Real Estate / Chimney Sweeps in Krakow - experiences of flat owners in central Krakow? [4]

I recently renovated a flat in central Krakow about 5 minutes walk from Wawel Castle. One night I woke up at 2 am because of the strong smell of smoke in the flat.

We later traced the smoke to a wood burning fireplace in the flat below. This fireplace happened to be in the flat of the chairperson of the wspolnota (residents).

The 2 chimney sweeps arrived to check out the situation, and immediately said it was not the wood burning fireplace in the flat below, but must be a problem in my flat. I asked him if he'd checked this fireplace and he said no. I asked well how do you know it is not the fireplace?

Later that day I talked to a Polish civil engineer who had recently project managed a period building in central Krakow, that had a lot of problems with its own and neighbours' fireplaces. He sent me the technical conditions that came into force in 2002. For residential apartment buildings of 4 levels or more these technical conditions do not permit any solid fuel fireplaces at all - no exceptions. The building where my flat is is 6 levels. For shorter buildings (< 4 levels), there is an obligation to install a lining in the chimneys if they are brick chimneys, in order to stop the possibility of CO and fumes from leaking into flats.

Even later that day, I again met the chimney sweeps in my flat. I handed them a copy of the technical conditions from 2002 (a long document) and said that solid fuel fireplaces in buildings of 4 levels of more are not permitted. They told me that small fireplaces where the chimney flue is less than a certain number of cm in diammeter are excepted from this. This was a bare faced shameless lie according to wod-kan engineers I have since talked to. When I offered to give the technical conditions to the chimney sweeps they refused to take it, saying they already knew it perfectly. Then they demanded technical documents relating to my air conditioning, and to my gas fireplace (gas is allowed in most cases.)

I spoke to a Polish friend who had had a similar experience and she said that it is a chimney sweep mafia in Krakow. And if you get one who gives a questionable opinion, then it is almost impossible to get another one to criticize the first one.

Has anyone else had such experiences?

Real Estate / Annual wspolnota (owners committee) meeting-prejudicial treatment of foreigners in Poland? [4]

Does anyone own a flat / apartment in Poland, especially if you don't live there, and when it comes to the annual meeting you don't get the notification letter, or it arrives one day before or on the day of the meeting?

I ask the question because I am managing on behalf of friends 2 flats in Poland. One in Lodz and in in Krakow.

The building administrator in Krakow for a few years sent the notification letter to me so that it arrived one day before the meeting. When I spoke to my lawyer about this it seems they are required by law to give 14 days notice. Something similar happened in Lodz for a couple of years and then this year, instead of sending me a registered letter (which had previously arrived after the date of the owners' meeting) the administrator decided to leave it with my neighbour today, and the meeting is in 4 days time in Lodz on Tuesday, which for most people would be difficult to arrange. I only know this because a friend of mine happened to go to the apartment today and talked to the neighbour.

In the case of Krakow when I took some legal action to remedy the less than 14 days notice, I was labeled a nasty foreign trouble maker by the other members of the wspolnota, and I later found out that some completely false and unpleasant rumours were circulating about me.

My suspicion is that such tactics are deliberate in order to prejudice owners who are foreigners and / or live in another city or another country, and deprive them of their say in how the building is run.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Life / How to avoid being ripped off in Poland - feel free to add your own advice [2]

1. Don't take taxis from main stations.

Almost every time I take a taxi from a main station in Krakow, Warsaw, and Wroclaw I get ripped off - the taxis waiting at the station. Normal ways of ripping you off are "oops I forgot to turn the meter on", refusing to use a meter and giving you an inflated fixed price. Setting the tariff to 4 (or the highest) and trying to hide the meter with a hand on the gear stick or a well placed cap or cloth.

Solution: ask a Polish friend to call a local taxi company to come to pick you up.

2. Don't use local rental agencies or brokers to rent an apartment

Trying to rent in Krakow, I contacted some local agencies. I was shown around some of the most disgusting apartments I have ever seen which had not been refurbished for at least 30 years, and were absolutely filthy. The bathrooms were something out of the third world. They were quite big apartments from 90 to 140 m2. The asking price per month was 4000 to 4500 zl.

Solution: Go on to the web portals like gratka.pl and krn.pl to find suitable properties for the best deals. Or use a foreign owned agency. In Krakow there are at least 2 good ones, owned by English guys. Remember that most landlords (Polish and foreign) prefer foreign tenants other things being equal since they are less likely to take advantage of strong tenant protection legislation (esp. pregnant women or those with young children) and much more likely to work for international companies on good salaries, and a a return home date.

3. Don't buy an old apartment in Poland

There are at least 3 areas where you open yourself up to being taken advantage of because of the language, the odd legislation and the unusual rules and regulations, under tried and tested tricks designed to catch out foreigners, the naive and the unwary

3.1 When you ask for a surveyors report the estate agent / broker will offer to find a suitable person to do a surveyors report. The report will be in Polish (of course) and the broker will tell you that everything is in order. In fact, later when it is too late, the surveyors report will turn out to be a report by, say, an electrician doing a survey of the electric system or by someone who is not qualified to do such a report, and is merely a description of the property that costs PLN X000.

Solution: Don't buy an apartment in Poland.

3.2 As one of the owners, you will be at the mercy of the residents' board and the building administrator. They will all know each other and consider you to be a host on which they can feed. Expect being over charged on service fees, opaque decisions made by the residents board on items of expenditure designed to benefit everybody else, often at inflated prices with benefits being given on the side, and expect to lose the use of chimneys to other apartments as a result of chimney men decisions, often obtained with bribes.

Solution: Don't buy an apartment in Poland.

3.3 Expect to be truly fleeced as a foreigner when it comes to refurbishment costs. Expect to have to accept huge delays in getting the work done or to pay several times over the market rate. The worst trades in my experience are: 1. Carpenters 2. Tilers. 3. Painters. Costs of these trades are a fraction of London prices in terms of labour costs from 1/4 to 1/8, but they will try to charge you UK prices for an apartment in Poland.

Solution: Don't buy an apartment in Poland. Or use a project manager (PM) and be as invisible as possible, but unfortunately unless the PM is your spouse, expect the cost to be increased by 20% or much more depending on how much money they think you have, and for the extra to be split between the PM and the contractor.