real estate | In Principle

As everyone knows, Santa lives in Lapland. But what with the wave of inward investment in Poland, what if he decided to pull up stakes and move his establishment to property acquired here?

The new Agricultural System Act of 5 August 2015 enters into force on 1 January 2016, superseding the act of 11 April 2003. Barring further amendments, from the New Year the Agricultural Property Agency will be vested with expanded pre-emptive rights and new rights to decide on whether agricultural establishments can be partitioned.

Demolition of all or part of a structure erected as a result of unlawful construction is not the rule, but is an alternative to legalisation of the structure, which should always be applied whenever the structure is consistent with the planning guidelines and other regulations such as technical construction regulations.

Change in use of a structure or part of a structure is an issue of great practical importance. The wording of Construction Law Art. 71(1)(2) can raise doubts, but rulings by the administrative courts help to understand it.

When acquiring shares in a Polish company for a foreign buyer, it must always be examined whether a permit from the Minister of the Interior is required because real estate in Poland is involved. Sometimes a permit is required to acquire even a single share.

Owners of Warsaw property still face barriers in taking over possession of buildings from the city, even though the rules governing delivery of possession were established in an order issued by the Mayor of Warsaw in 2008.

Decision to sell units in a building covered by the Warsaw Decree: A source of injury in pursuing claims for damages

After reprivatisation proceedings lasting many years, the legal successors of the former owners of real estate manage to regain the property that was once lost. But often the current value is grossly low, which justifies pursuing compensatory damages.

Monetary compensation for former owners of Warsaw Decree properties could help in many instances to remove the barrier to acquisition by residential cooperatives of adjacent plots of land to improve the conditions for development of their own real estate.

Poland’s consumer protection authority has drawn up guidelines for amending the Act on Protection of Rights of Buyers of Residential Units and Single-Family Houses of 16 September 2011, popularly known as the Developers Act. Real estate developers are not pleased.

Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal has held that regulations giving economic entities the right to demand conversion of perpetual usufruct of land into ownership violate constitutional principles of social justice and local government autonomy.

In reprivatisation cases, the claimants’ legal succession from the prior owners is sometimes determined from foreign notarial deeds. Their effectiveness in Poland depends on certain factors.