Real Estate / Apartment in Poland is not up to standard; right to terminate the rental agreement? [78]


This seems a lot and too much especially of you are away part of the day. Are these official bills from the Gas provider and buidling administrator ?

If i were you i would not have any scruples in leaving soon but it is up to you.

Real Estate / Apartment in Poland is not up to standard; right to terminate the rental agreement? [78]


So you are free to leave anytime as long as you paid for the time you stayed.

My advice would be you just talk to your landlord and explain to her that the flat is no longer suitable for you, it is too big or too far or something , you don't need to give her a reason actually but if you feel she would benefit from knowing that the freezing floor is really unpleasant you may have her informed.

Real Estate / Any Rent Guarantee Insurance in Poland? Tenants& Landlords In Poland [5]

Funny though that big insurance companies in Poland do not offer this kind of insurance given the number of people who rent in Poland: Rent guarantee insurance policies are very popular in the UK France Germany.

Imagine you rent a place for 1000zl a month , taking someone to court and paying ridiculous legal fees is not worth it.
My Polish friend from Warsaw will not do it...

Real Estate / Apartment in Poland is not up to standard; right to terminate the rental agreement? [78]


Exactly .It is not only legal but in the interest of the landlord to provide a flat without problems passed on to the tenant because otherwise he will never have any tenant who can accept to stay in his flat.

Real Estate / Apartment in Poland is not up to standard; right to terminate the rental agreement? [78]


Signing a contract for a full year does not mean you have to stay and pay a full year whether you like it or not if you encounter a problem in the property you rentbut you need to send a registered letter to the agency or the owner giving them notice ( you need to check your contract )it could be 1 month, 2 months or 3 months notice but there is a clause in the Civil code of Vis Major and casus fortuitus (latin) which allows you to resign from a rental agreement since there might be a draft and it is freezing or if you are sent away for a new job.

I do not see how the owner/agency can make you pay unless you have already paid for the whole year but they do need the notice.

Do not forget that the owner is supposed to provide by law a property which satisfies the comfort of the tenant.

Real Estate / CZYNSZ - payment issue - help [43]


No the owner or administrator has to provide official invoices for the building expenses he wants you to pay because your cszyncz depends on the amounts of these official bills divided by your M2, let(s say if the total square meters of the buidling is 1000 M2 each co owners share the bills expenses;

In front of the court, only official bills can be taken into account , not simply what the Buidling admninistrator writes,if he pays the cleaner under the table or makes you pay more than what you should pay or makes you pay for wrong square meters it is illegal.

However given the way Justice is administrated in Poland and how consumers are protected i doubt you would win but the Building administrator has to provide you with all the official documents + bills so just send him a registered letter asking for those official bills in Polish via a lawyer and your payments can drag on forever until he has provided all proof of the buidling expenses.

If you register i may PM you/ recommend you a Krakow Polish lawyer, she is nice and honest.

Real Estate / CZYNSZ - payment issue - help [43]

The czynsz payment in Poland is a real Rip off and it should be more transparent for flat owners because i have the feeling it is the reign of the arbitrary.

I pay a lot a czyncz for my flat too every month and i never got the entire details ,normally everthing is based on the size of our flats and rationally divided between owners and based the year budget which is voted per year but i never got to see what the other owners are paying and it might aswell go into the pocket of a building manager because i don't know how much she is paying for the building water,salary for the cleaner etc.

Whether you live there 1 day per year or all year long ,it does not make any difference, you'll need to pay for all the building maintenance fees and share with all the other co owners but your numbers for water should be very small.Check the meter and ask as many official documents as possible (Building electricity bill etc), your fee seems indeed very small. How many square meters do you have?

Work / Monthly income for family - Warsaw [71]

July25 ,I would recommend Mokotow ,that' s where my Warsaw friends were raised, it is near Park Lazienki and very convenient.
This private school 's fees are about 1500 zl a month ( but includes everything, tuition meals snacks etc)
teczowyogrod.com.pl/szkola/oferta,platnosci,24.html

Otherwise there are public schools like this one which looks perfectly fine to me but it is 100% Polish instruction(school 212 Krystyna Krahelska):

sp212.szkolnastrona.pl/o-szkole,m,mg,2.html

I would put the children at a good Polish public school, they will be quiet in classes and absorb the linguistic and cultural Polish data for some months /1 year then they ll be like every Polish child. If It does not work you can always ask them if they want to switch or if they are ok.

With the money saved you may supplement their integration by hiring a private Polish instructor , this should be easy to find in Warsaw and spoilt the kids a bit with fun activities litlle trips horse riding you name it so that they enjoy Poland.

