Remember some time ago I was saying that out sons can benefit from the legacy we’ll leave behind but shouldn’t expect inheritance? All calculations for our retirement build on this assumption and our sons will have to recognise that we are doing them a great favour. When my time comes, I’ll make sure that the house has been sold, any other property has been dealt with and if there is anything left from the £2.5 million we calculated we need, I am going to use it to buy gold which I am going to keep under my bed in a shoe box.
A bit extreme, you may think. Think again! For a week now I have been trying to make arrangements for my inheritance to be sold. There are two properties in North Bulgaria – an apartment in a small town and a summer house in a village; there is some land – not enough to farm and too much to ignore. Every time I thought I am making progress there was another bureaucratic requirement thrown at me.
My parents left their affairs in a bit of a mess; there are no drawings of the properties, some of the ownership documents have been misplaced and my sister and I co-own all. This meant that I needed a notary sealed document empowering me to act on her behalf; which we had issued just to go to the North and realise that it doesn’t give me the powers it was supposed to. I needed copies of the drawings; documents from the court that the properties are not mortgaged and duplicates of the ownership documents (for the land).
To get these, I needed a document for inheritance; to get this document I needed legitimacy and to gain this I needed a passport. A Bulgarian passport!
Over a day, every time I said:
‘I want to sell this property!’
…someone replied:
‘Get yourself a Bulgarian passport!’
This is a long story on all counts but the fact is that although I still have my Bulgarian citizenship my Bulgarian passport expired about a decade ago; there has never been enough time to renew it. When I decided to do so, it turned out that I need a permanent address in Bulgaria (which is hard to get given that I live in the UK) and three people to confirm that it is me. After that it would have taken four months or so…I thought it was so not worth it! Talking Catch 22!
Now it has become worth it! Because I have buyers for the land and for the summer house and can’t do sh*t about it! My problem has morphed from
“I need to sell some property!”
into
“I need a Bulgarian passport!”
In brief, all property matters will have to wait till I have hacked the Bulgarian passport matter. In fact, I found a company that can get me one for $5,900. To that I still say:
‘This is so not worth it!’
This aside, John and I had good time away from Sofia (and our son claims that he is having an ace time without us). We rented a car – a Renault Megane that John said is archetypally French (all looks and no drive, but if you have any issues with that take them to John) – and drove to a little village called Arbanassi (it is three kilometres from where the apartment for sale is).
Arbanassi is well known for its architecture – it was built in the 15th century and since it was during the troubled years of the Ottoman Empire, wealthy Christians had to hide their riches; and they did hide their money behind high walls and in houses that are more like a fortress than a peaceful dwelling.
The other thing that is memorable about Arbanassi is that over thirty years ago I worked there as a tourist guide – this was one of my summer jobs, the other being on an archaeological dig nearby. I know, John keeps reminding me that I am a spoiled elitist!
For three nights we stayed in Arbanassi in Arbanashki Han – a piece of modernised history dating back to the 16th century – and enjoyed the great food offered to us.
This is the inside of the hotel:
Once it was clear that no property sales will be happening any time soon, we enjoyed walking around, visiting the numerous churches, monasteries and museums and taking pictures.
Sharing with John a piece of my youth was an experience that made the trip certainly worth it.
I still want my money, though! Now, this feels so much better.
Where do you stand on the matter of inheritance?
I suppose it depends on what stage your children are when you ‘pop your clogs’ (as they say round here).
None of our children need an inheritance any more and two of the grandchildren are already past the stage when they would really appreciate the sort of amount we could reasonably leave as their share of the pie – which gets smaller as you divide it between 9 grandchildren!
They are all cheering us on as we do what we want to do while we can!
The red tape is frustrating but not insurmountable, given your determination.
Come on, Maria. S*d ’em. You can win!
@Pat: Thanks for the confidence, Pat; but…I am not sure whether I can win against ‘red tape’ – I am more of boxer, ‘knock them down in the first round’ kind of woman. ‘Red tape’ need cunning and patience.
I love the way the hotel looks. It has history, style and a lot of mood. When my father pre deceased my grandfather the inheritance process was UGLY. It was a situation that took 7 years to settle up. The lawyer fees were ridiculous and there were some sleepless nights.
@Jai: The hotel is great – and the village itself is wonderful as well. As to your inheritance experience – oh, dear. Hope that we will do better particularly on the time scale.
Probably the best we can do for our kids is leave them with a clean transition. Have our wills read, our affairs in order, and make it as painless as possible. As for the money, we’re going to spend it. 😛
@101 Centavos: My thinking exactly re money :). I am also planning to get rid of property and possessions (instead of sons wondering what to do with it). The way is minimalism…
The Megane was more a boat than a car yet felt boxy on rough roads. It was far too easy to select 4th instead of 6th from 5th (or 2nd instead of 4th from 3rd). But it did do a comfortable 600km at about 6.5 litres per 100km (43.5/36.1 mpg UK/US), which was its redeeming feature and we didn’t hang about!
Looks like a lovely place! I have a hard time understanding why you would need a Bulgarian passport, especially with all the EU rules nowadays, that they check you are not owing any taxes and your fiscal situation is up to date seems normal but the passport thing is just strange. I hope you solve it soon!
@Pauline: Thanks for mentioning this – the EU regulations ought to be in place. John claims that this is because there is no document connecting my Bulgarian life and my British life; e.g. no way to know that the one with the British passport is the one whose parents passed away and left property.
I think the whole idea of having to pay inheritance tax is unfair. It’s money you have made, and saved, throughout your whole life and should go directly to whoever you choose
@Ashley Park: From the point of view of the individual – of course. However, the state has to live off something and inheritance tax is as good as any source of income. Historically, there have been even more ridiculous taxes: like one that people were expected to pay because they breathe.
The hotel looks really good, unique and full of history. About the inheritance tax, kinda ridiculous but hey, I’ve read worse.
@KC: Hey, glad to see you around :). There is no inheritance tax, really – my Dad was smart enough to sell us his property (conditional on looking after them which we would have done anyway). The problem is getting all the documents together when we are visiting Bulgaria for a week or so; and the main thing – I need a passport (have only British one and apparently this doesn’t count).
Beautiful photos. I like what Warren Buffett says about inheritances. He’s giving his kids a couple hundred thousand to make sure they have a nice “start,” but he isn’t leaving everything. The thrill of making it is completely lost.
To put that in perspective for our twins, that means they’ll each (to use Buffett’s ratio) get about $1.22 from us for a nice “start.” Generous, huh?
@AverageJoe: This really made me laugh! In fact John thought something is wrong with me and came to my office looking concerned :). For what it is worth, we are probably equally generous – but we have three sons.