暗网禁区

@dencreiss

If you're happy with the house, and you know it's comfortable to live in from the off, that's the main thing. Personally, I like to have a comfy bed/mattress so I can get a decent night's sleep. So that would be one of my early purchases, if you don't already have something there.

Heating is also a big deal, so I think moving in April/May is a great decision. It's nice and warm and you can enjoy the summer, with several months to figure out your heating options (doesn't get cool until October).

I'm guessing you have water and electricity connected, as life is a bit miserable without them. :-) The accounts should get changed over to your name, but you can do that fairly easily (or pay your agent or attorney to do it, perhaps).

If WiFi is your only concern, then life is looking pretty good. :-) If you're not bothered spending a few days offline, then it's probably easier to do it when you arrive. if it's a huge problem, and you'll get withdrawal symptoms, then the easy options are to figure out your mobile with unlimited internet and a hotspot, or buy a dedicated mobile hotspot (MiFi) with its own prepaid data SIM (not expensive).

Something like GiffGaff does a prepaid SIM with unlimited data and roaming at a great price so you can grab one of these before you leave, or keep your UK contract for a little while longer (and make sure that roaming is included/switched on). This way you have internet on your travels, and for a few days/weeks while you sort a BG mobile SIM and/or data SIM. I have a Vivacom contract, and it's a pretty good deal, but there's not much between the biggies. You definitely need a BG mobile number early on (delivery drivers and others won't call a UK mobile).

The big guys (A1, Telenor/Yettel, Vivacom) can give fixed internet in most locations... and they can also offer most folks a mobile-based solution that's pretty good. There's also usually a more local option, but you have to ask your neighbours what it is. At our village house, the shop lady gave me the lowdown, and the guy installed it next day (as he's one of my neighbours). I have high speed fibre in the middle of nowhere, for 20 lv per month, it's a super deal.

It sounds like you haven't seen the house yet. If so, do make sure to visit first! Village houses are rarely in the condition they were when the seller took the photos. Unless someone has been maintaining it for you the place will certainly need a good clean before you move anything in and the garden may be a jungle. We haven't moved yet, I'm waiting to be able to get a D visa, but I was quite surprised at the condition our house was in when I first visited. It's actually useful to have the time to get it done up.

As Gwyn said, get the agent to change the water, electricity, gas (if available, most areas don't have it), and council tax to your name. They will probably charge an extra fee, but it can be a hassle to do it yourself unless you read, write and speak Bulgarian.

Visiting first also lets you check things like mobile signal. Our village has decent signal, but some of the smaller nearby villages have no mobile at all. Checking with your neighbours and the village shop which internet provider they use will let you know what's best and cheapest in the area.

I hope it all works out! Good luck with your adventure!

Thank you both Gwynj and Jane. Just the advice I am looking for.

I did buy my house unseen in 2021 and after reading all the things to watch out for after I bought it I realise that doing what I did was foolish. But I got so lucky, it鈥檚 awesome and in good shape, have visited a few times but not stayed over (there鈥檚 bats, any ideas on how to get rid of them please?). I need WiFi as I get zero days off work and looking for an easier transition for my 16yr old. No WiFi will deffo make him hate it immediately. He has a GiffGaff plan so will get him to sort out his WiFi - thank you for the tip. Will try and get the water and electric turned on before we arrive as thinking about it having no working toilet will deffo ruin my soft landing.

Glad it's all okay! Houses bought online can be full of surprises. I haven't been back to mine for six months and am slightly concerned about what I will find. The neighbours keep an eye on things, but it's sure to need a good scrub, and I hope there won't be any leaky pipes when the water is turned back on!

I think GiffGaff gives a good roaming allowance, so hopefully the local mobile signal will be good enough that will work for your son until you can get a local solution.

LOL, yes, getting the water on pdq after a long trip is usually a high priority!

I think you'll find that bats are protected. There may be a local bat group who can help relocate them. I know we were reading the blog of one Bg bat rescue place a few years back, not sure where in the country it was. If you can put up bat boxes in the garden for them and block up wherever they get into the roof at night while they're all out (making sure it's not breeding season, baby bats dying from starvation in your roof isn't a nice thought) they will find a new home. They like hollow trees, so if there are any dead trees with suitable holes, don't cut them down. Bats are a nuisance in the roof, but great to have in the garden -- they eat loads of mosquitoes. Their manure is also great for the garden!

