Bulgaria's Cadastre and Property Register Act (ЗКИР) 2026

The Cadastre and Property Register Act (Закон за кадастъра и имотния регистър, ЗКИР) is the normative backbone of the system for immovable property in Bulgaria, and in November 2025 it was amended and supplemented again by State Gazette (ДВ) No. 95 of 7 November 2025, in force from 9 February 2026. The changes mainly affect the provision of services (Chapter Seven) and the regime under Art. 52, Art. 55 and Art. 56, that is, the digitalisation of administrative services. This article systematises the whole regulation for property lawyers, notaries, registry judges, surveyors and cadastral engineers, carefully distinguishing what is in force from what is new and stressing one frequently underestimated point: a technical error in the cadastre and a substantive dispute over ownership are resolved by two different procedures.

Legal framework and structure of the ЗКИР

The Act was promulgated in ДВ No. 34 of 25 April 2000 and has been in force since 1 January 2001, and the version that governs today is the one after the amendments by ДВ No. 95 of 2025. When working with legal databases it is important to cite precisely the current consolidated version: the official publication of the Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre Agency (Агенция по геодезия, картография и кадастър, АГКК) and the text on lex.bg cross-confirm the same version.

Structurally the ЗКИР is built in five parts: General provisions (Art. 1-9), Cadastre, Property Register, Long-term and annual programme, and Administrative-penal provisions (Art. 96-98). This five-part logic is not an end in itself: it reflects the division between the technical system (the cadastre, kept by the АГКК under the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, МРРБ) and the legal system (the Property Register, kept by the Registry Agency under the Minister of Justice).

Cadastre and Property Register: the two systems and the two-way link

The distinction between the two systems is fundamental. The cadastre answers the question of what the property is: its location, boundaries and dimensions. The Property Register answers the question of whose the property is and what burdens it carries. The cadastre contains the basic data under Art. 2(1), as well as additional categories of data under para. 2, including data on property rights and on restriction zones.

The Property Register, for its part, consists of the files of individual properties, in which deeds of ownership and of other property rights, distraint orders, mortgages and other circumstances subject to registration are entered. The link between the two systems is two-way and works through the cadastral identifier.

Authorities: the АГКК and the Registry Agency

The institutional duality follows the division of the two systems. The cadastre is entrusted to the Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre Agency (АГКК) under the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, which acts through the local Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre Services (СГКК). The Property Register is kept by the Registry Agency (Агенция по вписванията).

A key procedural figure is the registry judge (съдия по вписванията). The judge is not part of the АГКК but acts at the relevant district court and orders the registrations in the files of the properties in their judicial district.

Content of the cadastral map and the cadastral identifier

The cadastral map and the cadastral registers give material form to the basic data on properties. Every plot of land, building and separate unit in a building receives a unique cadastral identifier, which serves as the basis of the two-way link with the Property Register. The identifier makes it possible to refer every registered deed unambiguously to the specific property, which in practice removes ambiguity in the description of the property in notary deeds (нотариални актове).

In administrative servicing, licensed cadastral practitioners (правоспособни лица по кадастър) can assist the offices, which was extended by the latest amendments.

Gaps and errors in the cadastre: correction under Art. 51-54

The cadastral map is kept up to date, and the grounds for amending it are set out in Art. 51. They include gaps or errors, a manifest factual error, new or demolished buildings and other changes in the data. The amendments by ДВ No. 95/2025 added to Art. 51 new paragraphs on notification and appeal under the Administrative Procedure Code (АПК).

The central provision for correcting a gap or error is Art. 54. This is also where the most common practical mistake is made, so the provision deserves a careful reading. It is important to note that the current Art. 54 does NOT require the consent of the interested persons: that was the regime before the amendment by ДВ No. 57/2016. Today’s procedure is administrative: approval by an order of the head of the СГКК and notification under the АПК.

The practice on errors in the cadastre and on the boundaries between the administrative route and the court-action route is rich, but it should be checked in each specific case against current case law of the administrative and civil courts, since the situations depend on the facts.

Registrations, challenges and deletion in the Property Register

In the Property Register, a registration has a publicity effect and, in certain cases, protects the person who registered as against third parties. Challenging and correcting registrations follows the procedure of the Civil Procedure Code (ГПК), to which the ЗКИР refers. It is important here to distinguish three different institutions: a challenge, correction of an obvious factual error, and deletion.

The changes by ДВ No. 95/2025 and the administrative-penal provisions

The amendments by ДВ No. 95 of 7 November 2025 (in force from 9 February 2026) are concentrated on the digitalisation of administrative servicing. They affect Chapter Seven on the provision of services, as well as Art. 52, Art. 55 and Art. 56. The emphasis is on electronic documents and electronic identification.

The administrative-penal provisions are in Art. 96-98. Fines are provided for natural persons, and pecuniary sanctions for legal entities and sole traders. Violations are established by an act of an official.

Practical conclusions for the lawyer

Working with the ЗКИР requires constantly keeping in mind the two distinctions that follow from the architecture of the Act itself: the cadastre versus the Property Register as two systems, and the administrative route versus the court-action route for corrections. A technical error in the cadastre is removed by an order of the head of the СГКК and appealed before the administrative court, whereas a dispute over ownership and the invalidity of a registration go through the courts by court action. For the property-law context of the deeds that are entered in the Property Register, our analysis of the Property Act is also useful, and for practical lookups, the user guides on a Property Register extract, a free property check in the cadastre and ordering a cadastral sketch.

For quick orientation in the current version and structure of the Act you can use the official publication of the АГКК, the full text on lex.bg, the Cadastral and Administrative Information System КАИС and the portal of the Registry Agency.