The case
Personal accounts
Behind every number is a person.
Events as reported by the owners — presented as they experienced them.
An elderly resident who depends on a breathing device had her electricity cut off by reception — which had been told about her condition beforehand.
An owner on crutches after knee surgery was refused entry; other owners had to bring him up in the lift so he could reach his own apartment at all.
One owner was told to pay around €4,000 at the entrance. He paid and was given a lift card — but still cannot use any of the facilities. He called the police, who said they would take no action.
Owners' voices
The words that recur across our accounts.
“We pay for the electricity ourselves — we hold individual contracts — and the hotel can still cut us off.”
“We are co-owners of the common areas, but we are not allowed to use them.”
“Not one of us was given a management contract to sign.”
Who we are
Private owners who bought lawfully.
We are private owners of apartments in the Grand Hotel complex in Sveti Vlas. We bought them lawfully — before a notary, through licensed agencies, from private sellers. We paid full market prices, some of us financed the purchase with a mortgage, and many invested further in renovation and furnishings.
There are more than 120 of us — from European Union countries, as well as the USA and Israel, including Poland and Germany. We coordinate our actions as one group and pursue the case through a single law firm. This is the collective voice of the owners, not one person's account.
What is happening
Our shared experience.
The situations below recur across many owners' accounts.
At purchase
We were registered at reception in a “book of private unit users”, our ID cards were photographed, and some of us were charged fees with no explanation of the basis and no receipt.
Management fees
When we ask for documents justifying these rates, we are refused.
Lifts
We are refused lift access cards and told to use the stairs, even though our apartments are on upper floors.
Electricity
Our power is cut off even though we hold individual contracts with a separate supplier (EWN) and pay separately. The hotel has access to the distribution boxes serving each floor and — according to the owners — makes use of this. Without electricity, only cold water remains.
Distribution boxes on the floors.
We hold individual contracts with a separate supplier (EWN) and pay for energy separately. Even so, the boxes supplying individual units are located on the building's floors, and — according to the owners — hotel staff have access to them. Without electricity, only cold water remains in the apartment.
Common areas
We pay for common areas we are not allowed to use.
We are co-owners of the common areas — the floors and the lifts, including the panoramic lift. Even so, we are denied access to them and to the complex's facilities, for which we bear shared responsibility.
We are forbidden from using the pools on the complex grounds.
The passage through the hotel grounds to the sea has been closed to us.
We are co-owners, yet we have no access to it.
We pay tax on common areas the operator has appropriated for its own use.
We put up our own nameplates by the private apartments to distinguish them from hotel rooms. The plates of more than 100 owners were removed and thrown away — the matter was reported to the Burgas–Nesebar prosecutor's office.
Reported to the prosecutor's office
According to the owners' accounts, the hotel manager is reported to have told one of them:
Behind her stand the mafia, the Bulgarian government, the prosecutor's office and the courts.A reported statement by hotel staff — not the owners' position
Legal situation
Legal situation
The court has already ruled in our favour on the fee increases.
The case is being pursued through the courts and rests on rulings and provisions of Bulgarian law.
The court annulled the resolutions of 2022 and 2024 introducing the management fee increases.
Owners staying less than three weeks a year are exempt from fees — while the hotel, according to the owners, rents out rooms for roughly 150 days a year.
In practice we fund the hotel's investments — playgrounds, the pool, the facade — which we ourselves may not use.
According to the owners, the operator does not comply with the judgment, enforcement drags on for years, and local law firms refused to take the case.
What this is really about
From what we observe, there is a single aim: to push us into selling.
According to the owners, the operator's aim is to apply pressure — through drastic fee increases and the withdrawal of access — so that we sell our apartments back for a fraction of their value; a figure of about one third of the purchase price is mentioned.
We do not accept this.
It could have happened to you.
We bought in a European Union country, convinced the law worked as it does at home. Before you buy an apartment in a similar complex — check whether the operator controls all utilities, parking and access. If it does, you could find yourself in our situation.
Media
In the media
The case has drawn media attention.
In December 2024 the Euro Asia News portal described the situation at the Grand Hotel Sveti Vlas, reporting that more than 120 owners from European countries, the USA and Israel had appealed to the European Parliament and to foreign ministries.
If the video does not load, watch it on YouTube
The case was taken up by journalist Tomasz Sańpruch of Biuro Ekspansji Zagranicznej, who devoted a video report to it. We thank him for bringing attention to the matter.
Our own channel@SvetiVlasOwnersVoiceRecordings and updates published by the owners themselves.We link to these publications as evidence of media interest. The views and wording they contain are their authors' position, not ours; our account rests solely on our own experience and on the court's rulings.
A press pack: facts, figures, the course of the dispute, rulings and contact details. Documentation for verification is available to newsrooms on request.
Precedent — Hotel Tarsis
The legal route can work.
Co-owners at another Bulgarian complex — Hotel Tarsis — pursued years of litigation and regained access to and control over their property. It shows that the legal route, though long, can succeed. We are taking the same orderly route.
For journalists and MEPs
Verifying this case? This is what we can put in front of you.
This section is for newsrooms, Members of the European Parliament and their offices. The case concerns more than 120 private owners who are citizens of European Union countries, and it has run for years.
