LauraPL
30 Jul 2024 #1
Here is my story.
I don't live in Poland any more, but still have family and connections there. After my father died, my brother who lives in Poland managed to rent our family's apartment. It's a communal apartment (managed by "spoldzielnia mieszkaniowa") and they charge about 1400PLN (400 USD) every month for heating and maintenance (it IS every month, not just in the winter when you use heating).
Initially, the tenants appeared to be: a single mother with 2 children. It made sense for them to rent in the area since a primary school was nearby and they could walk there from home. Everything went smoothly for a few months. Then, they stopped paying for rent. She came up with different excuses like "Don't worry, we'll pay you once my ex husband pays the monthly alimony" or something like that.
I live abroad and my brother doesn't live close to the apartment, so there was nobody to take action on time (if there was any way to do it legally). It's been months and months, I kept paying the association fees. The fees MUST be paid every month by apartment owner; they don't care if you rent or not, it's the owner's responsibility. If you stopped paying, they have the right to take the apartment from you.
Anyway, my brother kept trying to go and visit the apartment for weeks. According to the Polish law, you CANNOT just enter your home with tenants without scheduling an appointment with them. So he kept texting them to schedule an appointment, but they always had an excuse that they are not available. So one day he just went there with a friend and it turned out that they changed the locks. It was impossible to enter the apartment. They changed the locks from both the doors and the postal box.
I called the association to ask what's going on and how to deal with it. They basically said it's not their problem and the monthly fee cannot be voided. My brother had an idea - disconnect all facilities like electricity, heating, water, and trash removal.
Well... the only thing possible to get disconnected was the electricity because it is managed by an external service (not related to the housing association). Anything else, including heating, water, and trash COULD NOT be disconnected. So we disconnected electricity. Guess what - they managed to get their own electricity service within a few days.
So they had free: housing, heating, water, and trash, and they got own electricity service. They haven't been paying for rent over a year now. All communication from them stopped.
My other family members got pissed too, so one day they went to the apartment and kept knocking until someone responds. They were even about to break windows to get inside. Finally someone opened and they started yelling at each other. It turned out there are.... several people living in the apartment now! The woman, a man, another woman (her sister) and a few children! They no longer had any valid tenant agreement (which was valid for 3 persons only anyway).
During the commotion on a corridor, my brother called the police. They came, he showed them his document proving he is legally a permanent resident under this address and that he just wants to enter his home which is occupied by squatters. You know what the police said? They said that legally there is nothing they can do about it and if my family continues "disturbing" the tenants (in our own home), they will take my brother and the rest of the family to jail. This is exactly what they said.
I told my brother and family to let it go not to get into trouble, so that's how it ended.
Later, I finally hired a local attorney. He confirmed what the police said that in Poland the owner has basically no rights to his home when it's rented. And it doesn't matter if the tenant has an invalid agreement and whether they even pay for rent. The landlords are screwed. The only way to turn things around was to start a lawsuit to evict the tenants. He said it's going to be a long process, especially that the squatters made sure they had children living in the apartment which is the worst case scenario for the landlord.
The process took about.. 2 YEARS. First, the lawyer started an eviction lawsuit, but to make it happen he first had to write letters to the city as the city is responsible for finding an apartment for the tenants first. The city, of course, initially said they have no community apartments available for such a big family, but they may have something in a few months. After several months and more legal letters, they said they found a properly-sized apartment, but first it needs to get renovated to be approved by the city.
More months ahead, they finally approved it. Of course, the squatters had the "right" to delay everything by claiming that something doesn't work well in the apartment and it needs to be fixed first, etc. Finally, the eviction lawsuit was successful and our lawyer could hand the eviction notice to the squatters. They moved out (not leaving us the keys to enter the home). The apartment was in a sorry state, everything now needs to be renovated again.
So after about 2.5 years of paying all the association fees, getting the apartment trashed, paying all the lawyer fees, lots of stress, the story ends there.
Poland and the Polish laws hate landlords and this is a very good lesson for us. Hopefully others will read and reconsider renting their homes, especially the ones managed by a house association.
