Travel / Driving from UK to Poland [9]

Having done this numerous times I would not recommend it. Once you do the math a flight and a budget rental car are way cheaper. The only reason we did it was we had a dog and needed to bring him with us. You can do it in one go depending on which part of Poland you are travelling to but it is dangerous. The advice I would give is to get a ferry early in the morning or at night and try to catch a couple of hours shut eye on it we always did the Dover-Dunkirk route for this reason. Also, you want to be disembarking early in the morning so the majority of the journey is in the daylight as driving at night after a 24hr stint at the wheel is asking for trouble. The really is nothing so interesting on route to see, perhaps Berlin is a good stop off as you have broken the back of most of the journey and hotels are plentiful. I went from London to Czluchow, I did it in a 2007 Mazda mx5 2 litre which took 2 tanks and also a Mercedes 2009 2.2 diesel which took 2 tanks a Renault Megane 1.6 diesel 1.25 tanks a vw passat 2015 2.0 diesel which took 1.5 tanks of fuel. It is a straight run not complicated expect traffic around Antwerp and Berlin and be aware of scammers on this route they will flag you down to and say something is wrong with your car then rob you so only stop at a petrol garage with CCTV.

Love / Recommendations for live wedding bands in different cities in Poland. [36]

jurekband .pl based in gdansk

UK, Ireland / Buying a Polish vehicle in the UK [28]

Ok so you will basically be in the same situation as I was. I bought a Polish registered car and then drove it to Poland and registered it there. I have now lived here for 5 years and I have discovered that the myth of OC (insurance) staying with the car is just a myth. Some things to know

1. You have 30 days from purchase to register the car all car purchases are done with a standard document with a date on it so be careful as if you don't register this car within the 30 days you will not be able to without redoing the paperwork.

2. The OC is supposed to stay with the car but in reality it doesn't you are required to register that you are the new owner with the existing insurance and you will always be charged a premium for change of ownership. This also cannot be done without a PESEL (Polish version of an NI number ) so if you haven't got one of these no chance here.

3. As I said before I drove to Poland on the old OC but if I had a crash I am sure that this would have been a living nightmare I believe the law says you can drive on the old OC whilst awaiting registration of the car in your name but this is designed for people who will drive their new car home in Poland and the next day go to the town hall and register it. So a crash would be a nightmare.

4. Also be careful who you buy from many polish owners get parking tickets and fines and think that they can just ignore it I heard a story of a guy buying a polish car and getting stopped at the border because of 2000 pounds worth of parking tickets or fines and ultimately loosing the car even though they had just bought it.

5. I get that the only way to get here now practically and safely is by car but better off doing this in an English car to be legal. you can register an English car here now if you don't mind the steering wheel being on the wrong side of the car which I don't recommend.

It all depends on your budget etc etc but One option could be an English Landrover freelander which can have the steering wheel swapped to LHD relatively inexpensively here.

Real Estate / Buy Land in Poland and Build a House from Wood [6]

Ok I have done this so here is my advice for what it is worth and I will tell you the mistakes I made to try and help you to avoid what I did.

First you need land. You need it to be building land but this means it will be quite difficult to get something in the middle of no-where, but going the agricultural route I think will just end in tears. We had the opportunity to go this using free land from my wife's parents and in the end, it was just impossible but the compromise you will have to make is a plot will not be singular and you will probably end up with neighbours.

There are lots of plots and the more rural ones will be sold without very important things like electricity, water or access to communal drainage. We bought one without water or drains but you have to factor into the cost the initial investment plus on-going upkeep.

A well will cost around 200 pln per metre you will need to dig down to get water and to get anything like decent drinkable quality you are looking at 30 meters plus. Mine went far deeper than this so do the math if the land has no water. Then comes drainage most town planning officers are only giving permission at the moment for sealed systems which means when it is full you will need them to come and pump it out and until they do, no going to toilet. Mine which is around 8000 litres lasts just over a month and costs 200 pln to pump and you have to monitor your waste water carefully and factor in for a broken government tractor for 3 days when you order the pumping trust me it is a nightmare.