Be very careful around bats in the Balkans!

As well as being protected, bats (and foxes) can be carriers of Lyssaviruses (ie rabies); the danger is fairly low but by no means nonexistent. If you get bitten, or even just scratched, by a bat or fox, the official advice is to treat it as infected and immediately seek anti-rabies treatment. Don't lose any time or disregard it: rabies is VERY dangerous (basically 100% fatal once symptoms appear) and an extremely unpleasant way to die to boot.

Oh wow, okay relocating the bats is now a bigger priority, thank you @jimj

@jane I鈥檝e left my water off for the last two years for that very reason. After I bought my place I later went looking at houses with a family member who wanted to buy and we arrived at a house that was flooded with the water that was still running out the tap, who knows for how long. The water was a foot deep in the basement and was overflowing into the garden.

Are deep cleaning companies easy to find there?

@dencreiss

I'm not sure that you have to relocate them. You can incorporate a bat cave in your house/property and keep them. It's very nice聽 having bats flitting around of a summer evening. My bat knowledge has increased recently as bats are very protected in the UK, and my father's barn has some. One of the conditions of the planning permission (to convert the barn to a desres) was a bat cave. :-)

Thanks @gwynj, at first I thought you were jesting but think you must be serious so it鈥檚 worth looking into. They are in my cellar with only entrance through the main abode so not sure how that would work. Going to ask Perplexity to write me a full report on it.

@JimJ is completely correct. But bats in the UK carry rabies, as well! Unless you try to handle them, the risk of getting bitten or scratched is very low. Just be sure to wear good gloves when removing their guano or if you find a baby or injured bat.

I can understand you not wanting them in your cellar if you wish to use the cellar, but leaving them there is very unlikely to expose you to any risk. Providing them a better home in the garden is probably the best way.

Deep cleaning companies -- I haven't found anyone yet! I have a mountain of rubbish and builders waste in the garden and rooms full of old broken chipboard furniture I need to find someone reliable to remove. I mean, someone who will actually take it to the regional waste centre and not just fly tip it.

And water - yes, I had a massive water bill after an outside tap broke in the cold and water flooded out all weekend. Thankful it was outside and not inside! The water had been left on because builders were working.

Oh my gosh @jane, I am going to add checking taps and pipes to my checklist when I arrive. Do you have any more things I should prioritise on this type of list please? At the moment I don鈥檛 know what I don鈥檛 know.

I found a couple of people offering cleaning services in my area from the 暗网禁区 FB groups but they never replied to DMs. I was lucky my house was cleared of out all the junk, just left a few pieces of furniture to dress it for photos. Just wanted cleaners for the dusting 鈥︹�� and windows.

One thing to bear in mind is that the water meter is also "yours", so if it freezes and is damaged in the winter, it's down to you to either supply a new one or get the water company to sell you one; either way you'll still have to pay them to come and install it, attach the seals and take a reading.聽 If you lose any water due to the meter freezing, they'll also try to land you with a bill for that, even if there's no way to tell just how much was lost because the old meter's broken...聽 It's always a good idea to make sure that meter is very well insulated!

@JimJ My water meter is down a very deep hole filled with with bags of straw. I do want to replace them as the straw has been wet at some stage (the cover for the hole leaked) so though I dried them out in the sun over summer, I doubt they insulate as well as they did. Replacing them was on my list of autumn tasks for the trips that never happened due to hubby mum's health issues.

Anything you recommend to use for insulation?

@dencreiss That's a big help if there's not a load of junk to get rid of to start with! Bummer that no one from the FB groups is replying. I hope you can find someone!

Polystyrene pieces in a large bag is what I use.

The meter is 4 ft below ground level.

Got to minus 18 c earlier this year and all ok.

The bag is as big as the pit The meter is in.

I used the polystyrene insulation blocks they use for insulating the exteriors of buildings. They line the outside pit where the meter is; I then have a couple of thick bin bags filled with the polystyrene beads used for bean bags placed on top of the meter. Winters here aren't like they were in the old days, so it's probably overkill but better safe than sorry - we had a meter freeze one winter and it was a complete PITA to get it replaced and to haggle with the water company about the bill..

