According to the Bulgarian Family Law all properties acquired during the marriage shall belong to the both spouses regardless who is the real owner as per the documents. By law it is so called “marital community of property” which continues till termination of the marriage. Then, each of the spouses receives ½ ideal parts of the property and both spouses become ordinary co-owners with equal shares (this is the principle).

In case of divorce the ex-spouses could agree voluntarily how their rights over the property shall be arranged signing an agreement for voluntarily partition that shall be notary verified. Under such agreement one of them shall receive 100% ownership of the property with the obligation to pay the ideal shares of the other one.

If they could not agree voluntarily, then a juridical partition of the property must be initiated in front of the court. The judge should precise if the property is divisible, so that it could be assigned to both parties or not. For this purpose a technical expertise should be appointed. If it appears that the property is not divisible, it should be sold on public sale by bailiff. Usually the court partition process is very long, hard and costly process which takes a few years till entering of a final judgment.

If the parties do not wish to initiate such touch juridical partition but in practice the property is used in whole only by one of the spouses, the other spouse is allowed to require paying a rent as compensation for using his part of the property.

Please be advised that the above procedure does not concern the marital home where the family and the children are living, but only other properties acquired during the marriage.

 

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