Also, road access again my plot I thought it was wonderful having to drive 2 km through the forest to get to my wooden house but then the winter arrives. When we moved in, we had 2 normal cars after the first winter bye bye normal cars 1 4 x 4 normal car and one 4x4 all-terrain with the full tyre setup were required so factor this in as they are way more expensive to run and maintain.

So now we come to the wooden house bit. You have 3 options a first a big company with full factory facilities who will basically turn up with a ready-made house and put it together on your land. 2 medium sized company who will make your house from pieces. 3. A local one-man band who will make your house himself.

So, option 1

This is the best option but will be the most expensive about 30 percent more when I looked into it but will give you guarantees etc and will have good quality control and be professional. (I didn't take this option) I would recommend Sendom

Option 2

This was the one I went with my first place, Big mistake! One of the biggest problems in Poland at the moment is getting decent workers and the medium sized companies struggle the most with this. They end up scrapping the bottom of the barrel so the people that built my house were basically constantly drunk and sometimes didn't work because they hadn't finished partying nightmare. Also, medium size businesses have money issues and the guy who built our house 3 months later went bankrupt leaving 3 houses not finished, so no guarantee what so ever.

Option 3
We built after our house a building where we have an Airbnb business and we thought let's get a local guy who is recommended and will not be drunk or bankrupt and will take care to build our house well. So, here are problems too we live 3 hour's drive from Germany which means that all decent tradesman disappears often to Germany where they can earn3 times the money they can here. So, our guy although good and not a drunk did disappear 4 times for 3 weeks to make money in Germany without even a phone call to let us know very frustrating when the roof is not on and it's raining buckets.

So wooden houses things to know

They are warm but move for the first 4 years so look out for cracks that will let drafts in ruining your warm cosy house.

You have to paint them with paint that will cost you more than your car. We have to paint our house once every 2 years on the sunny side and once every 5 years on the other side. The paint costs 2000 pln for 25 litres and 50 is needed to do the painting plus your time and you will have to buy scaffolding or pay someone to paint it.

Your insurance will cost you 4 times as much. Our house is 150 metres square a concrete house you could probably insure for around 500 pln, ours 2200 but when a wood house burns it all goes so don't skimp here.

Don't skimp on windows and doors spend as much as you possibly can in this area as this will come back in any heating bills.

Wood moves so tiles in the first couple of years are a bad idea as they will crack as the house moves and they don't.

Ok so above are all the reasons not to do what you want to do, but the dreams of a wooden house next to forest are strong. If I did it again, I would still do wood but with allot of changes.

If you need any specific advice let me know

UK, Ireland / Buying a Polish vehicle in the UK [28]

Hey there,

I have bought a Polish car in the UK but it depends on what your intentions are. I was able to do this as I was then going to travel to Poland and in Poland I registered it to my name at my Polish address. I since discovered though I drove the 1500 km on the old OC and if I had had an accident I am pretty sure I wouldn't have been covered as the OC stays with the car I think is just a myth. So it depend on your future intentions but I would say to do it completely above board would be difficult

Work / Is starting a language school doable in Poland [9]

The real problem is the maths here let me walk you through my calculations, I am happy to be corrected here. Minimum cost: Rental of a school e.g otodom.pl/oferta/lokal-biurowy-w-scislym-centrum-chojnic-ID3Lcq0.html#ea2d91a38f

Rent 2000
Bills 1000 (heat light insurance Property tax etc I think this is on the low end)
Zus 1500 (I know you start lower but lets take the figure after the discount period)

Total outlay 4500

Ok so now look at possible earnings

The major money is always from Kids but kids have restricted hours I know there are Adults that don't conform to these hours but they will be supplementary income not the core of your business.

Teaching hours 15:30- 18:30. These seem to be the hours you can teach, due to the fact that the kids need drivers as Polish children don't walk anywhere especially not alone. Standard office hours are 7:00- 15:00 and later than 18:30 they can't focus. Also the School year is not 52 week and children will not come in school holiday times. They have 2 weeks for Christmas, 2 weeks for winter holiday, 1 week at Easter and 9 weeks in the summer plus various national holidays etc etc so lets say 15 weeks.

