So as the weeks go by i start to send money to BG via a currency exchange website. You agree a rate, you transfer a load of money from your account & then you don't hear anything! A few days later as you start shitting yourself you finally get an email confirming the transfer has taken place but it may take a few days to show up in the recipients account. Almost a week later i finally get an email from the Estate agent saying they have received the payment. Thank f**k for that!
So the weeks pass, plans are being made to build a new kitchen & a bathroom, flights are booked for March & again in June, the house is nearly all paid for. I buy a car to take out & leave at the house & everything is looking good. Christmas & New Year pass us by & i'm working nights & then i come home from work & get into bed around 8am. The house is empty so i can snore & fart without fear of being elbowed in the ribs! In my slumber around 10am i hear my phone vibrating on the wooden floor, i peer over the side of the bed to see the blurred word Bulgaria on the caller ID on my mobile, its all gone tits up!
The Bulgarian accented broken English voice on the phone says hello Stiv, we have a problem! I am now wide awake!
So the problem is, the agent has gone to court to get the deeds for the property, this includes tracing any family that may have a stake in the property, there is & they do. So once the distant cousins realise they are entitled to a share in the house, they want more money for it. The issue they have is that the lady selling us the house has allegedly stitched the family up over property before. The choices are, wait for the court to sort the mess out, could take months or even years. I could have my money back or the agent can hang onto it for when i come out & we can look at more houses.
Im now on the website looking at more houses in the village, ive messaged Sue & Paul with the news. Trawling through the website we spot a few houses, some i recognise from our last visit & a few new ones. We spot one we like that we sort of recognise, within budget with less land & a bit more work needed. Its about £600 more than the last house but i like to haggle. As i cant just pop over to view it i ask Sue & Paul if they can try to find it, its now February & theres 18 inches of snow on the ground! The re-con mission goes well as they fire up the Huskies & brave the cold. It turns out that this house is more or less behind theirs, result, on site security!
I receive a few pictures from the spies who have dug themselves into a snow drift on a stake out (i may have made that bit up). There is someone living there, the local piss head who i have met, or at least one of them! I now try to arrange an official viewing. A few days later Sue & Paul get to view it in the snow. Paul sends me 30 odd pictures of various rooms & out buildings, the house seems to have a hoarder of shite living in it but the house itself has a few cracks here & there but looks ok structurally. I asked Sue & Paul for their opinion ,which was they would buy it, sounds promising!
I go in with a low offer whining about cracks & water damage & how i feel ive been let down by all this. The reply is, our client wont go that low but here is the counter offer, a whole 90 Euros more than what i offered. Im shit hot at this haggling business! They come back with another offer of, for another 500 Lev (£220 ish) they will leave all the furniture, i went back to the photos to see if id missed a Chippendale or a grand piano or 2. I decided not to spend the extra on the firewood they called furniture, even a charity shop would turn its nose up! I am now banking on the fact the owner will take one look at it all & think its not worth moving & leave most of it. Failing that i will have a blank canvas to work with :)
I contact our new neighbours with the news, at this point they seem more excited than we are! Prices agreed, money now paid, the agent confirms he has the deeds to this one & just need to go to the local notary to sign it over.
I think this time we have actually bought a house, even if we have never seen it!
Flight booked for end of March, I have my labourer Ray coming with me (holiday my arse!)
Car bought to take out in June with Ray (now known as my 2nd wife). A left hand drive Focus for £300 Bonus.
No more updates from me now until i see what ive let myself in for!