- notarial deeds
- court rulings
- correspondence with the operator
- reports to the prosecutor's office
Languages English, Bulgarian, German, Polish, Russian
Newsrooms wishing to verify are invited to contact us — we will provide source documents.
You can help
You can help
Everyone can do something — choose your role.
The more people get involved, the greater the weight of this case in the media, in court and before the institutions of the European Union.
Do you own an apartment in this complex?
The more of us there are, the stronger we are — in the media, in court and before EU institutions. Join the group.
EU institutions and the Committee on Petitions
As a community of owners we are preparing a petition to the European Parliament's Committee on Petitions (PETI), under the right to petition in Article 227 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. If you are an owner, you can sign it.
Are you a lawyer, or active in an organisation defending citizens' rights?
We are looking for legal support and allies. If you can help, get in touch.
Are you a journalist?
This case concerns more than 120 EU citizens and has run for years. We have documents, witnesses, court rulings and people willing to talk. Write to us — we will share materials and contacts.
Do you create content on property, investment or consumer rights?
This story is a real warning for your audience — with documents, witnesses and people ready to describe what happened to them. We will provide you with sound material to verify. Help bring this EU citizens' case to light.
Are you a Member of the European Parliament?
This is happening in a European Union country — EU citizens are being denied access to property they lawfully own. We ask you to take an interest in the case and help raise it at European level.
For the travel industry
A decision to work with this property should be an informed one.
Do you work with this property, sell stays there, or are you considering adding it to your offering? A dispute is under way around this complex concerning the property rights of more than 120 EU citizens — including refusals of access to lawfully purchased apartments. We encourage travel agents, tour operators and intermediaries to review the documented situation before deciding to work with it. We want that decision to be an informed one.
Do you know something?
Do you know first-hand how this property is run?
This section is for people who have seen how decisions here are made — former and current employees, contractors, suppliers, property managers and agents. Bulgarian law gives you official places to report what you know. Those come first; we come after.
What is useful
- Instructions to cut off electricity or to refuse an owner access — written down, or sent in a message.
- Records showing owners' apartments being let to guests, and how those stays were paid for.
- The basis on which fees are charged, and the management contracts the owners say they were never given to sign.
- Inspection, permit and fire-safety documents for the common areas.
Please do not
- Do not take documents you do not lawfully have.
- Do not log into systems you are not authorised to use.
- Do not record conversations you are not part of.
- Do not send guest or staff personal data — we are interested in the practices of a company, not in people.
- Do not write to us from a work device, a work network or a work account.
You do not need to bring anything. An account of what you saw has value on its own, and it carries far less risk for you than a document does.
These are the ordinary state channels for this kind of matter. Choose the one that matches what you actually know — and report only what you have seen yourself.
Labour Inspectorate (ИА ГИТ)
Working hours, pay, undocumented employment contracts, safety at work.
The Inspectorate states that it keeps the reporting person's identity confidential and will not reveal the source of the report to the company being inspected.
Consumer Protection Commission (КЗП)
Breaches of the Tourism Act and of consumer law at a categorised property — what was promised against what was provided, refused access, fees charged without basis.
The consumer line is open around the clock, including weekends and public holidays. The Ministry of Tourism directs complaints about a hotelier here.
National Building Control (ДНСК)
Conversions of the common areas, change of use, building without a permit, missing sign-off for use.
A submission must carry your full name and address, the substance of the request, the date and a signature. A reference number should reach you within one working day — if none arrives, the submission did not land.
National Revenue Agency (НАП)
Income from letting apartments that may not have been declared.
Describe which apartments were let, in what period, and how the payments were taken and booked.
Personal Data Protection Commission (КЗЛД)
The central external channel under the whistleblower protection act, for breaches learned about in a work context.
This is the route that carries legal protection against retaliation, and it also covers people who help the person reporting. Whether a particular case qualifies is for the Commission to decide, not for us.
The drafts are in Bulgarian on purpose: the Labour Inspectorate does not review submissions written in Latin script, and the other offices work in Bulgarian too. Square brackets mark what only you can fill in. An electronic signature makes a submission formally complete, but the absence of one is not grounds to refuse it — it only slows the case down.
Were you a guest?
Your voice counts.
If you have stayed at this property, or are planning to, here is what may concern you.
Were you a guest at the hotel?
If you saw for yourself how private owners are treated — refusals of access, electricity cut off, entry blocked — your honest review, based on your own experience, matters. Describe what you actually saw, on the platform you booked through:
Please describe only what you experienced or witnessed yourself. Honest, truthful accounts are the most valuable and the most credible.
Contact
Get in touch
Whoever you are — we can act together.
Tell us in the form who you are, and we will direct your message to the right place. One lawful, coordinated case is stronger than many separate ones.
The public key for the e-mail address is published automatically (WKD), so a PGP-capable mail programme finds it on its own and encrypts the message before it leaves your computer.
Photos, documents, video
Material too large for e-mail goes here — scans of contracts and invoices, correspondence, photographs and video of the building. No account is needed.
Upload filesDropbox asks for a name and an e-mail address and checks neither — if you would rather stay anonymous, put anything there. Send the original file from your phone if you can: the date stored inside it is what makes the material usable. We publish nothing without asking you first.