I should add that this is at our village house: the extra insulation is useful because the water pressure in our part of the village is pretty low and we therefore have an electric water pump connected immediately after the meter to boost it; I don't like to risk the pump freezing as it's rather pricey. 馃槑

Talking of freezing water meters, the weather is crazy at the moment: even up here on the mountain it's been in the 20s, and apparently it hit 30 today in Lovech. Next week we're forecast to have 2 degrees....馃槸

Ahh, I hadn't thought of that! Fab idea! Thank you, @mickg and @JimJ. I had thought of the polyester fibrefill from worn out pillows and duvets, teased out to give it some loft again, and I have loads of the former resident's knitted cardigans which may be wool that could be bagged up. But I was concerned about it all getting wet like the straw did聽 and the water freezing on the fibres. Using polystyrene is a far better idea. I improvised a better lid for the pit with some corrugated roofing sheets removed when my roof was replaced over the old rusted out metal lid, but I'm not convinced they're completely waterproof.

According to the weather app, it's been warm in our village this past week, too. Low of 14, high of 29 today! I'm arriving next week. Low of -2, high of 6!

@janemulberry

If your house is going to be empty for long periods you might want to consider having a lockable lid made for your water meter: it's amazing what can "go walkies" when you're not around and your neighbour's trying to grow food in their garden.

When we bought our village house, our immediate neighbour and her (adopted gipsy) unemployed alcoholic son decided that the chuzhdenets had been heaven-sent to help out whenever cash (or booze) was short; that included tearful but persistent requests for "loans" to buy them a new horse. They assumed that we were unaware of their "unofficial watering" of their very large garden from our garden taps and too dumb to wonder why our empty house still ran up large water bills.

The son was reportedly violent towards her and once even tried it on with me when I refused him a "loan"; apparently me laughing wasn't the reaction he was hoping for. 馃榾

She seemed as relieved as we were when the son finally drank himself to an early demise several years ago, and there was quite a bit of village gossip because there was no 袧械泻褉芯谢芯谐 to be seen anywhere...

...apparently me laughing wasn't the reaction he was hoping for. - @JimJ

Love it!

I can see water theft could be an issue, but I think it's a lot less likely we'll have issues with it just because of where the outside tap is and the distance from the neighbours' gardens. There's our empty block of land then half an acre of pasture on one side, and on the other, their garden is the far side of their house, across our yard, two sheds, their chook run, and around the back of their house. I'm sure their garden uses a huge volume of water, but they'd need to trailer an IBC into our back yard and fill it to take any water.

Not impossible, part of the fence bordering the empty land was removed to allow the builders to get deliveries in and for the "clean fill" building waste to be removed. But that would leave signs. I hope to get a lockable gate put in there this year because once there are newer items that could tempt burglars in the house, that would be the route they'd use to remove them.

No one stole water in the years the house was empty or the first six months I owned the house, because the first time the meter was read there was nothing owing. The "big" water bill from the second meter reading a year later was quite explainable by the amount of water the builders would have needed and the broken tap that had to be capped off. It wasn't all that big, 125 leva for the year.

Definitely something to consider for those whose water tap is more accessible. I trust my neighbours, but chances are they may have taken a few small things from the building work, like their new sink splashback which looks very like leftover tiles from my kitchen floor! But he also helped with the building work, so a few missing items with minimal value or any slightly rounded up bills for the sand and cement they ordered and paid for me while I wasn't there is a reasonable price to pay.

I suspect the neighbours either side may well be wealthier than we are!

I think I will have to replace my water meter. First year there was a roofing sheet over the hole and the second year it had dissapeared. Hadn鈥檛 realised its importance, I thought it was to stop people falling in. Anyone know the costs of replacement and lockable cover for a water meter in 2025? Also, I know that updating wiring in an old house is a must. In terms of scheduling this, how long can I live with it until I change it? Does it have to be immediately? Not sure if I want to change position of sockets etc so had wanted a couple of months to get settled then do it all at once. Or can I just update the fuse box immediately then the wiring can come later?