All the best

Love / English Men vs Polish Men [207]


You bet, longing and waiting 2 years for someone who just glanced at you and not even said hello ?

No offense but maybe he was just looking at you without anything else on his mind.

History / 1920 Battle of Warsaw - English trailer and film [55]

Yes I have seen the trailer but was asking about the film not about the trailer.
Has anyone seen the film released i believe in October 2011?

Work / Monthly income for family - Warsaw [71]


That's an excellent point, she would have to find a public school with teachers who speak English too . No sure it is uncommon or common but once again my question is why would it be more unthinkable for an English speaking mum to send her children to a non English speaking place in Poland than it would be for a Vietnamese mum or Indian or Syrian mum to do so ?

I have friends who relocated to Peru for work and my girlfriend sent her 2 toddlers to a local peruvian school (she does speak Spanish though) and the children are very happy according to her ,her boy and her girl adapted well and became bilingual in 1 year.

She was not asking for a specific treatment for her and for them because they are not from Peru and did not speak the language or knew the culture well.

History / 1920 Battle of Warsaw - English trailer and film [55]

Merged: Polish Film : The Battle of Warsaw 1920, your feedback

Hi, What's your feed back about the Battle of Warsaw 1920 directed by Jerzy Hoffman?

Actors, scenery, film directing etc.

Thanks

Language / Czego, Czemu, Co, Kto, Jak, Dlaczego? [64]


Yes very important. It has to do with direct interrogation ( co masz? czo robisz ?) or indirect interrogation( Kogo ona zna ?) ale Kto jest?direct

Work / Monthly income for family - Warsaw [71]

Pip How do you know about that if you have not sent your own children to a local public school ?

I mean for most people having to send their children to public schools when they move abroad there is no dilemma of choice and their children do adapt .

What would be interesting is to hear someone who sent her/his children to a Polish school and whose children had a good or bad experience.

Children are not adults but they are not made of fragile glass either ,they play together sing together , they do get traumatised if people are nasty to them but not because there are in a totally different cultural or linguistic environment.

I mean refusing to go to Poland because you can't afford to send your children to some expensive private school would be silly.

Work / Monthly income for family - Warsaw [71]


July25 Do not worry about that, your children will be fine.

Do you think Polish, Hispanic children, Chinese children Japanese children etc all attend Polish Chinese Japanese schools when their parents move to the UK or the US ? Do you think they all speak English when they arrive?

If you explain to your children that "in Poland live like the Poles" is part of their international experience they will be ok after a couple of months.

The quality of a a public shool in Warsaw should work with the location, if your pick up an up market neighbourghood the local schools should be good.

This pretty much works all over the planet, if I were to move to London and live in Belgravia or Kensington ,there is no doubt that the local public shool will be safe and of good standards.

News / Will Poland be badly hit by Recession ? I don't think so. [70]

No way that Poland will take Greece position.

I just read that Whirlpool, Credit Agricole , Samsungand some other Asian multinational companies will open new branches or plants in Poland.

When was the last time any international company opened a susbidiary or invested in Greece?

Work / Monthly income for family - Warsaw [71]


I should hope so given what they charge.

And indeed Pip if the American School in Warsaw has great equipment it does explain its success with families who might have the impression they are sending their children to a Club Med vacation resort however i am extremely skeptical in the superiority of its curriculum because i know loads of Polish doctors, journalists entrepreneurs, professors you name it who are extremely bright and who were educated in Polish local schools and never attended fancy international schools although they speak fluently at least 2 languages .

Some of them won the Fulbright scholarship and believe me ,they were far from attending schools in Poland which had the American school' facilities or equipment.

What i would say to July25 regarding her kids education is to ask around about good local schools in Warsaw and if there is a problem they could always switch to a private school , right?

Work / Monthly income for family - Warsaw [71]

So what percentage of his year salary is your boss spending at the American school for his 2 kids ? 30 %, 50 % ?

I mean I would understand families making big sacrifices to sending their teenage kids to the MIT or Harvard or the London School of Economics or anu college with a reputation of excellence in its field by the American school in Warsaw, give me a break.

What do the kids learn or do for this price ?

Work / Monthly income for family - Warsaw [71]

60 000 zl X 3 children :180 000 zl per year.
Pwei find me a family on 15 000 zl a month sending their children under 10 with their own money at the American school in Poland and I will have lost my bet...

Work / Monthly income for family - Warsaw [71]


Ridiculous fees which i assume are only for American expats living in their American bubble and paid by their companies in their expat packages otherwise that school would never ever have any pupil, i bet.

