Real Estate /
Question about Czynsz (Building maintenance fees/utilies) in Poland [129]
One of this things is happening:
- your landlord wants you to pay him extra 1000 zł - but you tell you were given bill so that is not a case
- your landlord misinformed you about the bills you will have to pay - this should have been included in bills stated
- you misunderstood your landlord, and he wants you to pay this bill for more than one month in advance.
you could write down what is written in that bill so we could tell you what is included.
It is possible that previous tenants used too much water or heating and this is why the bill is very high.
I actually used to work in building maitnance so I can tell you how it works. (with "Wspólnota", but "Spółdzielnia should work the same they just have bigger scale, and it's more possible for them to overuse their power)
- administration fees are around 1/3 of maintnance fees so around 0.4 zł /m2/ month = around 450 zł for 90m2 a year - which is probably what you compare your fees at home to this bill
- maintnance bills include all other things that need to be done during the year - all small repairs like the front door, bust pipes, cleaning tha corridors, swiping pavements, all mandatory check-ups. some companies have thair own staff that does it, others outsource- but in yearly statement it's always said how much which one costs., here also go all taxes. (some smaller building might not have cleaning included- if owners agree they would do it themselves. but that's rare
- renovation fund- is for bigger renovation , it's really up to owners how much they want to pay- but if there is a need for big renovation, or they have to pay loan for just finished renovation - it might be high. (the maitnance company might have their own stuff for smaller things , but usually outsoeces for bigger ones)- here is difference wih spółdzielnia, because spółdzielnia has one fund for all the buildings, while each wspólnota have their own account.
- heating bill. for the bill this high I still assume heating is included.
They assume (from previous years) how much /m2 should be paid in advance, and then calculate it after some time. It is usually divided so that part of the building's heating bill is divided per m2. and rest is divided with how much was used. (older buildnings have things on each heater that aproximate how much heat you use, compared to others, newer ones have actual devices that count hear used).
After they calculate it you either have to pay the difference, or are given back the difference (usually you pay this much less next month)
- cold water bill- you say how much water you would use (or they assume from previous bills)- and you pay in advance. then you either pay the difference, or they give it back
- hot water bill- works like cold water
if the building is responsible for hot water you usually pay (cold water price)*(all water amount)+(cost of heating the water)*(hot water amount)
- garbage disposal - is fixed fee, but in different places is calculated differntly.
- gas fee. If the building has gas only for cooker it s paid in the apartment bill and you can use as much as you want. I don't know how it shows on the bill, because I've never seen a bill like that.
all that I wrote are bills that owners of apartments pay- it is not called "CZYNSZ" in any docment. "CZYNSZ" is what tenants pay, so if the bill actually says "CZYNSZ" it means your "landlord" doesn't own the place.
To conclude:
I agree that something is shady with this amount of money. You should investigate more because it everything is how you describe, you should change apartment as fast as possible.
If you write what is included in bill we can tell you more.
