ART APARTMENTS REAL ESTATE AGENT

Angel Plaza, Zwierzyniecka 24/A304

30-105 Kraków
Tel. +48124456264, kom. +48501006949
office@art-apartments.pl
www.art-apartments.pl

TEN TIPS ON CONTRACTING OF A LEASE AGREEMENT IN

POLAND
This short text is aimed at providing you some basic information on contracting of a real estate lease
agreement in Poland. We will also try to shed some light on the local customs that may help you to
understand your Polish landlord in order to avoid troubles and misunderstandings.

Legally speaking you should always remember to :

1. CHECK IF THE LANDLORD HAS A LEGAL TITLE TO THE FLAT.

Landlord should provide you with the title of his/her property in a
form of a printed document from the official land registry database.
If the landlord owns the property together with his or her spouse
you have to remember to ask them both to sing your contract,
otherwise it will be invalid.
Make a
2. MAKE A BUNCH OF PHOTOS DETAILED HAND OVER PROTOCOL AT
MOVING IN good start !
Careful inspection of the property at the hand-over is crucial. You
should always try to make as much photos as you can and check is
everything is in place before you sign the hand –over protocol. This
will save you from problems at the passing the property back after
the end of the lease.

3. WHY MY LANDLORD WANTS ME TO GO TO THE NOTARY TO SIGN

THE LEASE AGREEMENT ?

The Polish legal system recently was updated with a new type of
tenancy which allows landlords to benefit from a new tax regime
and accelerated legal procedures when the tenants defaults the
payments. You shouldn’t be scary, this type of agreement provides
you also with some more rights , primarily your lease agreement is
made public to the state officials. Please remember that the notary
will not check the agreement if it’s lawful or not – he is supposed
only to check the signatures of the parties.

4. KEY POINTS OF LEASE AGREEMENT

Now it’s time to describe the key points of a lease agreement.

A) RENT PAYMENTS

Polish law requires tenant to pay the rent upfront before 10th day of
each month (this obligation apply only to the residential leases).
Any other arrangement should be clearly specified in the

Art Apartments is a Cracow-based real estate agency offering flats in new developments and period buildings in the historic centre of
Cracow and houses in premium locations near Cracow.
 ART APARTMENTS REAL ESTATE AGENT
Angel Plaza, Zwierzyniecka 24/A304
30-105 Kraków
Tel. +48124456264, kom. +48501006949
office@art-apartments.pl
www.art-apartments.pl

agreement. The preferred method of payment is the bank account

money transfer. Of course, we don’t recommend you to pay in cash.

B) UTILITY CHARGES
As you will be using utilities like water, media it is important to
define what should be paid by tenant and what should be paid by
landlord. As you are foreigner the landlords will probably opt for
not changing his or her agreements with the media providers
(heating, electricity, internet, TV, etc.). It means that the landlord
will be receiving the bills and pay them, then send them to you to
make a refund. This is very common way in Poland. Dealing with
the issue of utility charges can be cumbersome as the media bills
can be complicated. What you should to remember is to put an
obligation in the agreement for the landlord to pay the bills without
any delays and to provide you with the bill copies. It is also Do not
recommended to check if the property owner has paid the bills up
to date – the balance of the account is always marked on the bill. forget !

C) DEPOSIT

Usually Landlords require some protection against the damages – a

deposit which shall be returned when the lease is over. Our
experience shows that the return of the deposit is sometimes a
problem for the owner if she or he believes that the property was
used more than “ordinary use” or “wear and tear” . Unlike to the
other countries there is no legal obligation for the landlords to put
the deposit on the bank account under the certain “guaranteed
scheme”. Therefore we recommend to describe precisely what the
deposit should be used for, when it should be returned. The best
idea would be to use escrow service if they are offered by the
property broker .

D) TERM AND TERMINATION CLAUSE

The Polish law gives very strict rules on the termination clauses and
what must be admitted the law prefers the tenant in this
relationship. The term of the lease agreement may vary and be
defined as the definite and indefinite period of time. In the first
case you have to remember about the termination clause ! If you
forget to add it the agreement will be binding for the whole
declared time and you will not be able to terminate it uncles the Negotiate
landlord will comply to the terms and conditions of the agreement.
If the lease agreement is concluded for an indefinite period of time carefully
the law allows the landlord to terminate the agreement only if : A)
two monthly rents are delayed and B) the landlord delivered a
proper notice with an additional monthly term to pay down the
arrears. Our advice is to negotiate a one month or two months’
notice period.

Art Apartments is a Cracow-based real estate agency offering flats in new developments and period buildings in the historic centre of
Cracow and houses in premium locations near Cracow.
 ART APARTMENTS REAL ESTATE AGENT
Angel Plaza, Zwierzyniecka 24/A304
30-105 Kraków
Tel. +48124456264, kom. +48501006949
office@art-apartments.pl
www.art-apartments.pl

E) REPAIRS

The major repairs should be done by the Landlord, minor by Tenant

– that’s what the law says. But in reality of the property
management we can say that this matter should be described at
the lease agreement in order to avoid cultural gaps and problems.

5. TENANT’S OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE POLISH LAW.

Except paying the rent and utility charges tenant is obliged to use
the property for the purposes as specified in the agreement , e.g.
use it only for the declared purposes (residential or commercial),
make the alterations to the substance of the property, sublet the
property without the prior consent from the property owner.
Please remember that Tenants is not obliged to pay any taxes
regarding the property as this is an obligation of the property
owner.

The Tenant also protected by the law in exclusive use of the leased
property. The inspection of landlord may only happen if they were
agreed between the parties in the agreement. There should be a
clause in the agreement about the possibility of inspection with
prior notification about the date and time and the consent of
tenant.

6. REGISTER YOURSELF AT THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES AS A TENANT.

With a lease agreement in your hand you have to go to the city
council department in order to register yourself as a inhabitant of
the property. For EU member citizens it is fairly easy to register,
non – EU citizens are required to show additional documents with
permission to stay in Poland.

Feel free to contact us in case of any questions

WWW.ART-APARTMENTS.PL

Art Apartments is a Cracow-based real estate agency offering flats in new developments and period buildings in the historic centre of
Cracow and houses in premium locations near Cracow.