My name is Lorraine Kitchen and my husband and I plan to have a villa built just outside of Varna, in a village called Konstantinovo and retire there in 3 years time. We love it there very much.

We engaged an agent who in turn engaged a builder to build our villa for us. This was done in August 2005. Although full permissions were not granted until April 2006 the builder went ahead and built the foundations after receiving from the agents his initial fee of 19,000 euros. To date we still only have foundations, which incidentally have been built with many mistakes, and after signing a new contract in May 2006 in which we gave him 2 months to complete the build, he has done nothing else.

Our lawyer is now in the process of canceling the contract and we instructed him to sue him for breach of contract as the build has many defaults.

After making enquiries through the courts the lawyer found he had no assets at all in his name. We know for a fact that he has a house outside Varna and an apartment in Varna. Very clever and devious man eh?

As this payment was 50% of the house build, we now do not have enough money to complete the build which was to be our retirement home.

I cannot tell you how we feel at the moment - I guess drained and very hurt will not quite convey to you the deep pain we feel to know that the country we have chosen to retire to people could be so devious as to "rip" people off for there hard earned lifetime savings!

Can you tell me if there is anything you you do to help us in this matter, as this man is giving Bulgaria a very bad name. We would both be very grateful for any help you can offer.

Best regards,

Lorraine Kitchen

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