I don't live in Poland any more, but still have family and connections there. After my father died, my brother who lives in Poland managed to rent our family's apartment. It's a communal apartment (managed by "spoldzielnia mieszkaniowa") and they charge about 1400PLN (400 USD) every month for heating and maintenance (it IS every month, not just in the winter when you use heating).
Initially, the tenants appeared to be: a single mother with 2 children. It made sense for them to rent in the area since a primary school was nearby and they could walk there from home. Everything went smoothly for a few months. Then, they stopped paying for rent. She came up with different excuses like "Don't worry, we'll pay you once my ex husband pays the monthly alimony" or something like that.
I live abroad and my brother doesn't live close to the apartment, so there was nobody to take action on time (if there was any way to do it legally). It's been months and months, I kept paying the association fees. The fees MUST be paid every month by apartment owner; they don't care if you rent or not, it's the owner's responsibility. If you stopped paying, they have the right to take the apartment from you.
Anyway, my brother kept trying to go and visit the apartment for weeks. According to the Polish law, you CANNOT just enter your home with tenants without scheduling an appointment with them. So he kept texting them to schedule an appointment, but they always had an excuse that they are not available. So one day he just went there with a friend and it turned out that they changed the locks. It was impossible to enter the apartment. They changed the locks from both the doors and the postal box.
I called the association to ask what's going on and how to deal with it. They basically said it's not their problem and the monthly fee cannot be voided. My brother had an idea - disconnect all facilities like electricity, heating, water, and trash removal.
Well... the only thing possible to get disconnected was the electricity because it is managed by an external service (not related to the housing association). Anything else, including heating, water, and trash COULD NOT be disconnected. So we disconnected electricity. Guess what - they managed to get their own electricity service within a few days.
So they had free: housing, heating, water, and trash, and they got own electricity service. They haven't been paying for rent over a year now. All communication from them stopped.
My other family members got pissed too, so one day they went to the apartment and kept knocking until someone responds. They were even about to break windows to get inside. Finally someone opened and they started yelling at each other. It turned out there are.... several people living in the apartment now! The woman, a man, another woman (her sister) and a few children! They no longer had any valid tenant agreement (which was valid for 3 persons only anyway).
During the commotion on a corridor, my brother called the police. They came, he showed them his document proving he is legally a permanent resident under this address and that he just wants to enter his home which is occupied by squatters. You know what the police said? They said that legally there is nothing they can do about it and if my family continues "disturbing" the tenants (in our own home), they will take my brother and the rest of the family to jail. This is exactly what they said.
I told my brother and family to let it go not to get into trouble, so that's how it ended.
Later, I finally hired a local attorney. He confirmed what the police said that in Poland the owner has basically no rights to his home when it's rented. And it doesn't matter if the tenant has an invalid agreement and whether they even pay for rent. The landlords are screwed. The only way to turn things around was to start a lawsuit to evict the tenants. He said it's going to be a long process, especially that the squatters made sure they had children living in the apartment which is the worst case scenario for the landlord.
The process took about.. 2 YEARS. First, the lawyer started an eviction lawsuit, but to make it happen he first had to write letters to the city as the city is responsible for finding an apartment for the tenants first. The city, of course, initially said they have no community apartments available for such a big family, but they may have something in a few months. After several months and more legal letters, they said they found a properly-sized apartment, but first it needs to get renovated to be approved by the city.
More months ahead, they finally approved it. Of course, the squatters had the "right" to delay everything by claiming that something doesn't work well in the apartment and it needs to be fixed first, etc. Finally, the eviction lawsuit was successful and our lawyer could hand the eviction notice to the squatters. They moved out (not leaving us the keys to enter the home). The apartment was in a sorry state, everything now needs to be renovated again.
So after about 2.5 years of paying all the association fees, getting the apartment trashed, paying all the lawyer fees, lots of stress, the story ends there.
Poland and the Polish laws hate landlords and this is a very good lesson for us. Hopefully others will read and reconsider renting their homes, especially the ones managed by a house association.