My late wife's father had a property in South West Poland (Opole District). When he died his third wife continued to live there.He had two daughters and a son - all from his first wife. The property seemed to belong to the three children and the surviving wife (previous wives deceased). The three children decided to put their share of the property in my wifes's name. Not sure of reason for this. The surviving wife died 20 years ago with no children but other family members - brother nephews. nieces. They did not show any interest in the property and its upkeep was maintained by my sister-in-law (resident in Germany). and myself. In English law my wife's estate passed solely to me by virtue of a will. I now wish to pass the property to my sister-in-law so that she can dispose of it. It does not have any significant estate value due to the location and condition. What is necessary under Polish inheritance law to achieve this? What is the position regarding the technical interest in the property of family of the third wife.
First you'd have to check if there is a will (to check that you'd have to go to the town and they could search if there's a record of that). If not then the only way is to hire a lawyer in the area and let them dig the papers. It could take a lot of time though; if your goal is to 'dispose it' then it may be better to just give up on that (lawyer and fees could cost some PLN).
It might be easier, so to speak, to dispose of the property. But wouldn't it be just as easy to make sure that there is no hidden surprises in dealing with the legalities of the property, such as liens from contractors or debt collectors. I could be wrong. If I was going to buy a property, it would be nice to know and have verified that it has a clear title. If it was sold under the presumption that it had a clear title and didn't, wouldn't that make things rather difficult in order to improve the property and may lead to a court case of misrepresentation. If the 2nd wife lived there until her death, there is no way of knowing what she debts or business dealings she had or made prior to her death. It is also partly confusing when it is mentioned there was 3 children and then it is intimated that there is a 4th.
