Step One: Seller and buyer appear before a notary.

The notary will mandatorily verify whether the road vehicle is encumbered (by preservation orders), whether the insurance for the automobile is paid, whether it has passed a valid technical inspection, whether the taxes are paid, etc.

Step Two: The parties sign a contract of purchase and sale.

When everything is all right and there are no reasons why the transaction should not take place, buyer and seller affix their signatures, and this is certified by the notary. The absence of insurance and of a valid technical inspection is for the buyer’s information and is not an impediment to having the transaction witnessed.

Step Three: The buyer must mandatorily register the car in his or her name and obtain a motor vehicle registration certificate showing him or her as the owner.

If seller and buyer are from the same Bulgarian province and, therefore, a change of the registration number is not necessary, and if the new owner does not intend to modify the construction of the vehicle, this registration can be carried out even on the same day when the transaction is witnessed by the notary. All that the buyer has to do in this case is tell the notary that the buyer wishes to avail himself or herself of the new administrative service and pay a state fee of BGN 11, which the notary will remit through the Ministry of the Interior electronic administrative services portal.

Step Four:

1. When ownership in a registered road vehicle is being transferred, seller and buyer are from the same province, an advance drawing up of documents has been applied for, and the fee has been paid at the notary, the buyer has to appear at the Traffic Police front office where the application for a change in the registration has been drawn up based on the particulars received from the notary, this application is printed out, and the new registration certificate is prepared. At the counter, the buyer must present the following documents to the officers: a copy of the contract of purchase and sale, a receipt showing payment of a fee (issued by the notary), and a document showing the taking out of third party liability insurance. When the new registration certificate is received, the old certificate has to be surrendered.

2. When ownership in a registered road vehicle is being transferred and seller and buyer are from the same province but an advance drawing up of documents has not been applied for and the fee has not been paid at the notary, the buyer has to appear at the Traffic Police front office, where the buyer will submit an application accompanied by a copy of the contract of purchase and sale, a receipt showing payment of a fee (paid on site by bank credit transfer or via a POS terminal), and a document showing the taking out of third party liability insurance. When the new registration certificate is received, the old certificate has to be surrendered.

3. In cases where the transferor and the transferee of a road vehicle are from different provinces of the Republic of Bulgaria, the information on the contract of purchase and sale is received automatically after the transaction has been witnessed by the notary. The buyer is obliged to register the acquired road vehicle within one month, and the buyer mandatorily presents the vehicle for identification and replacement of the registration certificate and the registration plates. The buyer will be expected to appear at a Traffic Police front office (in the area where he or she has his or her permanent address) in order to submit an application accompanied by a copy of the contract of purchase and sale, a receipt showing payment of a fee (paid on site by bank credit transfer or via a POS terminal), and a document showing the taking out of third party liability insurance.

When the new registration certificate and the new registration plates are received, the old ones have to be surrendered.

- The biggest benefit is for automobile sellers. They no longer have to go to the Traffic Police in order to register the contract of sale and request cancellation of their ownership. Now this is done automatically as soon as the transaction is witnessed by the notary.

- Buyers who acquire a road vehicle registered in the same province benefit from the faster issuing of a motor vehicle registration certificate. At the Traffic Police front offices, they will actually only have to wait for the registration certificate to be printed out.

After the registration has been carried out and the new registration certificate has been received, the owner is not obliged to inform the tax office in the owner’s place of residence. Тhe information for the tax offices is transmitted daily by electronic means from the Traffic Police to the Ministry of Finance, from where it reaches the tax offices.

The latest amendments to the Road Traffic Act that allowed connectivity between the systems of the Traffic Police and the notaries also impose some new obligations, above all on car buyers.

Now they are obliged to register the motor vehicle in their name with the Traffic Police within one month.

If they fail to do so, the motor vehicle registration will be terminated ex officio (the registration certificate and the registration plates will be invalidated). The law envisages the relevant financial penalties, and if the vehicle is not registered within 2 months of its acquisition, the buyer will be liable to other penalties as well.

If a motor vehicle registration has been terminated ex officio, it can be restored under the procedure of Regulation No I-45 of 2000. In this case, the owner will be obliged to submit an application and the registration certificate and the registration plates of the automobile will have to be replaced. It should be kept in mind that where the application is for restoration of the registration of a road vehicle deregistered for exceeding the two-month time limit after the transfer of ownership and the road vehicle does not hold a valid roadworthiness document, a test report from a vehicle testing laboratory accredited by the Bulgarian Accreditation Service Executive Agency needs to be produced in addition to the rest of the documents.