Law / Required Documents for Buying a Used Car in Poland [17]

My car is a company asset and there was no difference in tax requirements; I had to fill out the appropriate form (PCC-1, I think) and pay the 2% tax of the price stated on the contract.

The same rule applies for car parts; I purchased a new engine (again, company expense) which will be deducted from my corporate income, but is also liable for the 2% tax.

Law / Clocking cars and importation to Poland [47]


You can't spend an equal amount of time in both countries (365 doesn't divide by 2), but that's not how the law looks at it; it's how long the car has been out of the UK for. Great if you bring it back every two weeks (or three months. Impressive, that's changed since I last insured a UK car); not so great if you get pranged on the A2 leaving Poland for your yearly MOT run...

I'm not criticising you; this isn't a personal attack. But I wouldn't recommend your course of action to anyone else.

Law / Clocking cars and importation to Poland [47]

I'm sure that in the event of an accident both the Polish police and English insurers would have found something to call you up on. From the Polish side there is the law that foreign cars have to be registered in Poland within a certain period, while UK insurance usually only covers European drives for two weeks from leaving the UK. Both are unenforceable, but if it went to caught and you were asked "when did the car leave the UK, and when did it enter Poland", you'd have to lie, and that's your admission of guilt.

Doesn't bother me at all though. The registration law is as stupid as all the other border-related laws I've experienced in Poland, and all insurance companies are blood-sucking bastards, so if you can get one over on them, good for you.

Law / Need advice on name change (from English to Polish) [11]

I can't see the name Emilia without thinking of a certain type of paint...

Law / Required Documents for Buying a Used Car in Poland [17]

Buying the car is one thing. Legally registering it is another. The car HAS to be registered to somebody at all times, and within hours of selling you the car, the previous owner will (if he has any sense) de-register his ownership at his local government office.

To register the car, you need an official registered address (zameldowanie) so that the owner can be traced, as well as providing the purchase contract (umowa kupno-sprzedaz) with the appropriate ID (a passport will be enough). You will also need to pay a 2% purchase tax at the tax office.

With insurance, it's a legal requirement to have it at all times, all year round. When you buy the car the previous owner's policy may transfer over to you, or he may cancel it but that still gives you 30 days to organise your own insurance. As others have said, you insure the car not the driver, but the price of the policy is based on the person insuring the car.

Life / Let`s compare prices of services and products in Poland [359]

For those who genuinely are clueless about tyres, this clip gives you a braking distance comparison. Three indentical cars (BMWs) fitted with winter, all season and summer tyres respectively, braking on ice:

youtube.com/watch?v=GlYEMH10Z4s#t=2m09s

Life / Let`s compare prices of services and products in Poland [359]


You must be joking. Nissan tried to tell me my oil sump was suffering "excessive corrosion" and "highly recommended replacing" when I took my father-in-law's Almera in for its service (he wants the stamp in the book, otherwise I'd do it myself).

The service's guy's face was priceless when I asked him how the aluminium could have corroded. And they wanted 1400zl for a full set of brake discs and pads (BOSCH) inc. labour. I bought them instead from a motor factor for 600, and did the work myself in three hours, and I doubt they're paying the mechanics that much...

Law / Best inexpensive new car? [23]

Has to be yearly serviced by a KIA dealer. 7 years or 100,000 miles, whichever is sooner. Does not included "limited life" components including clutch, brakes, audio equipment, wiper blades and bulbs (and therefore most engine components too). Paint is only warranted for 5 years, so doesn't cover rust.

So effectively the 7 year warranty is for the seats, bumpers and wing mirrors.

Law / Best inexpensive new car? [23]

Presuming used cars are automatically flawed is as daft as believing all new cars are perfect.

Law / Best inexpensive new car? [23]


Hateful, gutless, insipid little units with the turning circle of a river barge. Fine if you're over 60 and are buying one little car to last you until you die, but for anyone who needs a car for practical reasons, stay the hell away. Especially considering you can get excellent bargains on last-model (pre-facelift) Skoda Octavias this year with better equipment for less money.

Similarly, avoid the feeble Chevrolet Spark and plasticky Dacia. From the original list, only the Fiat Panda and Suzuki Alto are viable options on the sub-30k market, but it all really depends what you're planning to do with the car. I get asked for new car recommendations all the time "just for something small to get to work and do the shopping in", and the current market of small hatchbacks are equally fine for that sort of thing. It's when the buyer adds "and the occasional drive to Croatia" that changes everything, and that's where you need the 50k zl+ models.

But I still think buying a brand new car is a waste of money.

Real Estate / Poland's apartment prices continue to fall [1844]

I do like the idea of building on allotments "because green areas are good for residents".

But Warsaw is nowhere near running out of space for residential accommodation. There are still enormous sites to fill in (behind Kasprzaka, along Grzybowska and Siedmiogrodzka for example) which are far closer to the precious Centre than Rakowiec is.

