A path to the neighbouring plot that runs through your yard. A manhole in the garden carrying someone else's cable. A power line over the plot that nothing can be built under. All of these are easements (сервитути) — rights that another person or a utility company holds over your property.
An easement does not take away ownership. It does limit what you can do with it, and it passes with the property to every future owner. That is why it is worth finding before you pay a deposit, not at your first meeting with the architect.
An easement is a limited right in rem. One property (the servient one) bears a particular use or restriction for the benefit of another property (the dominant one), or for the benefit of a company that runs a network — the electricity distributor, a gas operator, the water utility.
In practice, buyers of plots and houses most often meet three kinds:
Art. 192 of the Spatial Planning Act is clear:
Two practical consequences:
A verbal arrangement is not an easement. An old dirt track, permission given out of goodwill or a neighbour's tolerance do not create a right you can enforce against the next owner. Whether a right of way can be acquired by prescription is a disputed point in Bulgarian case law and depends on when the use began. Do not build a purchase on it.
If you are the one who needs access, the easement is an asset. Check that it is registered against the property you are buying. A regulated building plot should, as a rule, front a street under the detailed development plan — more on that in our guide to buying a plot to build a house.
When a neighbouring property has no other reasonable way to connect to power, water or sewer, the connection may have to cross yours. Art. 193 of the Spatial Planning Act follows the same model: a contract with notarised signatures is the preferred route, and without agreement the right can be established administratively only where the conditions listed in the law are met.
For you as a buyer, this means a neighbour's buried cable or pipe in the garden is not necessarily a violation — but you need to know whether there is a registered contract or order, and exactly what it allows.
For energy facilities, the easement is held by the company that builds and operates the facility (Art. 64 of the Energy Act). It includes a right of passage for people and equipment and restrictions on how the land can be used within a defined strip — the easement zone. Under the general rule, the easement arises once there is a detailed development plan in force that fixes the location and size of the zone, and a one-off compensation has been paid or deposited for the owner.
For easements outside built-up areas, compensation is set by a municipal commission at market value (Art. 210 of the Spatial Planning Act), and its decision can be appealed to the administrative court within 14 days of the notice (Art. 215).
What cannot be done inside the zone of an overhead power line? Ordinance No. 16 on energy-facility easements (Art. 14(1)) prohibits buildings of any kind, perennial trees, parking vehicles and storing materials there. The operator has a right of access for repairs and maintenance and may cut branches and trees within the zone.
Indicative zone widths under Ordinance No. 16:
| Facility | Easement zone |
|---|---|
| Medium-voltage overhead line, in a settlement | the conductors + 2 m on each side |
| 110 kV overhead line, in a settlement | the conductors + 4 m on each side |
| 220 kV overhead line, in a settlement | the conductors + 6 m on each side |
| 400 kV overhead line, in a settlement | the conductors + 9 m on each side |
| Low/medium-voltage underground cable, in a built-up area | 1.5 m on one side and 0.6 m towards buildings |
| Gas transmission pipeline up to DN 1000 | 15 m on each side |
For gas distribution pipes inside towns and villages the zones are much narrower — from a few tens of centimetres to a few metres, depending on the type of pipe.
If the plot is 600 sq m and a 15–20 metre strip that cannot be built on crosses it, that changes both the house design and the value of the land.
Access and utilities are a particularly common issue with holiday and village homes around Sofia — see our guide to buying a village house or holiday cottage near Sofia.
An easement is rarely a reason to walk away from a good property. The surprise is. If you like a plot or a house and want us to check what runs across it, under it and over it, call us or come into the office — we will go through the documents and visit the site with you.
Verified October 2026. Zone widths follow Ordinance No. 16 and are indicative — the actual zone is set by the detailed plan and the specific facility. This is general information, not legal advice for a specific case.
