House owning in Poland - Questions - Which offices are involved? Rules.

Hi,

I am a co-owner of a detached living house in Krakow. My Plan is to rent it out.
But I have to know about all the fees/requirements involving owning a house.
I suppose the fees are for gas, water, garbage, electricity, phone, internet, taxes and an obligation to clear the pavement after snowfall and make sure no trees/bushes are sticking out from the property.

What other fees/obligations could be involved?
I do not care so much it the exiting owner does not pay for many of the fees above since I am not living there and the services would only be cut off, but I would like to know if there are any missing taxes not payed in or if the pavement has not been cleared - because that could give me problems.

How can I know or get to know about this? Which Urzląnd's are involved?

Also, can I start receiving post/mail to my existing neighbouring country? Can I register an foreign adress in Poland?
I guess I do not have any adress in Poland at all.
Maybe I could create an adress, but make them send all mails to my country's adress instead?

I am planing to rent out my part of the house. Can I set any czynsz I want or are there any limitations?
Are there any taxes from this typ of income (I do not want to pay taxes twice).

Do you need to heat the house (gas usage) during winter so the radiator pipes will not burst by freezed in water?

/Thanks

Urząd Miasta - Municipal and Communal Office


Offices don`t send emails, they send notices by regular post if there is a problem. The only exception was pandemia quarantine.

You mentioned removal of snow in winter. You will need sb to do it for you. Can`t that person collect your mail, too?


Yes, any you want.
Yes, you have to pay taxes for letting your property, it is natural.

As for heating, it depends on a winter - the last one was very mild - the temp in my summer house was always around 10 degrees C.

Thanks!
So the polish post office does not have any service for forwarding my post abroad?
Is declaration taxes done to Urząd Skarbowy? And there is only one Urząd Skarbowy for the whole Poland?
What is the yearly due date?

The Polish Post Office has such service, of course, but I was talking about municipal or revenue offices. They have a contract with the Post Office for free delivery of official papers to people throughout Poland. But I have no idea about abroad.

Yes, you submit your annual tax declaration to a proper revenue office, the one which deals with your area. You mentioned Krakow - there are several in the city, each for a different district.

It depends on what kind of tax you pay. Rental income tax is due till late February.

Thanks!
I guess that Poczta Polska is the post service that every urzady is using, so if I ask Poczta Polska to deliver my post abroad it would work perfectly as if I were living in Poland? I guess Poczta Polska has monopoly for post services in Poland, otherwise I have to ask several post services to post my mail abroad.

Right now I do not have any adress in Poland. Do I need one or can I pay taxes in Poland with a foreign adress. Or maybe I will only pay taxes in my home country...?

I would rather pay taxes in Poland, but only if I can deduct renovation costs from renting income.

You are asking important questions but we still have too little data. You are not a Polish citizen, then the matter gets complicated. How about EU citizenship at least?

The Post Office doesn`t redirect official letters to a foreign address.

To pay taxes in Poland, you need a personal tax number.

Thanks!
I will apply for a polish passport and a PESEL soon.
Is a PESEL the same as a personal tax number, or do I have to apply, where?
So Polish Post Office does not have any service to send post abroad?
I am trying to search for "poczta polska adres zagraniczny" but do not find anything good.
In my country you can ask for a "special post adres" and have your post delivered to that adres - works even for abroad adreses.

You go to the local council offices, you go to the room where they do the ID cards , tell them you wish to register your stay in Poland , you will need proof of where you are staying property ownership , landlord , guest house letter, whatever , they will register you give you a pessel and if you pay 17zl they will give you a piece of paper that says you have registered your stay , you can choose 1,2,3 yearsl oh you need your passport.

Thanks!
What is the polish name for "local council offices"?
But I do not want to register my stay in Poland beacuse I am not moving to Poland.
I just want to be able to post-wise comunicate with different urzandy lika urzad skarbow, and be able to pay taxes in Poland.
I should be able to recieve a personal tax number even if I am homeless, kind of.

