Bulgaria has brought in some legislative changes in reference to notaries, what does this mean for clients?

It means that your Power of Attorney (POA) will now have be both notarised and apostilled.

A notary in the UK will need to witness your POA, and the apostilling will need to be done by the Foriegn and Commonwealth Office (http: / /www .fco .gov .uk /servlet /Front?pagename=OpenMarket /Xcelerate /ShowPage &c=Page &cid=1007029391440) This costs in the region of £27.00, the turnaround time for apostilling takes between 2 to 3 weeks depending on the time of the year. Alternatively you can travel down to London to the FCO where it can be apostilled that day.

The other option open to clients is to take their POA to the Bulgarian embassy where it can be signed in front of a consul.

Cheers,
Anna

Hi Ana,
Thanks for this, I beleive that the documents also now need to be witnessed by a UK notary before being legalised at the Bulgarian Embassey or you can have a notary do all the work and this will include legalising the documents at the foreign office in London.

These changes came into effect on 1st March.

Previously we were getting documents witnessed by a solicitor and then legalised at either embassey or foreign office. We have been told by Bulgarian banks that this is not good enough and for any proeprty related transaction the POA needs to be witnessed by a UK notary and then legalised.

I guess most client can't get to London to do this in person and hence this is why a Notary needs to be used.

It is certianly a bit of a muddle as this was introduced without clear guidelines being given.

Regards
Chris