Off-Topic / "Curiosity" Lands On Mars! Huzzah! Poland's Mars Society Must Be Ecstatic. [77]

Part of the reason for landing in that particular crater is the mountain inside. They believe that the wind erosion on the cliff faces will reveal millions of years of geological activity up close, without Curiosity having to drill down to examine cores of material. Think of it like fossil hunters exploring the Devon beaches, if you like.

I've been using today's success as a core discussion topic in my lessons. Is $2.5bn that much for a two year science project, when London spent $13bn on the Olympics for just two weeks of sport?

Life / Noisy kids every night. Police in Warsaw don't care.. [22]

Straz don't do anything for these sorts of complaints; Straz for outdoor drunks, Police for "cichy noc" problems.

I have the issue of drinkers outside my block. Every single day, like clockwork, 7pm a group of between 4-8 of them gather, braying like donkeys and swearing non-stop. They disappear after 90 minutes; exactly five minutes before Straz turn up, every single time. The wife and I have given up trying to do anything about them, since Straz are so useless.

On the flipside, a group of students moved in upstairs. They had some noisy housewarmings, and I let it slide. Then they started having friends over repeatedly, smoking in the stairwell and vomiting out of the windows. A polite word stopped that.

They still have occasional parties, and I'm alright with that. But a week ago they had hip-hop thunking through the floorboards at 6pm. 5 minutes after 10pm, after four monotonous hours, I knocked on their door to ask them to turn it off since I have to be at work at 7am the next day. No answer. I knocked again. No answer.

I called the police, who turned up after just 20 minutes. THEY knocked, and the door opened. The music turned off.

If you want something done, ignore Straz; they're both inept and powerless.

Real Estate / Polish Property - should I keep renting it out? [17]

Considering CHF/PLN has shifted by 65% since 2008, and this has led to you topping up the mortgage repayments by approx 450 GBP, then the original repayment must be around 700GBP. If that's the case, what on earth sort of property did you buy? That's a capital investment of about 750k PLN.

The reason I ask is that the scale of the loan will depend how aggressively the bank pursues you, and how much they may be willing to negotiate. If it were a boxy little kawalerka in a minor town then they may be more lenient, but if you've invested in a grand apartment, a large house or huge tracts of land, they're going to be less sympathetic.

I presume part of the deal for getting the mortgage was being registered at a Polish address. If that is the case, then your current location in Asia will not help you at all, as from the bank's perspective you ought to still be in Poland.

Law / How long takes a bank transfer in Poland? [12]


As far as I'm aware, all Polish banks are commited to ELIXIR, the domestic inter-bank protocol that guarantees transfers within three seconds. Financial transactions now operate at a level that leaves Germany, the UK and the US back in the stone age.

Life / Is it common in Poland to reduce the km numbers of the cars? [11]


Depending on the car, it's a lot easier to do than the old method with an electric drill.

I wouldn't trust ANY car in Poland unless it was an ex-fleet vehicle sold by a foreign company. I've bought plenty of cars here, and helped plenty of others with theirs, and I hear very very few "honest" stories about mechanics and private car sellers. From the crash-damaged Mercedes to the stolen-and-converted British Rav4 to the BMW mechanic who charged 6000zl for work not done, and these aren't just stories of the innocent foreigner being cheated; this is Pole scamming Pole. It's an utterly ruthless market.

Be suspicious of ANY car you look at, and always ask for the VIN to check the car data with an ASO, so that you know what you're really buying.

Life / Poles always ask how much money you earn. Why do they do this? [30]


Be careful about making sweeping statements like that. It's not classy where you come from but that doesn't mean class is universal. Did you kiss the hands of all the Polish women you met? Why not, don't you have class?


again, rude for you, not them. Poles seem to respect directness; give a straight answer to a straight question and you're a man. Dodge, avoid, deceive and you're a coward or worse, a politician.


Possibly jealousy, possibly just curiosity. Possibly even pride, if it's you're family. Once you've left, they'll sit around the table and say "Oh, that Sebastian, living in another coutnry and making all that money. And he's one of us! Imagine that! One of us, out there in the West, so rich!" Then they'll be able to tell their neighbours and make THEM jealous.

Odd as it sounds, my family in England do exactly this.

History / Poland worst off as a result? (life in German Prussia vs. Russian communism) [14]

What on earth do your first two sentences have to do with your question?

Life / Catholic "Telewizja Trwam" from Poland - your thoughts? [98]

There's no need to be so aggressive. I'm well aware of what the news says; I work there.

If Trwam put on their application "Charity status" or filed for plurality, then they'd get their place. They didn't, they applied as a business with the rights to run advertising and generate revenue, but they did not specify their terms and conditions. They don't want to run as a charity because then they can't reap the business benefits, but they don't want to run as a business because then they wouldn't be able to accept donations from poor old women.

It's Trwam trying to have its cake and eat it. And I didn't realise my tolerance was famous, one-sided or otherwise.

Life / Catholic "Telewizja Trwam" from Poland - your thoughts? [98]

From what I understand over the issue, Trwam did not explain their financial plan for their channel; how they would cover their operating costs, what proportion would be generated from advertising, that sort of thing. They left all the monetary aspects of their application blank, and therefore the application was rejected for being a void application; NOT because of any political plan to oust them from the airwaves.

