Buying real estate in Poland
Each person (both a Pole and a foreigner) who plans to purchase a property in Poland must take into account the necessity of going through a certain procedure.
After finding the perfect apartment, house or plot, you should check its legal status and possible debt. For this purpose, you need to know the number of the land and mortgage register of a given real estate. Currently, the Ministry of Finance website has a generally available land and mortgage register search engine, thanks to which we can easily acquire information about the legal status of a given real estate. In addition to the land and mortgage registers, it is necessary to verify (in the case of a house or flat) if there is no registered person at the address and if all administrative fees (eg rent) have been covered by the previous owner.
After selecting the real estate and verifying its legal status, it is necessary to conclude a preliminary agreement – a promise of sale (in the contract, specify the amount for which the seller undertakes to sell the property and the buyer to buy, the date to which the final contract should be concluded, the date on which the seller obliges to leave the property, technical condition of the property and any repairs to which the seller is obliged). The preliminary contract may be concluded in the form of a civil law contract, but for the parties’ security a better solution is to conclude an agreement in the form of a notarial deed. However, it is associated with the need to pay the so-called notary fee. Although the Polish regulations do not clearly indicate on which side of the contract the costs of property purchase are charged – it is assumed that these costs are borne by the buyer. Conclusion of a preliminary contract is also associated with the need to pay an advance or down payment for the purchase of real estate. Please note that the advance payment is refundable, and the deposit is non-returnable.
The time between the conclusion of the preliminary and final contract is the time when the parties must fulfill their obligations. The selling party should at this time make repairs, upgrades to which it undertook in the preliminary contract and leave the property on the date indicated. However, the buyer should obtain sources of financing for the purchase of real estate – eg credit.
The purchase of real estate is finalized in the form of a notarial deed, under pain of nullity. The act of buying a property involves the need to incur costs. In addition to the amount due to the seller for the property, the buyer pays the cost of the notary fee, tax on civil law transactions in the amount of 2% of the value of the property (this tax does not exist, in the case of real estate purchased from the primary market straight from the developer), fees for making changes to the book Register.
After finalizing the purchase, remember to inform the relevant City or Gmina Office about the purchase of the property (to pay the real estate tax), also inform the power plant, gas plant, municipal plant – in the case of housing, a community or a housing association.
Issues related to the acquisition of real estate in Poland are governed by the provisions of the Civil Code.