@dencreiss

How long you'll live depends on how old the existing wiring is, and what condition it's in (assuming that it hasn't all been ripped out of the walls and weighed-in at the local scrappie.聽 Presumably it's turned off at the main meter, which is usually outside your house and quite probably on the nearest electricity pole in the street; it's worth checking to see if your meter is mysteriously whizzing round or has some "unofficial-looking" wiring attached to it.聽 Especially in areas with a substantial Roma population, it's not unusual for one meter to be feeding several houses (usually from the connection before the meter 馃槑)

It's worthwhile getting a decent qualified sparkie to rewire the place - as you've probably already discovered, too many masters here became Master Craftsmen at the age of six, after spending an afternoon watching their rakiya-fuelled grandfather bodging some DIY...馃��

If the water meter is in reasonable condition, you may not need to replace it yet, but do get a good cover for it and make sure the meter is well covered with some sort of insulation in the winter.

And yes, getting the old wiring replaced is a high priority. Ours was in dreadful condition. The front half is still the original fabric covered wire, the back was an even scarier mish-mash of more recent and rather extreme bodgery.聽 The very good electrician the neighbours arranged -- probably somewhat bullied into doing it, he works full-time for the electricity provider but the neighbour's wife knows his wife -- only replaced the wiring in the back half of the house. He did an excellent, highly professional job and also replaced the old scary "fuse" board which I doubt was functional with a new breaker board, so I am somewhat reassured that the old wiring shouldn't cause too much trouble. In the meantime till I get it replaced, I don't try to run anything high wattage off the sockets in the old section.

Now my problem is finding someone to do it. The neighbours don't seem to want to ask the electrician to come back, either because it was a one-off favour, or more likely because the builder did some probably unauthorised and building code violating changes to the wiring in the bathroom!

I am sure if your electricity was being stolen you would know by now from the bills -- I'm assuming you got that changed to your name and set up in epay? I get billed monthly, silly little amounts like 1.5 leva, because I have a small fridge left running.

@JimJ

Having just viewed several properties that were supposed to have new electrics, seems the standards here are very low. Hubbie has been a sparky in UK and France and there he spent 6 months studying the 鈥楴orms鈥�. So far he has wanted to rewire every house we looked at 馃ぃ

@jeanmandredeix

It's very easy to take issue with the standard of Bulgarian properties and renovation works. Especially when you're more used to higher standards in Germany, UK, France, Spain, etc. Redoing everything is expensive and time-consuming, and you'll find it very cost-effective to adjust your level of "good enough". :-)

I renovated several new apartments in Plovdiv from Bulgarian Standard, and it was definitely not a cheap exercise. (As in, the developers said it was typical to spend 200 euros/m2, whereas I found I was more like 400-500 euros/m2 for even a middling quality.) I was very disappointed with some of the painting and tiling, but it's very hard to fight with trades if that's what they're used to.

Similarly, I did a lot of renovation work on our village house, using a gang of local "gypsy" builders. The standard was definitely "cheap and cheerful". :-) But they got a lot of important work done (new floors, new walls and windows, external insulation and rendering)... and for a lot less money than "proper" builders had quoted.

Though one can understand a qualified sparky wanting to rewire things. Some of the Bulgarian electrical stuff is scary!

Been reading this thread and some awesome comments.

Had a funny experience with mobile data,聽 no wifi kinda thing.

Giffgaff data internet is terrible in UK, however, it was brilliant on my European roaming for signal in BG. Then when I did buy a bg sim on vivacom, their data connection was terrible.

Weird how those things happen.

Definitely worth arranging all your live connections in advance, then pop over for 2 week holiday, with cheap hotel stays if needs be, so you can be there for all the appointments to fit things before moving family and kids out there.

Best of luck with the move 馃檹

Thank you @sean and everybody. Turns out there was a lot I didn鈥檛 even know to consider. I鈥檝e decided to rope my teen into project managing this move. This is a perfect opportunity聽 for him to stack some skills.

Excellent plan!

@dencreiss

Great idea because most schools seem to forget to teach real life situations. Wishing ya the best of luck 馃憤

@S25 - Sean

I use an e-sim. They are so easy and there are lots of companies, Saily is popular.