Clearing out a Property

I'd love to know this too, Jane! My house and sheds are full of stuff that need disposing, butI don't know how to do it.

I'm wary of the guy linked to the estate agent who offered to take the stuff as he seemed untrustworthy and I felt it it would be fly-tipped.

There is a huge amount of dumping / fly-tipping here, and it's very poorly regulated, unfortunately. Our village is a very popular village, and it's in a lovely area right next to the Balkan Mountains and national parks... and yet it still goes on even here, where it's a right eyesore.

There are official municipal dumps too, where you can pay to drop your rubbish. It shouldn't be too hard to track your local one down.

However, if you pay "a guy" to get rid of your stuff, there is a good chance he'll dump it wherever he thinks he can get away with it. Even if you pay him extra to go to the official place, I'm not sure he'd go there. Unless you find an excuse to go with him and pay the fees directly.

There are big trash bins in most villages, ours are in the street in front of house. A lot of my clearance stuff I've bagged and boxed and put it in/near these bins. Ditto furniture, old appliances and so on. You'll be surprised by how much will disappear.

I'm going to have to be creative getting rid of the junk from my place, I think. Not sure how yet!

Anything good or usable or with scrap value, yes, leave it by the bin rather than in the bin and it usually disappears. Hopefully the non-working stove has scrap value, and someone else may be able to use the huge amount of china the previous owner left behind. But things like the old double mattress in the shed, probably with mice or rats nesting in it, the broken chipboard beds, and so much else that really is junk now...

Unless my neighbours will help me get these things to the official council dump (and I don't feel I can ask as they won't accept any payment apart from Celebrations chocolates!), I may end up having to cut/break things like that down to get them in the big council bin a little at a time.

Unfortunately someone (maybe "a guy" paid by one of the other expats doing up properties in the area?!) has fly tipped rubbish that's clearly from a house renovation behind the chitaliste, directly opposite our place. Not good. I don't want stuff from my house getting fly tipped somewhere else.

so for everyone that lives in a village and has a lot of stuff to throw out from the previous owners. We have the same problem or we had the same problem. What probably the best option is is to find out from the mayor or the deputy mayor of the village, if they have a specific services for that, if not go to the nearest municipality, whichever municipality are in.

And try to speak in with the mayor or the deputy mayor and ask them. There're two options here. They might be able to let you hire a skip and you pay for the skip they come. They bring it to you. You throw everything inside, you call them back. They throw it out in their own you know, legal tip and also they can bring it back if you need it for another week there might be waiting period. Another option is to just is to just ask them if they have like a collection service so you leave it by the exit of your property and you agree, what time you give them a picture, they send some guys from the municipality and they collect it. Now, where I am, I use both services. I use the tip for my construction materials and I have to pay for that. And for the household stuff that was just left over from the previous owner, we just asked them to come and collect with a truck. They can just come and pick it up by the edge of the property, which they did twice already. And I think they prefer that instead of the illegal fly tipping that's been going on, so they might they might do that for free for you.

@janemulberry

I think it's quite common that villages have some kind of illegal but sanctioned dumping spot. Our village does it by the river behind our house, which is, otherwise, a lovely spot. It is one of my pet hates about Bulgaria. Rivers make valleys, and you dump stuff over the edge - look around, and you will see this is a very popular option! I'd guess the best villages have a mayor who is able to stop this kind of behaviour, but I suspect it's very difficult. So it probably works better to accept that it's going to happen, and make sure it's in one place. Then every week or two, they get a bulldozer there, and it pushes all the rubbish and construction waste over the edge of the ravine. Then it pushes soil and all the garden waste (leaves, branches, etc.) over the top. It's still 100% illegal, but I guess it's a lot better than some of the villages where stuff gets dumped here and there, and left.

Where I live this is all dealt with promptly. It doesn't hurt to go and speak with the mayor or if busy with deputy mator of the municipality and ask for thw skip or rubish collection service. They may have a small fee or do it for free as in my case.

@Ilko Tsanev That is excellent advice! I will ask at the kmetstvo.

@janecaruthers Here's your solution. And that is how things with excessive waste are regulated in Bulgaria (though many people prefer no to know this).  Anyway, you just have to ask for a provider of the service form your municipality. Then you call them, pay for the period and volume you need and they will come and leave this specialized container and collect it after the term expires. That's all.

