Real Estate / Property Developer HORROR in Lodz [28]

You have had some bad luck and made some bad choices but its really up to you to resolve, not the government and not any journalists. The time to get a lawyer would have been before you signed the contract.

Where you may have a case is in the developer not switching on the power, but even that is contentious.

Few things I would do in your shoes

- get one room fitted up and heated, even if with boilers. you can all live there while it gets sorted
- it sounds very weird that the UK would cut your benefits if you have 16k of assets. I don't think that is right, so you should be entitled to UK unemployment benefit and maybe child benefit too

- maybe your wife is entitled to additional support under the Polish system ?
- I don't know what line of work you are in but could you somehow work on a weekly commute to the UK (your wife would have to stop working and look after the kid) - i.e. find some kind of back office job and do it Monday-Friday for as long as you can bear and fly in and out on Ryanair.

Real Estate / Property Developer HORROR in Lodz [28]


he didn't - it was his own choice. Its not up to the government to bail him out for this bad investment.

I know what's coming next - some non sequitur about the banks being bailed out.

Lost in Lodz - you need to confront the fact that you don't speak Polish if you are going to look for a job locally. I employ quite a few English speaking positions per year and sometimes get foreigners applying, but really there is no point adding someone to a team if they do not speak the local language - it will make everything more difficult, they will get frustrated and they have a much higher chance of leaving. That's why I suggested some kind of weekly commute to London.

As for doing your homework, if you found this forum a few years ago you would have found plenty of comments about the doubtful viability of loft apartments in Lodz.

Life / Directory for Wroclaw cell numbers? [18]

What size company is it ? If its a big one why not just find the guy on linkedin or goldenline - will be much more normal than ringing his cellphone

Life / Directory for Wroclaw cell numbers? [18]


Go into the store, leave your details and say you have some ideas that might be interesting for the manager/owner. If I were him I would respond.

Or you could find the address of the company (get a receipt and it will be printed there) and check it out online and sure you could get email contact.

UK, Ireland / London Strip Clubs? What's it like for women working there? [74]

But there are shady people in any cash business with high margins - fast food, scrap metal, used cars - that's life.

If the girls are willing participants and not being coerced then I don't see how anyone can have a problem with it. If I were a 20 something Pole with an attractive figure I would rather work 3-4 hours for 100 euro than sit in an office 8 hours for a third of that money.

In most cases I think the girls pay a retainer to work in the club but they keep the proceeds of their dancing for themselves i.e. they eat what they kill. In that respect its remarkably similar to the way legal and accounting partnerships work !

UK, Ireland / Polish mum wants to take child back to Poland [10]

I don't know the legal position but courts in Poland work really slowly and by creating facts on the ground then she will put herself in a stronger position by doing that.

What would be handy would be to document her boyfriends drinking and get some witnesses both Brits and Poles who would back her up.

Life / Amazon stops super saver delivery on orders to Poland [40]

Yes but this was a service they obviously could not sustain - Biedronka, Tesco, Carrefour etc make tiny margins in Poland - about 3%, and rent would normally be about 3-4% of their costs so there is no way someone is going to be able to sell the same stuff cheaper, shipping it from further away and still be profitable. At some point Amazon had to make this move.

Life / Moving to Krakow (and other questions) [23]

Hey I wish someone had told me that when I was 18 - would have spared myself 4 years of boring lectures and avoided a life of penury.

News / Little statistics about immigrants in Poland. Employment and job prospects. [25]

Not sure if that was a heyday - ethnic division was one of the factors that weakened interwar poland. Im not a right wing loony, just saying that the homogenous state set up in 1945 at least avoided the situations we have seen in yugoslavia and the fsu.

UK, Ireland / Cheap calls to the UK from Poland [30]

I thought lebara was also operating in poland now ?

Law / Investing money in Poland - what are the best areas / ways to invest private money? [23]


you certainly can go wrong, in Poland and in any other country.

But when it goes wrong most small investors tend to blame the banks or the govt rather than their own hubris.

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]

I read in gw that empikmis trying to sell that business for 300m zloty so its a big business for them. I guess you can only build something that size by having a mechanical approach to your teachers and customers.

Law / How to sell a ready made 'shelf' company in Poland (Gdynia) [5]

Being honest anyone who could afford to buy a shelf company would do it professionally rather than take the risk of something you have set up - they would then need to spend time and cash to check there were no transactions, no tax liabilities etc.

Work / Job offer from IT Giant in Katowice, Poland (UNIX specialist). Information on tax and rental costs needed. [65]

Its an interesting discussion. I will contribute only 2 things !

Its maybe worth a real "how much does it cost" thread, not just for English teachers but for people here with their families. I am now on my second tour in Poland - been in Prague, Germany too - but this time I have the kids in tow. We spend about 12.000 monthly for a family of 5 and we do not penny pinch at all - we rent a fair sized house, eat, dress and do pretty much the same entertainment stuff as we would in "the West". Only one kid is at school and he goes to state school (seems OK but its early days). What I would say is that only covers daily life and Polish entertainment - extra things like foreign holidays or new cars would be on top of that. If we reined in some spending I am sure we could live for say 10k.

