How to get my property back in Poland? I left 36 years ago.

Burned all your bridges did you?

Maybe not if he paid for the property, he still may have a legal interest.

1) For a guy who supposedly lived in U.S. for a long time Your English is simply abominable, yurek.

2) From a legal standpoint You seem to be ******, but rest assured that there are dozens of lawyers in Poland that will tell You otherwise and milk You for what You're worth.

3) Don't expect to pay Polish lawyers peanuts nowadays, You and them might have a different idea about what "good money" is. I noticed it very often with Poles who left Poland for U.S. and still think everyone will fall all over themselves for a few bucks in Poland anno domini 2011.

If its a good lawyer and the apartment is worth over 1 million zloty don't expect to pay less than 100.000 zloty for his services.

4)


She's retarded if she goes for a settlement in this particular case.

5) I'll be very blunt now --> You made Your choices yurek and one of these choices included shipping money ( ridiculous amounts by Polish standards, semi-ok amount by U.S. standards ) to Poland and not protecting your investment. The reason you got interested in the case is purely monetary, after you discovered one can no longer purchase a flat in Poland for chump change. Don't expect any sympathy from a Polish court here, they'll look at the facts of the case and probably quote what I quoted on p.1 after rejecting Your claim.

6)


Hardly a legal scholar here ( I hire my own lawyers ), but how You expect a court of law to take into account black market prices of any commodity while looking into the matter is really beyond me.


Please re-read carefully what I wrote on p.1. Also, expect to hear a story from yurek about the precautions him and his precious wife took to prevent anyone from stealing their shiny U.S. dollars, which will most likely make proving the fact that he paid her anything rather difficult.

you would be surprised how my aunt can't understand any more complicated German while she lives in Germany since 1978 and she has a German husband is surrounded by German people (has little opportunity to speak Polish at all) - I doubt she can write most of the German words actually

With the details that we now have, it looks very much like you're right.

let's put things in perspective for all you young whippersnappers whose parents bailed to Canada and the States in the 1980s
but still consider yourself to be on the same telepathic wavelength as the rest of Poland

In 1993 I was talking to a friend who had studied at a Polish university in the 80s.
He told me that there were Arab students studying there and they would offer a dollar to fellow Polish female students to
sleep with them for the night and would get takers

I do not mean that all the female students would jump at the opportunity but some of them would.

Now bear in mind that these were female university students not prostitutes

such is the value of the dollar at the time.
Pewex was still running in 1993 where you could buy luxury items but they would only accept US dollars

It was still running in 1995 but by then you could pay in zloty too. I remember seeing the sign for a Pewex shop in 1998/9 but I don't remember if the shop was actually operating then.

indeed you could however I seem to remember you got a much better rate paying in yankee greenbacks which you could obtain from surly middle aged men wearing black leather jackets and who hung outside the Pewex stores

Really?It's obvious that you have never been in any Pewex store because they accepted all major curriences and bony PKO.


And what are you talking about now???Huh?What better rate?Since march 16th 1989 anyone in Poland could buy as many USD as one wanted in kantory wymiany walut, so what better rate are you talking about?

on the contrary, I have been inside a Pewex store, my chubby friend
in fairness I have never bought anything from Pewex as I considered it to be overpriced when I was able to buy the same items for

far less in the UK. Having never bought anything in Pewex it means that my knowledge of the currencies that were accepted
and the means of payment is perhaps a bit shakey. Did they accept Greek Drachma for example?
Polish friends used to point at the store and tell me that they took US dollars. I visited the store, window shopped, but no money changed

hands, so you may indeed be right.
Had I known that the payment terms would be of such importance I would have paid much more attention 18 years ago

It seems that you may be the one who has never been inside a Pewex store (did they not let peasants shop there?): one could, in theory, pay in several different currencies, including zloty; however the cheapest way to do it was to change your zloty to dollars as the local kantor (or man in leather jacket outside) would give you a better rate than Pewex would.

the banks had one rate, the kantors had another and the surly men in black leather jackets had yet another rate
not all kantors charged the same rate and some of the surly chaps were not adverse to slipping monopoly money into the wodge
that they gave you.

honestly chubs, please do not argue about things you have no idea about

I will say that again,you have no clue about Pewex and stuff.It could not be 18 years ago because Pewex began accepting Złoty on August 1st 1990.


Are you stupid or what?I just told you that since March 16th 1989 anyony could buy or sell any amount of USD in kantory.
I have no idea?I actually unlike you was shoping in Pewex as early as 1985 for Matchbox models and tapes.

Yawn. Clearly you are too retarded to understand the concept of 'getting more for your money by buying at a better rate'. Nevermind, go back to your illegal job as an illegal immigrant while you can: it's only a matter of time before you get caught and deported.

Obviously you are an idiot.


Pewex was not exchanging curriences you dumb f u c k.


I am actually at home drinking coffe and smoking a cigarette you fag.

were the exchange rates the same? no, they were not.
the black market rate on a dollar was higher. certain kantors offered better rates.
Just because you could pay in zloty it does not mean you were getting the best rate.
you probably did not shop around for the best rate and now you are just sore.

