"You appropriate the door and the lucrative property is yours: Is that what the mayor of Gabrovo does?"

Being pressured over property or business is something many people in Bulgaria can surely complain about. But there's a notable example from Gabrovo, involving the mayor of the city, Mrs Tanya Hristova, which deserves special attention.

What's at stake is being the owner of the entrance to a property where almost everything else isn't yours determining who enters and who doesn't, and consequently, who gets to use it. How can this happen? If suddenly in the Cadastre, data appears that makes you the owner of the entrance door, so to speak. You become something like Saint Peter of the property, a gatekeeper holding the "keys" and access to it.

WHO AND WHERE

The case concerns a lucrative property located at 154 Orlovska Street in Gabrovo. This is the so-called tannery factory "Marokindzhiev" – the oldest industrial factory in Bulgaria from the early years of the 20th century. It comprises property with several dozen buildings, and this property does not have a single owner. The largest share of ownership, over 98%, belongs to "Chinkov Property" EAD. However, this share is insufficient for the company and its owners to protect themselves from disputes over the property, including with the family of Gabrovo mayor Tanya Hristova – a saga that has already been discussed: Is the mayor of Gabrovo stealing a lucrative property through her brother? (In Bulgarian)

The new chapter in the case, which is starting to resemble a saga, is extremely intriguing. It turns out that according to the data from the Property Cadastre and a reference from a tax assessment certificate, the ownership of the gatehouse is a highly questionable. And this is the building through which access to the entire property is controlled. Consequently, the owner of the building has control over who can enter the property.

Who is the owner of the entrance and how does one become the owner?

According to the property tax assessment certificate dated May 29, 2023, valid until June 30, 2023, the owners of the gatehouse are listed as the mayor of Gabrovo, Tanya Hristova, her brother Dimitar Badzharov, her mother Temenuzhka Badzharova, and Stefan Georgiev, who is the third party with ownership in the whole property of the tannery factory. The certificate was issued by the "Local Taxes and Fees" Directorate of the Gabrovo Municipality.

However, how did Hristova, her family, and Georgiev become owners of the porter's lodge (building 18)? Sergey Gilin, one of the directors of "Chinkov Property" JSC, has already filed a complaint with the Geodesy and Cadastre Agency stating that there is incorrect data in the Cadastre, making the mayor of Gabrovo, her brother, her mother, and Georgiev owners. According to the complaint, it smells like fraud – the actual owner of the porter's lodge, who should be registered in the Cadastre, is the company "LAV" JSC. This is the company that the state allows to manage several buildings on the property after the end of the communist regime in Bulgaria – previously, the tannery factory was state-owned. Among the managed buildings is the aforementioned porter's lodge, and Mr. Gilin's complaint also refers to the relevant regulatory acts that confirm this.

Moreover, the porter's lodge was not the only one on the property – there was also a second porter's lodge built by the former owners during the restitution process on the "Marokindzhievi" property. According to documents, this is building 19 on the property, which now represents a facility. The two porter's lodges are very similar in parameters and are located opposite each other, at the entrance of the property – the existing one is 21 square meters, the other was 23 square meters. The no longer existing porter's lodge was sold to one of the owners in the property by the previous owners through restitution – Stefan Georgiev, who owns it through his company "Georgiev Auto" Ltd. In a series of notarial acts, which Actualno.com has seen, the path of sales and transfers of building 19 can be traced. At one point its area is 23 square meters, but then it becomes 40 square meters – whether due to a reassessment in the calculations or something else is not clear.

For the currently active porter's lodge, there is a preliminary purchase agreement dated June 10, 2008. It is between the company "LAV" JSC as the seller and the company "Prince" Ltd as the buyer. "Prince" Ltd is a company owned by Sergey Gilin. However, the purchase agreement was never finalized because there was an arrangement first to clear encumbrances on the porter's lodge (a lien due to obligations of "LAV" JSC) – but this never happened, as in 2012 "LAV" JSC went into liquidation. Nevertheless, the preliminary agreement, i.e., the official document, provides grounds for "Prince" Ltd to claim the porter's lodge as a bona fide possessor – based on Article 70 of the Property Act.

Questions: Who is the porter, who is the innkeeper, and who is the fool?

Why isn't all these data described in the Cadastre, but instead others appear, indicating that Hristova and her brother are involved in ownership? How did this happen and where is the notarial deed? Mr. Gilin visually understands who the new owners are according to the data available in the Cadastre from November 2, 2022, with the help of the property tax assessment certificate. His belief is that data from notarial deeds for the no longer existing porter's lodge (building 19), which has been converted into a restaurant, have actually been submitted to the Cadastre and the municipal tax office as data for the existing porter's lodge. Who initiated the submission of this data and what documents have been submitted is not clear.

How Gabrovo Mayor Tanya Hristova comments on all this is also not publicly clear yet.