If you want to apply for a license to operate a business (and a TV channel is a business) then you have to meet the criteria. If you can't do something as simple as explain how you're going to fund your business, then you don't get your license, and that applies as much to Trwam as it does to TVN Turbo.

Travel / Travel from Warsaw to Białowieża Primaeval Forest in Poland [3]

Unfortunately, Metro Wilanowska for the Polski Bus isn't near Dworzec Centralny, but it's not too hard to find a bus, tram or even metro to take you there. The Warsaw transport page is ztm.waw.pl

As for trains, there is a regular, almost hourly direct service to Bialystok, and it takes just under 3 hours. You can get to Hajnowka by train as well, but you have to change in a town called Siedlce. All this info is available on the Polish Train Service website: rozklad-pkp.pl

Once you're in either town, I'm sure you'll find info on local buses, or even taxis depending on your budget.

News / Are Poles good enough for USA (to go there without a visa)? [288]

Poland has strict, if not stricter requirements for Americans trying to visit, and yet I'm not aware of any protest group pressuring the Polish government to relax their requirements even though the US has given far more to Poland than the other way around...

Language / Polish language grammar books [59]

I wouldn't recommend Hurra Po Polsku. It's a coursebook designed for a class, so there's group exercises and teacher-led learning. It's not a self-study book, and you won't get the full value from it.

The books kie recommends are by Dana Bielec, and are much better at explaining the grammar of the language. You can complement this with exercises from Gramatyka? Dlaczego nie?!, a book by Universitas publishing.

Work / Briton teaching freelance - and the law in Poland [21]

By "company account" I simply mean "account for the company", not "account specified as a corporate account". Of course you can use your private one, but you still need AN account in Poland, and without the paperwork mentioned, it will be rather hard to obtain.

I didn't know about the meldunek waiver though, although "right to an address" sounds equally suspect.

Work / Briton teaching freelance - and the law in Poland [21]

I think it's fair to say you should knock this idea on the head sharpish.

To issue an invoice you need a NIP registered to a company of some sort, even if it's you as a self-employed person. To get the NIP you need a meldunek, which is a registered address in a property. To get the meldunek you need the owner's permission, and a visit to the government office responsible for that. You also need a company bank account for the firm and an account with Polish inland revenue (ZUS).

All of these things take time to establish; at least a month, even if you have someone on the ground who's done it all before.

Also, this non-taxable amount that has been quoted; you still have to pay the tax, you just claim it back at the end of the tax year.

The absolute cheapest ZUS system is to pay about 250zl a month as a flat fee. But you will still have to pay tax on your earnings, either each month or each quarter.at a base rate of 19%. So to end up with your 400 zl in hand for eight hours a month, you'll need to charge just over 700zl for those eight hours, or 90zl an hour. And that's ignoring any cost of an accountant to fill in the ZUS forms and monitor your tax.

That's certainly doable in one of the big cities, but not for someone new to the town, the country and the whole profession.

Love / Met this gorgeous Polish lady [27]


You're completely right. In Poland, giving flowers is a polite way of saying "I hope you die in a fire" and a gift of chocolates is only done on February 30th. In contrast, looking a Polish woman in the eye and saying outright "it's time for us to have sex" is the only way to initiate coitus; you must do it by the third date or she'll presume you are gay.

Language / "Pamiętaj o śmierci" Is this correct? [24]

almost ;)

Life / Why are Polish so conservative and religious? [240]

Sorry if I sounded like I was criticizing; that wasn't my aim.


Has there been any evidence anywhere that shows it's a bad thing? Do people raised in a homosexual environment "become" gay? The answer is categorically no. But as I stated earlier, no-one in Poland is willing to openly discuss this sort of thing. Conservatism is a choice, but a choice that should only be made once the issue has been reasonably discussed.


This is the sort of comment I mean by "no space for rational discussion".

Life / Why are Polish so conservative and religious? [240]

I agree with the OPs sentiment, although his argument is false and his examples are either misleading or outright wrong. Poland DOES have a conservative mindset, and there is very little rational debate in the Government on drugs, sexual preference, gay adoption or any of the other things you believe to be "liberal".

But if you want to compare Poland to the States; Poland enjoys more than a two-party political system. Any group can form a party and join the electoral role (with the famous example being the Beer Lovers' Party in 1991). And the number of magazines released every week that discuss these social issues, with a bias to cater for almost any political view, shows that Poland is always willing to hear the argument, even if it doesn't agree with it. Magazines like Polityka, Wprost, and Nie enjoy a large circulation; if Poland was so religiously conservative, the only media available would be the Vatican Times.

Just because a few reckless fools in Swiebodzin built a statue of Jesus wearing a Burger King crown, doesn't make Poland a nation of outrageous religious bible-bashers.

Law / Buying a car in Poland for export [48]

Yeah, with no licence plates, so no przeglad or OC either...