Buying an old-ish house in Poland - how to get it evaluated

Hi there,

My (Polish!) fiance and I are thinking about buying a 20 year old house and I want it checked out before committing any money. I have read that building surveys are not the norm in Poland and instead people can ask a builder to come and have a look. I have to say I don't like that idea much, as a builder is not an independent party with their reputation (and livelihood) at risk if they do not do their job properly!

A financial advisor told us that the land/building must be assessed for the bank, before they provide credit. I am wondering what this assessment includes. Maybe it provides enough detail for our needs, or perhaps we could ask for the inspection to include some extra things, e.g. the condition of the roof, plumbing/electrical wiring...

Otherwise, can a survey be arranged and will it scare the seller off?!

Any advice much appreciated ; )

My Polish wife and I built a house here in Poland, and we needed a certified building manager to OK every stage of the process by law.. This is the kind of guy you need. They don't have a vested interest in the house and don't care whether it's falling to bits or in good repair, so they are impartial.

Is the house occupied? The bank (God damn and blast their eyes) will certainly need a report before they bless you with their generosity.

A good building manager will go through everything like bad mushrooms.

Hold your horses there fella, nothing and i mean NOTHING is going scare the seller off so get that one out of your head for starters.

If you dont know much about basic building structures and such i would strongly suggest an independent builder, tell him what you want before hand and take it from there. To be honest you really need to know what to be looking for yourself, plumbing infrastructure, electrical wiring, state of the exterior and roof etc.. If its any consolation even the most complex housing renovations seem to be fairly easily solved by the average village guy.

Update: we got an engineer to look at it with us on the weekend. The same guy will do the report for the bank. We are paying 1200zl for both. As I said, the report for the bank is a requirement: no report, no money.

The guy compiling the evaluation can adjust his figures if you adjust his figure.

If I understand your meaning correctly... I think not. Part of the report cites local property prices, precisely so that people don't cook up low prices. Protection of tax revenues!

If my understanding of Polish tax law is correct, the tax office can arbitrarily value the house for their own purposes if they think it has been sold for too low a price. Frankly, if they didn't do this, people would be buying and selling for peanuts officially and paying the rest under the table.