarian property does not ordinarily pass because the heirs execute a new sale-style notarial deed. The inheritance itself is the source of title. The practical issue is proving the succession and completing the Bulgarian registration, cadastral and tax steps that follow.
There is also a preliminary question that is often missed: what part of the property actually belonged to the deceased? Matrimonial property rights are not the same thing as succession rights, and they may have to be determined before the inheritance can be calculated at all. The Regulation expressly distinguishes succession from matrimonial property questions.
The unity principle matters, but it should not be presented as absolute.
Article 34 contains a renvoi rule where the Regulation points to the law of a third country. In simplified terms: if Article 21 sends the succession to the law of a non-EU State, Bulgarian authorities may also have to examine that State’s own conflict-of-laws rules. If those rules refer the matter back to Bulgarian law, or in certain circumstances to the law of another State that would apply its own law, the Regulation may accept that reference.
This matters considerably for British estates. The United Kingdom never opted into the Regulation even while it was an EU Member State, and since Brexit it is a third State for these purposes. Ireland and Denmark do not participate either, so an Irish or Danish connection needs the same care.
English private international law traditionally distinguishes between movable and immovable property, and generally refers succession to immovable property to the law of the place where the property is situated.
So a case involving a person habitually resident in England and Wales who dies owning Bulgarian real estate is more complicated than saying:
“Article 21 points to English law, therefore English inheritance law governs the Bulgarian apartment.”
The sequence is longer than that. Article 21 points to the law of the United Kingdom as the State of habitual residence. Because the United Kingdom comprises several territorial legal systems, Article 36 must then be applied to identify the relevant territorial law, in the first place by reference to the United Kingdom’s own internal conflict-of-laws rules. Where that leads to the law of England and Wales, its conflict rule for succession to immovable property may refer the Bulgarian real estate back to Bulgarian law - and Article 34 may accept that renvoi.
The result can be a split succession, with one law governing movables and Bulgarian law governing the Bulgarian land.
Renvoi is excluded where the applicable law has been chosen under Article 22.
That produces an important planning distinction. A succession governed by a third-country law because the deceased was habitually resident there can involve renvoi. A valid Article 22 choice avoids that particular result, because Article 34 does not apply renvoi to an Article 22 choice. The same exclusion applies to Articles 21(2), 27, 28(b) and 30.
British cases need a further step, though not one confined to a choice of law. Article 36 applies whenever the Regulation specifies the law of a State containing several territorial units with their own succession rules, whether that law arrives through habitual residence or through a choice. A British national makes an Article 22 choice on the basis of British nationality, and Article 36 still determines which territorial legal system within the United Kingdom that choice engages. The difference is what happens next: where the applicable law results from Article 22, Article 34(2) excludes renvoi.
So the question is not:
“Was the deceased British?”
but:
“Which legal system does the Regulation designate, was there a valid choice of law, which territorial unit does Article 36 identify, and does renvoi apply?”
Bulgarian law protects certain close relatives through a reserved share. But owning Bulgarian property does not by itself trigger those rules.
Bulgarian reserved-share rules apply where Bulgarian substantive succession law governs the relevant succession issue. That can happen because Bulgaria was the deceased’s habitual residence, because Bulgarian law was validly chosen where available, or because Bulgarian law becomes applicable through a renvoi accepted under Article 34.
Where Bulgarian law applies, Articles 28 to 30 of the Inheritance Act protect descendants, parents and the surviving spouse against excessive testamentary dispositions and gifts.
The figures depend on which heirs survive together.
Where there is no surviving spouse:
Where there is a surviving spouse:
Where a spouse and descendants survive together, Article 29 also fixes the disposable part:
A will or gift that infringes a reserved share is not simply treated as nonexistent. An heir whose reserved share has been prejudiced may seek reduction of testamentary dispositions or gifts to the extent necessary to restore that share under Article 30 of the Inheritance Act.
Article 30(2) adds a condition that is easy to miss and expensive to discover late: where reduction is sought against a beneficiary who is not an heir by law, the claimant must generally have accepted the inheritance by inventory and, where Article 61(1) applies, within the statutory period for doing so.
The rule has recognised exceptions. In interpretative decision No. 3 of 19 December 2013, the Supreme Court of Cassation held that the requirement attaches to gifts and to specific testamentary dispositions, but not to a universal testamentary disposition - because a universal beneficiary acquires the status of heir, and the reason for the requirement falls away.
The same reasoning has since been extended. In Decision No. 756 of 18 December 2024 in civil case No. 4066/2023, the Second Civil Division held that Article 30(2) does not apply where a single lifetime gift to one person exhausted the whole of the deceased’s property, leaving neither assets nor liabilities in the estate. In that situation there are no free assets from which the reserved share could be satisfied, so there is nothing for the inventory to establish.
The precise structure of the disposition therefore has to be established before treating acceptance by inventory as a prerequisite. A universal will, a legacy of a particular asset and a gift that empties the estate produce three different answers to the same question - and where the inventory requirement applies, failing to satisfy it can be fatal to the claim rather than merely inconvenient.
