Bulgaria's Supreme Court of Cassation has finally ended the dispute over a plot next to the Kotva hotel in the Sunny Beach resort, ruling in favour of Sunny Beach AD, the company's management said. They say the site still works as a private paid car park for the hotel, and the owner wants it back.
The court issued its ruling yesterday. The property is in the resort's East zone.
The Burgas Regional Court threw out the claim in full, and the Court of Appeal upheld that decision. The appeal judges found that the two sides have no valid preliminary contract that obliges Sunny Beach AD to transfer ownership. The court agreed with the company that the contract breaks legal requirements and cannot be a basis for acquiring the property.
"For more than a year we heard public claims of rights to this property, and the court did not back them," the management said.
The case became public in May 2025, when the company began to take back possession. Before that, it had carried out land surveys, checked ownership and sent formal notices asking for the plot to be vacated voluntarily.
The company says that after it took possession, the plot was occupied and used again without the owner's consent. Further attempts to get it back were blocked. Complaints to the authorities and new court cases followed.
Sunny Beach AD announced a public tender to rent out the property. The tenant who won it could not use the plot as intended, its contract was ended, and the company has suffered further financial losses.
In other cases, the same company was ordered to pay compensation for properties it used without a legal basis. For the plot next to Kotva the sum is more than €20,000. For another Sunny Beach AD property, used unlawfully between 2020 and 2024, the compensation is more than €45,000.
The state is the majority shareholder, and thousands of others hold the remaining shares. The management said it has defended the property consistently, with documents, evidence and all legal means, because it has a duty to do so towards them.
The company wants to manage and use the plot as intended. "We expect the ruling to be carried out, the property to be vacated, and the fence put up without the owner's consent to be removed," Sunny Beach AD added.