In terms of "go back and ask for more" then put yourselves in the shoes of the recruiter (and I have sat in his shoes many times !). What is your value to that employer and does that equate to the cost of running your household here. I don't know what a Unix admin does but it is clear that it is not a job that will put any money in the till. So he wants to fill it cheaply while covering his ass to make sure the Unix does not melt down from poor admin. I think he could get a Pole for say 10k and that would be someone who he does need to worry about whether he will adapt to the weather, the food, be looking for a green card etc.

Work / Job offer from IT Giant in Katowice, Poland (UNIX specialist). Information on tax and rental costs needed. [65]

My say is that if you are clever enough to run a complex Unix system and worldly wise enough to raise a family you have enough info here to make your own decision :)

In terms of how much money you ask for relative to the US/Western Europe then think through what is your Plan B if the employer refuses to pay you that much.

Love / Wedding - bridesmaid for Polish friend; what things will remind her of home (customs traditions)? [6]

Well one thing that will work on even the tightest of budgets is bread and salt. Normally your new parents in law give you this after the ceremony (with a shot of vodka maybe).

Law / Setting up small business in Poland? [191]

I am not sure how much you expect to pay but you are obviously not going to get any one good for less than that. Watch you dont make a false economy.

News / Bitcoin Embassy Launches In Poland's Capital Warsaw [37]

Maybe a tulip bulb would be a better analogy than gold - the price of gold jewellery in a ritzy shop is a reflection of its aesthetics and its higher than the market price per ounce

The value of a phone is that you can speak to someone realtime who is not in the same room as you. I like that.

I have looked at investing in bitcoin a few times, but the reason i dont is because i cant understand how it works, despite 20 years of finance experience - your posts about how it is mined and the reputed intrinsic value are perfect examples.

So good luck to branson, generally he will invest in anything that gets his mugshot in the paper - his last investment in poland was pretty disastrous.

Travel / Driving in Poland, are there any rules at all? [149]

I think the higher fines and the cash being spent on traffic calming measures have had a great effect. When some of these idiots can lose a weeks wages i think the message is getting through.

Of course the police are still picking the most profitable spots, not the most dangerous. That will take a long time to change

Life / Driving Offences in Poland - How Fast can you go without being arrested? ;) [56]


But Poland does not aspire to be Egypt - surely with EU built roads it should try and have the same driving standards as Germany, Austria etc. I know this will take time. I am driving often in Czech and Slovakia and would say that people there drive with far more consideration and caution. So Poland first of all needs to catch up with these neighbors .

Part of the problem appears to be selfishness and entitlement. People here think that a bigger car automatically gives them right of way. There used to be a cool thread on this forum of badly parked vehicles !

Law / Can somebody explain ZUS to me? [40]

So the people who do pay ZUS dont give a damn about anyone else ? Thats a weird logic

Its obviusly a flawed system but for millions of Poles its the only welfare net that they have.

Law / Can somebody explain ZUS to me? [40]


I think the Poles save their civil disobedience for big things, like being the first people in the world to overthrow a communist state.

Its impossible to make taxes that are fair and at the right level for everyone and even 799 sounds a bit steep, but this is a democracy - you can't just not pay a tax if you don't like it.

Law / Advice needed on Inheriting loans in Poland, will they have to be repaid? [6]

Are the creditors reputable banks ? if so then it is very unusual that they made no effort to contact or send any letters. However they are more likely to have a valid claim on the land.

If it is some one else then first have a discussion with a lawyer, which will cost you a few hundred zloty but will be much more useful than doing it on here. Is there any hypothek registered on the land ? if not then that would be a huge advantage to your fiancé ?

The Polish court system works slowly and strongly favors people who have established the facts on the ground - it will take years for any creditor to get money from you.

Work / Career as an English teacher in Warsaw Poland [28]

@Old horse

put on a tin hat - within half an hour you will get a bunch of rational abuse about your spelling and irrational abuse about why do you think you can live in Poland.

its a great country but it has its ups and downs is my advice

USA, Canada / Best way to send thousands of dollars to Poland into a bank account. Paying a bill. [6]

If you are sending tens of thousands then be aware that the online brokers are often unregulated and uninsured. Remote chance of it going wrong, but if it does you will have nobody to complain to and no way to get your money back.

News / China-Poland railway - but why Łódź? [8]

Its a great idea and we were looking at it seriously for a few months to bring goods to Poland but then guess what happened ? The noisy neighbors started arguing with each other again and suddenly sending all of your goods across Russia does not seem such a great idea.

I can't see it being a really viable proposition until the political instability in Russia and Central Asia is fixed - at the moment I would rather take our chances with Somali pirates and monopolistic shipping lines than with Putin and all the mini Putins in the Stans.

UK, Ireland / Enforcing Polish Child maintenance order in UK court [29]

I wish my kids only cost 500 zloty a month ! Thats 17 zloty a day. What a pathetic guy - take him to court and make him face his responsibilities

Law / Sending Western Union cash to friends in Poland - questions [25]

With moneygram its 10.000 zloty so presume western union around the same. But of course you need to know the outlet is going to have that cash - thats not always a given so maybe call them first

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

One obvious comment is that median is a far better measure than mean in something like apartments

Life / Cost of living in Katowice, Poland [53]

one thing thats a bit weird for me is setting up these shared service centres in Poland and then staffing them with Indians. Why not just build them in India in the first place? is there some kind of tax break or other business reason for doing that ?