Does my rental contract have to be notarized

@JuilaOui

In my experience in Plovdiv, yes it needs to be notarized along with the declaration from your landlord giving permission for you to live there - you can skip that if your landlord comes to the immigration office with when you apply but I guess that wouldn't apply in your case as they are overseas.

Because Bulgarian notaries will not accept signatures sent from abroad, you have three primary ways to resolve this:

1. Power of Attorney (PoA): Your landlord can draft and notarize a Power of Attorney in their current country. They must state they are giving a local representative or you the right to sign address declarations and lease agreements on their behalf. This PoA usually needs an Apostille and must be legally translated into Bulgarian.

1. Use a Legal Service or Relocation Agency: Many expats and EU citizens use local law firms or relocation agents to handle the accommodation proof. Firms can coordinate with a cooperating local landlord, prepare the rental agreements, and handle the notarized landlord declarations (the Article 20a declaration) so you have your address proof ready on day one.

1. Draft a Notarized Landlord Declaration via Consulate: If your landlord is near a Bulgarian embassy or consulate abroad, they might be able to sign a declaration of consent in person in front of a consular officer, though this varies in processing time.

@JuilaOui A classic trap. Hope they can make a Power of Attorney.

@PlovdivEd

Thank you for your reply. I hope my landlord can do it from the USA otherwise I am stuck with my registration file.

No, a rental agreement doesn't have to be notarised - people who are legally capable adults can make a legally binding contract with no notarisation (think phone contracts  for example). Counter-intuitively, a tenant actually has less protection if their tenancy agreement is notarised.

The Migration Office will usually decline to accept a normal un-notarised rental agreement, purely for their own convenience and not because it's not legally valid. Landlords are perfectly within their rights not to sign a notarised Declaration of Consent for ID registration; a foreign tenant's only recourse is to give notice and find a landlord who will. It pays to always ask the question first rather than just assume that they'll agree.

There are others factors that affect notarised and un-notarised rental contracts but that's another, more complex, area of BG law.