Law / Ways of getting Permanent residency in Poland [101]

My wife was finally granted her Polish citizenship recently.......no exams were taken or asked for.

Travel / House hunting in Poland (something didn't feel right) [16]

Thankyou.
My wife thinks everything is OK. I have a niggling doubt so would like to double check the number he has given actually belongs to him.

Travel / House hunting in Poland (something didn't feel right) [16]

Thanks we are looking forward as well.

On a slightly different subject.....how do you actually know you are dealing with a legal notary and not just an estate agent or indeed can an estate agent do the legal paperwork correctly?

Travel / House hunting in Poland (something didn't feel right) [16]


What nonsence, where have I said we were at the 'notary public'.
We were at the agents office, if they wanted they could have taken the c.card (as one of their own agents suggested to us) and when the funds had cleared we could have proceeded.

Who in their right minds walks about with £20k in cash in their pocket, nothing to do with us being 'ripped off', just a gut feeling something wasnt quite right.

Anyway we have finally found a property we like, payed a sizable deposit and within 2 months hope to sign the final paperwork. All these transactions have been accepted using bank transfers, according to your belief they aren't allowed either..cleared funds you see.

Real Estate / Kodeksu cywilnego Umowa najmu for tenants in Poland and laws governing tenancy agreements [16]

I would not enter into a contract as written above. It would appear the landlord/ agent are making the tennants pay for the upkeep of their property at your expense!

2. The first 300zl of the repair cost of any supplied item (washing machine, cooker, window blinds) is payable by the tenant
This is quite common in the UK ..........but the cost is fully refundable, it is to stop tennants phoning the agent/ landlord every time there is a minor problem i.e. dripping tap.

5. The tenant is to leave the flat in same condition as found at the end of the tenancy period, with no allowance for fair wear & tear

The last part about fair wear and tear would not stand up in a court of law in the UK.

Remember just beacause it is written into a contract and signed by you does not make it legal, unfair terms and conditions would be thrown out in a magistrates court here.

4. Landlord has the right to inspect the property every 3 months
Standard contract here but rarely invoked. Landlord must give 48 hours notice before entering or they are breaking the law.

UK, Ireland / Applying for a social housing in the UK - translation of a birth certificate? [2]

If the local authority have asked for your documents to be translated into English then thats what they want, doesn't seem unreasonable to me as in this country we speak, read and write English as our first language.

We had similar issues when we needed our documents translated from English to Polish. The embassy in London suggested a firm that could help us, we were quoted £200 + VAT per document, copies were a further £30 each from them, 6-8 weeks delivery time!

As it is we had it all done in Poland the following week, total cost for sworn translation, stamped and Notarised for 6 documents with 3 copies of each = 160zl

I have had a quick search and found this company that might be of use to you, I have no idea how legitimate they are.

languagewarehouse.co.uk

Life / Polish vs British vs American - Clash of cultures [390]

And most importantly - why would humans even try to eat something that doesn't look like edible in the first place? ;)

It is hopefully a deterent for inquisitive children, adults should know better.

Life / Polish vs British vs American - Clash of cultures [390]

Rats are not highest on my list of experience but..........you are both about right.

Rats do not 'see' quite the same as us humans colourwise nor is their eyesight anywhere near as advanced, they search or hunt for food more by smell and the use of their 'whiskers'.

The reason the rat poison is dyed blue here in the UK is because as Pawian wrote 'Blue isn`t typical colour of food' therefore it is meant as a warning signal for us humans not to eat it,Poland believe their colour is more suitable as a warning.

Why choose these colours at all? because it is in the spectrum of colour that rats can see i.e. red, green and blue so poor old ratty hopefully gets his/her demise.

Travel / House hunting in Poland (something didn't feel right) [16]

We usually go to Poland for either 8 days or 16 days, if on the shorter breaks we tend to fly into Katowice and stay for the weekend at our favourite hotel there or for the longer breaks we fly into Krakow and stay in the city for about 4-5 days before moving onto the Rybnik area.

When in Rybnik we stay in the town square hotel for a few nights, they know us by name now and we allways have a great time, just around the corner is one of our favourite Italian retsaurants. We have noticed the service has gone downhill over the years but the food is still excellent.

We have searched the internet for properties before coming over just so we can let the agents know what we like and dont want, as with most things the pictures do not tell the whole story.

There are 3 agents in Rybnik itself that we know off-each has been of no use whatsoever so far. I wont name names as its unfair.

One agent agreed to meet us at a certain time and day to gain acess to a property-we flew over especially as the house looked just what we wanted (over the internet). after waiting for them for over an hour we finally managed to get them on the phone only to be told 'i am busy today, we can try again tomorrow'. The next morning we were flying home early so that wasted our time, how unprofessional.

Agent 2.
We met in their office in the town as agreed. we had previously sent them a list of properties that we wanted further information on as they looked as if they were viable. We were expecting to have a few viewings lined up but they had other ideas, they wanted us to buy some apartments they owned instead.

I reiterated that we had come out especially to view certain properties or if they felt something else might suit we were prepared to listen, what we didn't ask for at any time was a flat.!

They asked us to come back the next day at 9am and they would in the meantime search for what we had asked for in the first place.

We arrived the next day at the agreed time, they had prepared a list of houses this time for us to view on the computer screen. Not one of our prefered choices was in their list.

We discounted certain houses as not suitable but found 2 that would be worth looking at.
We were told that we would have to come back the following day and they would show us around the houses chosen, why they couldn't arrange it for that day they wouldn't answer.

We duly arrived at 9am the next day only to be told they had not made any appointments for viewing yet but we should look at their own appartments once again.

I am sorry to say that I was seriously pixxed off now and made it known to them. They offered to make things right but we would have to wait another day for them to actually make appointments.

We decided to give them one last chance so arranged to meet again the next morning.
Yep you've guessed it, 9am next day they still hadn't made any appointments. We left making it known how absolutely bloody useless they were.

During the days we started making inroads into getting paperwork in order, bank account s opened, residency permits stamped etc..
We were frequent visitors to Rybnik City Hall (just a few steps from the estate agent). As our Polish is very limited they found someone who spoke perfect English, we were asked that any time we wanted help to ask for this man. What struck us was how very friendly the staff were to us both. Whenever we walked into the reception area they recognised us and phoned for 'our man; to come down and deal with whatever needed doing. We made him aware of our ongoing frustrations with the agent and he offered to walk with us to their offices to try and find out what was going on, now that is above anyones call of duty. We declined his offer but he gave us his own personal mobile number and said he would find another estate agent for us and would help in any way he could.

Stephen-you were an absolute star and we WILL take you to dinner or lunch on our next visit, no excuses from you next time.

Travel / House hunting in Poland (something didn't feel right) [16]

Pip-this was some 10 years ago, I think it would have been an excellent purchase as the buiding was near completeion.

I was just adding to these posts until we get up to the current time, adding the frustrations we have had previously with agents and developers alike.

Travel / House hunting in Poland (something didn't feel right) [16]

No questions yet, rest assured there will be at some stage.