@janemulberry please do but be persistant. I am lucky I moved back to where I grew up so things come easy when everyone knows you sort of. If they have the service they have to provide it.

@kristiann It's called a skip but the rural areas also have specialised collection service with trucks or lorries it just depends not wvery municiplaity ma offer skips

Mine even has a lorry with a bucket and scoops it up in no time.

@Ilko Tsanev I don't speak enough Bulgarian yet to be persistent.

But thankfully I am blessed with a wonderful Bulgarian neighbour who is! I will ask her about this and she will march me off to the cmetstvo and talk to Christina, the mayor's assistant.

@janemulberry thats probably the best startegy. ask locals with contacts for help. This is ussually what works best here. use google translate there is an app aand you can talk into it directly and the rwsukt is relatively good english to bg and vice versa.

Thanks all for Replys and ive looked into Google Translate still trying to figure out talking into it etc but will figure it out

I've had no luck talking into Google Translate, it just doesn't understand me! But have had some good typed-in conversations with people!

@janemulberry lol. You must be from the north. It understands me and my accent is terrible

I find Google Translate is pretty good in conversation mode, but you have to get the hang of the timing. You press the button for English (or Bulgarian) and you (or your neighbour) have to start talking as soon as you press the button. And you have to speak in whole thoughts. If you hesitate before starting, it fails... as it does if you pause in the middle of your thought/sentence. It also helps to keep it simple, like talking to a 6 year-old, rather than trying for complex, multi-part paragraphs. :-)

If it's an unfriendly bureaucrat at the tax office, it won't work, as they don't have the patience or inclination. :-) But my neighbour Ivan is a nice old boy in his 70s, and he got the hang very quickly. We sit at his table in the garden, taking turns to speak into the phone, and it works surprisingly well. And much easier than typing everything! If we're just exchanging good mornings, then we do that without assistance. If he wants to say something complicated, he tells me "Google!".

I probably need to practice more. But it doesn't seem to like Australian accents!

My neighbour and I type everything because she can't get talking into it to work either.

When we cleared out a property ( it was full to the rafters with old beds / TVs / wardrobes and clothes) we offered a kind of garden fete. We hung various items of clothing over the fences & the locals loved to come & peruse and take what they wanted, old lino etc anything we thought somebody might want, we left outside - 99% of everything disappeared. One lady even took old jars of lutenitsa, I thought she just wanted the jars, however, the next day she came with a bottle of home made rakia to thank us and told us it was delicious!! I was so afraid that she was going to be ill, as that stuff was very very old! She's still here 😆 thank heavens . I hate to see things go to waste if somebody else can make use of it! One man's rubbish is another man's treasure, as they say....The UK's " throw away " culture is a big bug bear of ours. A local dog charity took a load of items, bric-a-brac to sell to raise money & they also took the beds, for the dogs to use! It was a win win situation. Some of the old wardrobes we broke up to use for scrap wood to burn, and other furniture got up upcycled.

Agree with Gwyn the illegal dumping is a big problem in Bulgaria, and hoping  that in time will be abolished, but I won't hold my breath.

@janecaruthers

There had used to be specified areas in each village that were used as tipping areas. These are now banned. The correct procedure is to book a municiple trailer or part there of and arrange a day for collection. You need a Bulgarian speaker. Now what you may consider rubbish can often be donated to charity shops. I have one in Gradishte 5910 in the Pleven region. Charity Support Bulgaria in Resen, Veliko Tarnovo is another. Regional Facebook groups are really useful for advertising barn clearances. Like it or hate it Facebook is a primary networking tool for expats in BG

Corter. Do you know how to book the

municiple trailer?

When you see a "person of Roma heritage" passing in his horse cart along your street, just ask him to take your garbage. It's cheap, and if you go to walk around your village you will lee it all dumped somewhere

Opa lolol but you said municple?

It is not official really?

Anastasia, I think from what people are saying, in some areas there is an official service, and to ask at the mayor's office about it. In cities or larger towns,there will be other commercial waste removal services. But in some villages the unofficial and probably illegal option is that it just gets dumped somewhere.

That is sad. Bulgaria is very beautiful.

Does someone know the official way to do it?