Bulgarian intestate succession is more layered than a simple four-class list.
Children and other descendants. Children inherit in equal shares, and descendants can inherit by representation where the statutory conditions are met.
Parents. If there are no descendants, the surviving parent or parents inherit.
More remote ascendants, siblings and descendants of siblings. If there are no descendants or parents, grandparents and other ascendants of a higher degree can inherit. Siblings may also inherit, and where siblings inherit together with ascendants of the second or higher degree, the statute allocates two thirds to the siblings and one third to those ascendants.
More remote collateral relatives. Failing all of the above, collateral relatives can inherit up to the sixth degree, subject to the statutory rules of proximity and representation.
The spouse does not sit in one fixed class. The share changes depending on who else survives.
With children, the spouse receives a share equal to each child’s.
Where the spouse inherits together with ascendants, or with siblings or their descendants, the duration of the marriage becomes relevant: 1/2 if the inheritance opens before ten years of marriage, and 2/3 once ten years have passed.
Where both ascendants and siblings or their descendants inherit alongside the spouse, the spouse receives 1/3 in the first case and 1/2 in the second.
If none of those competing heirs exists, the spouse inherits the entire estate.
This is why “the spouse receives half” is not a reliable summary of Bulgarian intestacy. The full family structure has to be established first.
Where Bulgarian domestic law governs the form of a will, the Inheritance Act recognises notarial and handwritten wills. Bulgarian law also provides that two or more persons may not make testamentary dispositions in the same instrument, so spouses who wish to benefit each other make two separate wills rather than one joint document.
A cross-border will requires a separate analysis, and formal validity is treated favourably in international succession law.
Under Article 27 of the Regulation, a disposition of property upon death made in writing is valid as to form if it complies with the law of:
Bulgaria is not a Contracting Party to the 1961 Hague Convention on the Conflicts of Laws Relating to the Form of Testamentary Dispositions, so for a Bulgarian authority the Article 27 analysis is not displaced by that Convention. The United Kingdom and Ireland are parties to it, which can be relevant on their side of an estate.
The practical point is that a will should not be rejected merely because it was not executed in Bulgarian form.
But formal validity is only one question. A foreign will may still raise separate issues concerning the law governing its substantive effect, the testator’s capacity, interpretation, revocation by a later will, reserved-share rights under the applicable succession law, proof that it is the operative testamentary instrument, probate or equivalent foreign proceedings where relevant, Apostille or other authentication, and Bulgarian translation in the form the receiving authority requires.
Whether foreign probate is necessary cannot be answered generically. It depends on the originating jurisdiction, the document available and what has to be proved in Bulgaria.
A separate Bulgarian will dealing with Bulgarian assets can be useful, but it should never be prepared in isolation from an existing foreign will.
The danger is not two wills as such. It is inconsistent language. A later will drafted in one country may contain a general revocation clause broad enough to revoke an earlier will dealing with assets elsewhere. Two wills may also contain overlapping appointments or dispositions that create uncertainty rather than resolve it.
Where several wills are used, they should be reviewed as one estate plan.
For successions with a cross-border element inside the EU, the Regulation creates a European Certificate of Succession under Article 62. It allows heirs, legatees, executors and administrators to prove their status and powers in another Member State, and it is often the practical instrument that unlocks banks, registries and notaries.
Two limits are worth knowing at the planning stage. Its use is not mandatory, and it does not replace equivalent national documents where those exist and are adequate. And because the United Kingdom never participated in the Regulation, a Certificate is not the instrument for proving succession there. UK-side succession and administration requirements have to be dealt with separately, which may include obtaining the relevant grant of representation where the particular asset or institution requires it. England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland do not all operate identically, and not every UK asset necessarily requires a grant.
Not always, and this catches families out at the worst moment.
Among foreign nationals, the Bulgarian population register includes persons with long-term or permanent residence, as well as certain other statutory categories. A foreigner holding only prolonged residence - the annually renewed permit that many foreign nationals live on for years - is not entered in the register on that basis.
Where the deceased was never entered in the population register, the ordinary Bulgarian certificate-of-heirs route may therefore be unavailable, however long the person actually lived here and however clear the family position is. Another evidentiary route is then needed, often using foreign civil-status or succession documents. Establishing that early avoids paying to authenticate documents that turn out to be the wrong ones.
Bulgarian inheritance tax is relatively favourable for close family, but the territorial rule is often misstated.
Under Article 29 of the Local Taxes and Fees Act, Bulgarian inheritance tax covers property in Bulgaria and abroad inherited from Bulgarian citizens, and property situated in Bulgaria inherited from foreign citizens. The residence of the heir is not what determines the territorial scope.
The surviving spouse and heirs in the direct line are exempt. For taxable heirs, municipal councils set the rate within statutory ranges: 0.4% to 0.8% for siblings and their children, and 3.3% to 6.6% for other taxable beneficiaries, applied to the taxable share above the statutory threshold.
Because Bulgaria introduced the euro in 2026 and some consolidated statutory displays continue to show historical leva wording, the applicable euro threshold should be confirmed when an actual calculation is required rather than taken from an older article or online calculator.
