site.btaParliament Enacts Amendment to Civil Registration Act

Parliament unanimously passed an amendment to the Civil Registration Act during its second reading here on Wednesday. The amendments look to settle the fictitious address registration loophole, wherein tenants intentionally or unintentionally failed to update their address registration following a change in their current residence.

Property owners have the right to request the municipality to remove the registration of individuals registered at their address who are not their spouse or relatives up to the fourth degree of consanguinity or second degree by affinity, MPs decided.

After the amendments, the procedure now follows a structured approach: based on a request submitted by the property owner, municipal administration officials conduct a three-day review of the population register to verify the relationship between the property owner and the individuals registered at the property. They also confirm property ownership through the Local Taxes and Fees departments. A report is drafted based on the findings. Within three days, the mayor issues an order to register a service address for individuals who are not relatives of the property owner and notifies them of the registration. Those registered at a service address must update their personal documents within one month of notification, as decided by parliament.

MPs defined a service address as the official address of a municipal property used for registering both permanent and current addresses.

People without a valid Bulgarian ID due to not having a permanent address when this law takes effect can apply to change their permanent address. They can do this by using an expired Bulgarian ID or by following the procedures outlined in the Ministry of Interior Act.

Vazrazhdane proposed amendments to the Civil Registration Act, but the final version was adopted with revisions from MPs of GERB-UDF and Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria.