My negative Experience in 2025 with the Landlord Peter Vandebuerie (1977, Genk) from Belgium (Houthalen-Helchteren). He is the owner of a studio in the old Danubia Beach Hotel in Widin (39, Purva str., Tsar Simeonovo 3700 Bulgaria). He rents out the studio through the local real estate agency „Suprimmo“.

The owner, Peter Vandebueri, sent the rental agreement by e-mail to his agency, which printed it out and gave it to me. But a rental contract without an original signature is not recognised in Bulgaria. The notary’s office did not want to notarise this rental agreement and the authorities did not recognise it either. I asked the owner for a correct rental contract and his support so that I could fulfil my obligations (registration of the rental contract). I kindly offered him to cancel the contract if he felt it was not worth the effort. I waited 13 days for a response from Peter Vandebueri, but he did not reply.

I then asked him to cancel the tenancy agreement. Of course I meant by mutual agreement! Because

• he didn’t present a correct tenancy agreement (no original signature) and

• he didn’t offer his help so that I could have the tenancy agreement notarised. (I could only have had this tenancy agreement notarised with him as landlord!)

Peter Vandebueri only replied that the contract had been cancelled. I thought he had decided to cancel the lease by mutual agreement. However, when I asked him about it, he explained that the lease had been cancelled unilaterally by me. But there had never been any talk of this. He obviously did this to keep my rent and deposit. The unilateral cancellation of the tenancy agreement was not in my interest, but rather a correct tenancy agreement from him and the support that the tenancy agreement could be notarised. As an alternative, I kindly offered him the cancellation of the tenancy agreement.

Peter Vandebueri replied that he had fulfilled his duties and it was not his fault that the tenancy agreement was not recognised. He was not interested. As the owner of the studio in Bulgaria for many years, he should know that a rental agreement is not recognised without the original signature. The landlord must even be present to notarise the tenancy agreement. Neither the agency nor Peter Vandebueri told me this. The owner, Peter Vandebueri, also did not offer to come to Bulgaria to notarise the rental agreement.

Incidentally, I also never received the keys to his studio, although I was told beforehand that I could collect them from the Suprimmo agency office. When I went to collect the keys, I was told they had to be collected from a resident of the old danubia beach hotel. However, the resident was nowhere to be found, so I had to go back and take a hotel…