When you think about the millions about people traveling the world and moving countries with their families only a small percentage would not take the opportunity to send their children to local schools if they find some good ones and only a small percentage could afford to spend such amounts of money on a 10 years old.

Especially for primary schools kids can adapt quickly and benefit from a true language and cultural immersion.

This applies for China, Argentina, Uk, France, Germany Poland, pretty much everywhere where education is good, don't you think?
Having said that i think it is just a question of finding out if it is worth sending kids to expensive private schools in a Europe when they are under or 10 years old.

Work / Monthly income for family - Warsaw [71]


so for 2 kids it would be approximately 400 euros/500US dollars per month. It is not cheap but not that outrageously expensive compared with the UK or US private fees.

the main concern is about children's education expenses

I would advise that juli25 sends her children to a good local state school if the children are toddlers, after all Polish education is excellent and there is no need to send them to an international private preschool.

Just get an English or American au pair (usually they are students) or an English speaking nanny, to supplement for English language exposure.

You should be able to get a nice and big apartment.

Work / HCL 3500 PLN GROSS, Krakow [8]

Bormer ,given the unemployment situation in Italy anf if you are a junior for this position ,you might consider accepting this job,you ll get by with this salary(not that you ll be able to save anything or lead a luxurious life )but you ll ok and you ll gain a good experience in Krakow.

Travel / What can Poland do to attract more tourists? Llamas farm? [65]


Absolutely, the Polish Tourism agency is not doing proper work in promoting Poland 's many jewel cities, natural sites, food etc.
Their marketing of Poland is poor and they should hire professionals for their media communication.

I am wondering if they even have a branch in Japan...

Work / So I received an offer from a Poland language school - what's your take on this? [59]


I agree with Foreigner4 and his ethical position:

Why cheat language schools which propose you work and for which you act as a subcontractor/language consultant ?

After all they do the commercial work and find contracts that no freelance consultant is obliged to accept against his/her will.


And Foreigner4 is also right on this:
Let's imagine you own a bookshop , would you pay the salesperson 50% of each book sold?

I mean if the school charges 120 zl each hour and they are willing to pay a freelance 65 zl each hour their margin is not brilliant when you think that there are schools paying their employees a fixed amount of 3000zl for 30 hours of teaching per week/120 hours a month when they are also charging 120zl an hour ,those schools are businesses which do make significant money like Wall street Institute or Berlitz and some other low quality institutes.

Work / So I received an offer from a Poland language school - what's your take on this? [59]

Be sure that if both parties think it worth it ,the Business collaboration between you and this language school will take place, if not then no regrets .

Work / So I received an offer from a Poland language school - what's your take on this? [59]

Foreigner4 , in my opinion what this language school charges is none of your business (without any playing on words)they could charge their clients 600zl an hour if they can because you would act as a subcontractor/consultant for another business client.What you should look at is :

Is this rate advantageous for me? Do I need this work?Or money or an extra contract? Do i want to act as a subcontractor/freelance consultants for schools or a regular or from time to time basis ?

Nowadays 65zl an hour is not bad at all but it is just my personal opinion which i appear to share with your wife.

Travel / Restaurant reviews in Poland. [86]


I adore Wentlz in Krakow but the café section ( delicious ice creams,cakes) nice relaxing atmosphere outside in the Summer and inside in Winter.

What about the very luxurious and expensive classic restaurant FUKIER in Warsaw ,is it still doing well ? This is the typical expat place for me and i think the meals are mostly covered by corporate credit cards.

News / The European Health Card. Why don't the Poles know about it? Free Medical care. [26]

If Wroclaw tells you that the NFZ lady was wrong than you say thank you Wroclaw and you admit your mistake. Lol

I never wrote that the European Health Insurance card was valid forever and that it repalces any existing european health system.Because it does not and is not meant to replace our own country specific health insurance card.

I said It worked when you travel abroad for a definite period of time (holiday, seminar, meetings ) and that it is free for Europeans ,that's all.

If it takes time to get it in Poland for Poles who are interested it is regrettable but still each person can decide for himself it is worth His/her wasting time or not.

Your private system may be better and cheap but there are people who can't afford even 200 zl a year so it is up to them to choose something free or something cheap.

Real Estate / Renting flat/apartment with dog Gdansk? [24]

Yes on Gumtree in Poland posted adverts mention if pets are welcome or not

Real Estate / Banks in Poland selling fewer mortgages in 2011, down 49% [285]

Pip 's husband is in commercial Real Estate i read so of course with so many new businesses opening in Poland and looking for office space ,this segment of the market might be ok(less speculation, no Swiss francs based morgages and not enough commercial space actually in Poland?) but for Residential Real Estate it is another story ...