So 37 operating weeks. Cost per week = 4500 x 12 dived by 37 weeks which equals 1459 pln weekly. This business premises has 3 rooms so 1459 divided by 3 equals 486pln per room per week. Possible teaching hours 15 per week so the room has to generate you 32 pln per hour to make it worth it. This is at 100 percent capacity. So lets look at earnings per hour

Individual

Going rate for 121 English (polish teacher) Native will earn more but you are talking about a business so you will not be able to teach more.

Market rate is 75 pln per hour
Cost of teacher 50 pln

Plus you will have to pay tax or zus etc so 121's are a waste of time

Group

Group of 5

Going rate 25 pln per member 125 payment per hour minus 50 for teacher minus 32 room cost 43 pln for a group

Ok so worth it
Lets say you focus on groups. To hit this 4500 payment

You would need 104 hours per week of groups which means attracting over 500 students in your first year not unachievable but very very challenging.

Bear in mind I am using here best case. There are loads more costs receptionist materials IT equipment etc. I am happy to be corrected but this is how I see the situation.

Work / Is starting a language school doable in Poland [9]

Hey I Teach English as a native about 30km from Tuchola. So let me give you the lay of the land, Tuchola is a bit small for a school, I think so you would be looking at Chojnice there are 5 or 6 schools there, but no Natives. There used to be 3 including me, but now only me. I looked into starting a school myself but for any kind of decent school you will be looking at over 2500 per month in rent of a business location, on top of that Zus Bills etc and I found that when I did the sums, the numbers of students I would need would be very challenging to achieve. The real money "sort of" is in Business English which has ups, i.e higher per hour rate and downs i.e this has to be fully legal so look forward to that wonderfull 1200 pln per month ZUS payment. You can survive but to give you and indication of income for the first two years I struggled to hit 3500 per month which is almost starvation, but now can just about hit the 4500k mark but you will never be rich trust me if you need more info PM me.

Life / Amazon Alexa/Google Nest in Poland [10]

Hey I have a google home and nest it works just fine although when I set it up I do remmebr it didn't do much i.e had hardly any features then I chatted online with google and they got me to set it up and pretend I was in the USA some how now it works perfectly. I think now you can even speak to it in Polish,

Life / Exam for Drivers License in Poland; English? [99]

All I did was a bit of googling for you in Polish so take this not as a recommendation only as what it is but maybe this will help

grupaimage.eu/p358/testy-abcdt-en-wersja-angielska.html

Life / Work and Life in Krakow [11]

Ok so I am sure people will start to scream at you that you can't live off 2100 pln.

The fact is that you can, and many many people do but, don't expect a decent standard of living you will be budgeting every single day and you will have to watch your pennies hard.

If this is not the life you want then move on but I for 2 years from a similar amount and it didn't kill me.

Your choice

Law / Joint property law in Poland [7]

I don't know if the below will help you.

I posted on your other thread I would suggest I know this will be a pain in the arse but take a trip to Poland find a lawyer here and get the ball rolling with them. Find me the closest city to where he lived and get an English speaking lawyer and be quick because no doubt the x wife is doing everything she can to disinherit your daughters.]]

According to the Polish Inheritance Law, the heir acquires the inheritance at the moment of the opening of the inheritance (article 942 kc), that is at the moment of the testator's death (article 924 kc). However, the death itself is not enough to make somebody an owner of the real estate belonging to the deceased. Firstly, it is necessary to obtain a decision regarding the acquisition of Polish inheritance. Such a decision is issued by the Polish Inheritance Court. During the proceedings, the court examines who is entitled to inherit (in particular if the testator left a will) and to what share of the inheritance the individual heirs are entitled to.

To begin the proceedings to obtain a decision regarding the acquisition of the inheritance, a special application needs to be submitted. To draft it, the copies of the civil status records of the heirs and testator's death certificate are necessary. The application needs to be submitted to the court at the last place of testator's residence, and, if such a place of residence in Poland cannot be established, to the court at the place where the inheritance estate or its part is located (Polish Inheritance Court). In case the above-mentioned grounds do not exist, the inheritance court is the district court of the city of Warsaw. The payment of 50 zł needs to be submitted with the application.

After the proceedings, the court issues a decision, which will state who inherits after the deceased. Only when the decision goes into effect, do the heirs become the formal owners (or joint owners) of the real estate. An appeal from the decision can be taken by filing an appeal.

