How to buy property in Poland safely?

Checking the Land and Mortgage Register of the property.

Before buying premises or a plot in Poland, it is necessary to check the Land and Mortgage Register for a given property. This activity can be entrusted to a professional attorney (attorney or legal advisor) who will carefully check the legal status of the property and determine the risk resulting from its purchase. An attorney-at-law can also help with formal and legal issues related to the property.

The Land and Mortgage Register is an official register of the legal status of properties kept by Land and Mortgage Register divisions of district courts in a given area.

The Land and Mortgage Register contains information on the property and its legal status. The Land and Mortgage Register provides information on the owner of the property, whether the seller is the actual owner of the property and the basis on which he or she is entitled to ownership of the premises.

The Land and Mortgage Register is divided into four sections containing various information about properties. From the buyer's point of view, the most important information may be included in section III of the Land and Mortgage Register in the form of entries. The Land and Mortgage Register may also include, inter alia , right of way easement, claims from preliminary agreements, information on the initiation of enforcement proceedings or on agreeing on the content in connection with the expropriation of the property

The information contained in individual sections of the Land and Mortgage Register:

Section I - data on the location, area, geodetic marks, information on building structures and the manner of using the property

Section II - data on the owner or owners, perpetual usufructuary and the holder of the cooperative ownership right to the premises

Section III - information on limited property rights, with the exception of ownership, e.g. easements encumbering the property, entries regarding various claims.

Section IV - mortgage, if a given property was purchased on the basis of credit secured by a real estate mortgage, information on the amount of this hedge will be entered in this section.

If there is an entry in the Land and Mortgage Register, it means that an application was filed to the Land and Mortgage Register Department of the court and that it has not yet been considered. This should be treated as a signal that the content of the Land and Mortgage Register may be outdated or will change in the near future. Each application submitted to the court is registered and is designated with a reference number. If the court accepts such an application, the new data is entered in the Land and Mortgage Register. An application for entry in the Land and Mortgage Register may be submitted not only by the property owner, but also by another entity, e.g. a bailiff, bank, tax office, Social Insurance Institution, as well as a private person who wants to secure his/her right to the property. The entries in Sections II, III and IV cannot be ignored as they may turn out to be of key importance. Therefore, before signing the property purchase agreement, it is worth having a lawyer check the Land and Mortgage Register. It may turn out that the entry refers to a request to correct the plot number or to merge the property, only. Nevertheless, it's better to make sure you check it yourself or with the help of a law firm.

If you have any questions regarding the issues raised in this post, you can call us: mobile phone: +48 601 225 208.

Tomasz R. Weigt, Lawyer