Where a declaration under Article 32 is required, the general period is six months. For certain more remote heirs and legatees, that period runs from the point at which they learned that the inheritance had opened rather than from the death itself.
If the deceased had their last domicile in Bulgaria, the declaration goes to that municipality. If the deceased was domiciled abroad, it goes to the municipality where the greater part of the deceased’s Bulgarian property is situated. A timely declaration filed by one heir benefits the others.
That distinction matters in foreign estates, because “file where the deceased last lived” is often impossible or wrong where the deceased never lived in Bulgaria.
For inheritances opened after 1 January 2005, heirs in the direct line and the surviving spouse do not file this declaration at all. That is separate from any property-tax, cadastral or registration obligations attaching to an inherited asset, which remain.
Article 30 of the Regulation provides that special rules of the State where certain assets are located, which impose restrictions concerning or affecting the succession in respect of those assets, apply irrespective of the law governing the succession. The Bulgarian agricultural and forest-land restrictions are special situs rules that must be considered under Article 30 and may apply irrespective of the law otherwise governing the succession.
For agricultural land, Article 3b of the Agricultural Land Ownership and Use Act applies to certain foreigners who acquire ownership by intestate succession but are not otherwise entitled to retain the land under the applicable EU or treaty framework. They must transfer it to an eligible person within three years from the opening of the succession. If that period is not observed, the State may buy out the land at the price determined under the applicable regulation.
Forest territory has a similar but not identical regime under Article 24 of the Forest Act. Third-country nationals and entities who acquire forest territory by intestate succession, and do not fall within an applicable treaty exception, must also transfer within three years, and on failure to comply the State buys out the property under the statutory pricing mechanism.
The words intestate succession matter. These provisions should not be restated as a general rule that every non-EU foreigner who somehow acquires agricultural or forest land has three years to sell.
Where Bulgarian inheritance law governs, an inheritance is acquired through acceptance.
Acceptance may be express, by written application entered in the special court register, or tacit, where the heir performs an act clearly demonstrating an intention to accept. Renunciation is formal, made through the court-registration procedure the Inheritance Act provides.
Acceptance or renunciation cannot validly be made subject to a condition, for a limited period, or for only one part of the estate.
That last point matters where an estate contains a Bulgarian company. An heir cannot renounce the Bulgarian company shares while keeping the rest of the inheritance.
This is commonly confused with the inheritance-tax declaration period.
Bulgarian law no longer contains a universal period within which every heir must accept or renounce. The former general rule was repealed.
There are specific deadlines. An interested person can ask the district court under Article 51 of the Inheritance Act to give an heir a period in which to state whether they accept or renounce; if the heir does not respond within that period, they lose the right to accept.
Acceptance by inventory, which generally limits the heir’s liability for estate debts to the value of the inherited property, carries a time limit for heirs subject to Article 61(1). It must be declared in writing before the district judge within three months from when the heir learned that the inheritance had opened, and the district judge may extend that period by up to a further three months.
That deadline does not apply to the persons covered by Article 61(2). Incapacitated persons, the State and public organisations accept an inheritance only by inventory, and may do so even after the Article 61(1) period has expired.
Those are succession-law deadlines. They should not be confused with the separate six-month municipal tax declaration period.
The problems we see most often are not caused by exotic law. They come from starting with the wrong assumption.
A foreign owner assumes Bulgarian law governs because the property is in Bulgaria. An heir assumes foreign law governs because the deceased was foreign. A British family identifies English law through habitual residence and never checks renvoi. A will contains no clear choice of law despite an international estate. A family assumes a foreign will is effective for every purpose because it was validly executed abroad. Several wills unintentionally revoke or contradict each other. Reserved shares are calculated before determining which law actually governs. An heir believes they can renounce one unwanted Bulgarian asset and keep the rest. The six-month tax declaration period is mistaken for a period to accept the inheritance. A family assumes a Bulgarian certificate of heirs will be available for a deceased foreign national. And a non-EU heir inherits agricultural or forest land, discovering the three-year rule only when trying to sell years later.
All of these are easier to prevent before death, or at the very beginning of a succession, than after conflicting positions have been taken.
YARD Law advises foreign individuals and families on Bulgarian cross-border succession, including Bulgarian real estate and company shares, applicable-law analysis under Regulation 650/2012, reserved-share issues, foreign wills and succession documents, European Certificates of Succession, acceptance and renunciation, and the Bulgarian registration and documentary steps required after death.
Where another country’s succession law is relevant, we coordinate the Bulgarian analysis with local foreign counsel rather than assuming one jurisdiction can answer the entire estate.
Reviewed August 2026. Prepared by the legal team at YARD Law Co., a full-service law firm based in Sofia, Bulgaria, working across family law, property law and cross-border legal services for foreign nationals. This overview is provided for general information only and does not replace case-specific legal advice. Cross-border successions are highly fact-sensitive, and outcomes depend on the precise interaction between the applicable substantive law under Regulation 650/2012 and Bulgarian procedural and property rules.
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