It is worth noting that since March 1, 2009, Polish notaries became authorized to issue a confirmation of inheritance in Poland based on the inheritance protocol. The necessary conditions for utilizing this institution is the presence of all persons eligible for inheritance and the lack of conflict between them in regards to the division of inheritance. In practice, all potential heirs meet at the notary's office to draft the inheritance protocol. Based on this protocol, the notary drafts a confirmation act of drafting the inheritance protocol. Next, he registers it in the electronic registrar of the confirmations of inheritance. From this moment, the act goes into effect the same way the court decision regarding the inheritance acquisition deed does.

Love / Recommendations for live wedding bands in different cities in Poland. [36]

Hey I got married in 2012 we used these guys

jurekband.pl

They are based in Gdansk so you wont have to spend loads on paying for them to get to you, They were great and learned the english song we wanted for our first dance.

Hope this helps

Love / How do Polish girls like to be asked and what sort of first dates are preferred? [4]

Ok So......

I am going to generalize allot in this post, about Polish men and Women no offence is intended and for every generalization there will be thousands who do not fit that image.

So here we go, Most Polish men are very Macho and this can be attractive to allot of Polish women however this Machoness comes with downsides, namely lack of intelligence, sensitivity and creativity. So you need to present yourself as a guy with these qualities but without loosing your manliness. In general a Polish girl will expect the man to take the lead so it will be down to you to do the asking. Also they in general like to be swept of their feet so the first date has to be good and well thought out. Also she has moved from her country to the UK which means she is exciting and adventurous and willing to try new things which is good. So my advice for what it is worth is.

You need to do the asking and just invite her for an evening out without allot of details be clear it's a date so you don't get disappointed when she rocks up with a couple of mates in tow. Now time for some planning she is fairly new to the UK so you need to loo for something she won't have done something interesting like an activity e.g boating or pottery classes or cooking classes. I am sure you will be able to google stuff like that for your city. Make sure the first part of the date is with little or no alcohol so you can show her that you have a brain aand can make conversation be witty and charming play on the nice guy English thing but really be nice listen to her and take an interest. Ask lots of questions and actually listen to the answers. Then after the interesting thing time to start drinking and now step from the interesting English Friend xone into potential boyfriend material. Take her to an interesting or swanky bar I prefer interesting and then get her drinks and tell her in no uncertain terms what you want from her but do not expect her to put out on the first night most Polish girls will make you wait it might not seem like it but it will be worth it. Then after the bar to a club to show that you can have fun even if you can't dance try she will appreciate it but tell her you are not a good dancer so she doesn't think your and idiot. Finally walk her home go in if she invites you but this will not mean you are getting laid trust me I made this mistake, have a coffee be nice and then leave. Also you gonna need to pay for most if not all of the first date. If she buys a couple of drinks great but be ready for this not to happen. The 100 quid you spend will be well worth it when you have a stunning Polish girlfriend to show off to your mates.

So that's me done good luck fella and remember Intelligent, sensitive but without loosing your manliness.

good luck

Real Estate / How much would it cost to build a house in Poland? [23]

The land was cheap because of no water or drains but we had to invest in our own well and septic tank. Once you have invested I think you are better off because then your water needs are almost free other than the electric to pump the water up and the 4 times a year pump out of your tank.

We do live in a village well sort of next to a forest but technically in a village. Also the price was cheap as we built a wooden house all the Pole think we are crazy and that we would freeze to death in the Winter but it is very warm and totally comfortable.

Wooden houses are cheap here because wood is plentifull

Real Estate / How much would it cost to build a house in Poland? [23]

Houses cost can vary allot but If you are talking in feet i/e around 150 square metres I built mine including the price of the Land for around 70k english it was cheap in my opinion but there is allot more involved than just a rough guess. I would say have a look at a site that sells plans for houses as they normally have an estimate of how much the cost will be. There will be two prices look at the bigger one as one will be just the elevation and the other will be a rough cost of a finished home but I think that you should come and check and ask as the land price etc will have an impact. I could write a book about all the pitfalls but not on this site for the regulars to pick it apart and tell me I don't know what I am talking about.

If you need any specific advice message me and I will be happy to help.

USA, Canada / Car Export from USA / Canada to Poland [30]

Also to register a car you will need a tax number which involves allot of faff took me 4 months