Urząd Miasta

Regardless of what you do you need a pessel to start with, you cant even buy coal without one.


You need to talk to the tax office for a nip tax number.

Thanks!
I will have to find some solution for my post forwarding problems.

Here you can use them and they are in Poland also.They will receive your mail/Package and forward it to you for a fee:europemailbox.com/mailbox-in-poland

or even them I think as there site in Poland is in Polish but they do that in the States:mbe.pl/pl

You will need a trusted person to deal with your rental matters anyway. if your tenants call you there is a technical problem with gas, electricity, Internet, washing machine, fridge, toilet flushing, broken bulb etc - how are you going to solve them being abroad???

@pawian


I never had any tenats before, but I guess they will have to take care of things like that. I can pay if something gets broken if it something important.

So they will have to have it fixed, but I can pay for it. I also want them to take care of the house like clear the snow and mowing the lawn. Actually my tenants could forward my post, but then I have to be sure to always have a tenant...

Yes, they can do it but they can also try to rip you off, arranging various scams, e.g., pretending the washing machine is broken and then expecting you to refund the repair costs to them. That is why you need sb on spot to make sure. You know the English proverb about doing things oneself.

@Cargo pants
europemailbox.com/mailbox-in-poland
does not solve my problem. I do not need another mailadress in Poland beacuse I will have my own adress in Poland - even though I am not registered there yet.

If I make the post come to my adress, europemailbox will not drive home to my adress and pick up my letters and forward them to me.

It will be tricky if I will be registered on one Polish adres but have a diffrent Polish adres for receiving post, from which they send it abroad. If I can have a diffrent post adres than the adres I am registered at, then my post adress will be the foregin one and not a second Polsih.

Besides /mailbox-in-poland has status "Registrations are temporaly closed."

@pawian
Yes I guess you are right. But many people are renting out and make it work. There are probably special insurances where you can take before-and-after pictures to see if the tenants have damaged anything and make a claim. Also you can rent through an agency, and they will also make sure you get paid every month on time.

Oh, yes, it is the best solution in your case. It costs 7-15% of rental income.

I am wondering, if I buy an apartment in Poland, do you need a valid reason for renting it out? Can you set as high a fee as you want to?

Can you have an air bnb or will it not be aloud in some housing associations?

No you don't!


Basically yes!


hmm - no idea!

I haven`t heard of any restrictive regulations so it is allowed.

@Ironside @pawian
Thanks for your both your answers.
Where I live you officially need a reason for renting out, like studying on a diffrerent place for some period, or moving in with your partner but you are not sure if it will work out. Also you cannot set any fee as you want - it is regulated, and also air bnb is most often not allowed. So three thumbs up for Poland!

Well, it shouldn`t be - free market should regulate it. It is your private business what rent you demand/expect.

If you are buying in wspolnota housing association then while it is legal to do Air bnb at the moment, there is a lot of discussion about it and some moves to make Air b n b landlords pay higher czynsz, or to allow the wspolnota to forbid Air b n b.

There is a very high chance of extra taxes on Air bnb in the future - second home owners are an easy political target and with the tourist sector under huge pressure that is an easy place to look both for extra taxes and to level the playing field - you can certainly expect more VAT and building inspections,

If you are renting full time to the same tenant that is far simpler but I also expect tax increases in the next few years,

@cms neuf
Thanks. I think I already will pay high taxes because I live abroad where there are high taxes.

They're not your servants. Clearing the snow is acceptable but you have some cheek to expect them to forward your post. How would that work exactly? They gather it together - how often? Every time an envelope arrives? Once a month? Then they go to the post office, queue up (which can take half an hour in a busy post office), send it registered presumably and pay for the postage, which you then reimburse them somehow?? Completely unreasonable expecation on your part.

As for repairs and maintenance, why should they spend their personal time calling tradesmen etc. Their only obligation is to inform you that something needs fixing, It's your responsibility to make the arrangements.

@Atch
Yeah, you are right, this plan fails if they need to go to the post office...