Had you exchanged your money more wisely you might have been able to buy additional Matchbox models.
Perhaps you feel emotionally scarred as a result.
There is no need to feel this way. You are still the same person irrespective of which Matchbox model you bought.

Perhaps owning another Smokie tape or the latest offering from the Rolling Stones would have made you a hit with the ladies,
who knows? we will never now but you just need to be brave and move on...

if only I could turn back time, but I can't.

I am sorry but you are stupid,when the kantors opened the black market ceased to exist and that's the whole point.Many of kantors are owned by these "midlle aged men" you were reffering to earlier.

not in 1993 they weren't. there were lots of money changers. all wore black leather jackets, all were surly

clearly I am stupid, I am trying to educate you about the difference in exchange rate results in you getting more Shakin Stevens tapes for your hard earned zlots

I am clearly wasting my time.

In 1985 I was in an elementary school and at that time Matchbox models seemed to me to be much more fun than ladies.Seriously.


Check the facts before posting becuse already up to 1992 5000 kantors were opened in Poland.

in that case might I be forgiven in thinking that your knowledge of global exchange rates, might have been a bit shakey (no Shakin Stevens pun intended)

I can see that you and me are really developing our online friendship.

I refer you to page 16 of the 1995 edition of the Rough Guide to Poland: there is a warning there regarding illicit money exchange transactions.

Alternatively, check the 1999 edition of the Lonely Planet guide to Poland, page 60 "Street moneychangers are slowly becoming an extinct species, but some still hang around touristy places. Give them a miss - most are con men. Particularly, beware of moneychangers in Gdansk."

I thank you for the validation Sir. One had to be on ones toes as certain money exchange johnnies were not adverse to slipping you currencies which were even less valuable than the humble zlot. I believe you could buy a million zlots for 38 quid in 1993 whereas you could buy a million Turkish lira for far less, which could cause some of the thievin' bast@rds to slip you a few kebab notes

I am sorry,what?I am Poland's native and you refering me to the Rough Guide to Poland?I am sure there were or even still are con men taking advantage of dumb and ignorant foraigners,nothing wrong with that but what does it have to do with currency exchange?

I will let you think about that statement for a while
perhaps you would like to sleep on it and come back with a reasoned response after the benefit of good night's rest

It was a bit over £25 when I got to Poland two years later. I still have my first million.


It proves that, as we have been trying to tell you, as late as 1999 there were men in black leather jackets hanging round in touristy areas exchanging money.

Personally I found that as long as one was on one's toes and changed fairly small amounts, you could get better rates from such gentlemen (not surprising given that their overheads were limited to a leather(ish) jacket every decade and much of their profit margin came from the less than careful).

when I posted my earlier post about female university students putting out for a dollar in the 1980s, I expected to get absolutely chastised by dozens of readers accusing me of spouting nonsense. I am not an Arab gentleman, neither was I studying in Poland in the 1980s so I have to rely on my friend telling me the truth, having said that he was not the sort to bu11sh1t.

Instead the only response came from our portly friend with regards to whether Pewex took Silas Greenbacks or not

There's a halfway decent Polish movie about slightly earlier days which deals with money changers. It is called "Sztos" I believe and stars Pazura and Nowicki ( the latter, in my humble opinion, would have made a career both in UK and US had he been educated either in Britain or the States ). It has its moments, although I don't know if You can get a decent translation.

Back in the 1980's I rarely dealt with these guys because ( that's not said in the film I mentioned ) they all worked as informants for the infamous Polish political police. I think getting this job was actually one of the perks that came along with being an informant. But when we really had to we had these 2 semi-trustworthy guys ( they worked as a duo ) in Warsaw we dealt with. One of them is obscenely rich right now, no longer needs to work. The other one is... well, dead, and some people that knew him from back in the day said his death was mafia-related.


I conducted business in Poland in the 1980's through a "firma polonijna" and I've gotten **** on this site for describing some of the stuff Polish women would do in the 1980's.

Let's just say that I'm not in the least surprised by what You wrote. We had a saying in our little expat group in Warsaw that there had to be something wrong with a foreigner who didn't get laid in Poland, Polish women were basically throwing themselves at foreign guys and the almighty Dollar indeed often had a lot to do with it.

thanks for the tip about the film, a friend has just told me he can get me a copy. I will check it out.

many of the Warsaw money changers change profession in the late nineties and used to hang outside the big cinema (I think it was Kino Luna)

near the Tandoor Palace on Marszalkowska. They used to tout cinema tickets. So rather than queue, you
could turn up late and buy a cinema ticket at twice the normal price from the same surly men.

By all means please do, it may lose some in the translation, but Nowicki ( the older male protagonist ) gives a good performance.


Indeed some of them weren't fortunate and got side-swept as the new law on currency exchange took hold ( 1989 if I recall right ).
Others were ready and opened up many legal businesses that dealt with currency exchange and pretty much made millions ( check up the background on the Real Estate developer from GPW called "Gant" ).

Just like with the officers from the political police, some were ready for the new system and ended up running banks, others weren't and ended up as rent-a-cops.