Negligent homeowners in Poland, advice needed

Hi all,

im looking for a little advice or experiences with negligent homeowners in Poland.

We are renting an appartment in Gdansk, and repairs were always slow to be solved, but they got done.. eventually.
Now its getting out of hand though.

A little background: We have good contact with the owner (she lives below us, same building), she comes to our birthday parties and such. As a person, we have nothing against her. We are moving out at the end of this month anyways, we bought an appartment.

Now the problems:
-8 months ago i have reported broken windows. Or well, not so much the windows itself, but the frame around it. One is closing so badly, you can feel the wind just coming straight through. 3 others are kinda loose in their frame and can be moved back/forth 5cm so cold air is coming from around them. This would be repaired "in the summer" due to the cold. We got a 50zl a month "discount" on the rent for it.

-We have 3 balconies, one of which was never finished (just cement, no tiles on it, so it was normally usable, just not the prettiest of balconies). 2 of them were up for renovation this summer. For 2 months we have lived in a mess, the house was dirty all the time from the builders walking through it. Coffee was left in the hallways up to the point there was mould growing on it and we took it away. Now we have 2 balconies that are just cement - they never came back to put tiles on it. The garbage of the builders is still in front of our house, between the entrance gate and the house making it look very messy.

-And BY FAR the worst: For one and a half month now, we have been with barely any warm water. Some taps give lukewarm water, and if you want to shower you have to do it in the bath tub, with both the tap in the sink and the shower on full power cold water and the bathtub on as hot as possible.

In the beginning there were excuses something was broken, they were coming to fix it. Took 2 weeks for someone to come at all, after which it only got worse

Supposedly it is the "cities" fault something is broken on their end, but the rest of the street has warm water so i dont buy it.

Now for 3 weeks we havent heard anything at all. When we ask about it it just "the cities fault" (city heating system).

I still have to pay rent for this month, and i feel very strong that the normal rent amount is absolutely not going to be paid. This is simpy unacceptable, but what is reasonable amount to deduct from rent for these problems?

The flat is supposedly 180m2, but in reality my guess is its about 140m2 with approx 50m2 of balcony-space. We pay 3000zl a month plus bills.

You could pay her 2000 and say, "Sue me", or you could just pay the rent and ride off into your new life. I'd do the latter. She probably wouldn't sue you, but do you really want to get involved in the kafaesque Polish court system? I'd put it down to experience, especially as you are clearly not short of money. You will have peace of mind at last. Good luck in the new place.

@Roger5 im not looking to start a fight with her, we're on good terms so i dont see that happening anyway. Also, the appartment will be, directly after us leaving, be rented to one of my friends/coworkers.

Im just interested if there are any rules around this - in my homecountry there are many laws around rentalhouses and work to it. Especially for basics such as warm water.

@Alexbrz
Why don't you talk to her about it?
What does your contract say?
I don't think you should recommend the flat to a friend of yours if you have experienced such problems.

@kaprys ofcourse i'll talk to her and i dont expect any problems, but its nice to know what the legal and local perspective is before i do so.

P.s. my friend is completely aware of the problem of the appartment, he moved in with us a bit back when his appartment flooded. But he doesnt seem to be bothered with the problems, his call ...

isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU20010710733

You can download ustawa o ochronie praw lokatorów from the link above. Check art.6a.
It's in Polish so you probably need someone to help you with that.

I our country we are still in stage you like it stay you don't like it leave. She is nice but just doesn't want to spend money for improvements.

Warm water "from city" should be 52'C warm. You need a termometer to 100'C. You may report it to spółdzelnia or administrator. This is a serious argument and they "usually" react very quickly. City heating system ends in basement and 99.99% works well. Problem lies in old or thin pipeline in building or they deliberately order 48'C to pay less for heat.