When you buy a flat in a tenement house (kamienica, a pre-war city apartment building) in Warsaw, you buy the building’s history with it, and the risk usually sits in the paperwork and in the walls rather than in the flat itself. Before the preliminary agreement (umowa przedwstępna), check five things: section III of the land and mortgage register (claims, warnings, the conversion charge), the building’s heritage status, the owners’ association’s resolutions and finances, the building inspection records, and the heat source. Rules and amounts in this guide are as of September 2026.
If you do not read Polish, start with the main point: every document listed below exists only in Polish. Ask for the key papers early and go through them before paying any deposit, not on the day of the deal. If you are still weighing a tenement flat against a new-build, compare the two markets first: new-build or resale.
A tenement flat in Praga, Śródmieście or Mokotów: what do these buildings have in common?
One thing: the decree of 26 October 1945 on the ownership and use of land in the Warsaw area. It entered into force on 21 November 1945 and, according to the Sejm’s legal acts database, still has the status “in force” (as of September 2026). It covered land within the city’s boundaries at the time.
The decree did three things that still affect tenement houses:
- art. 1: land passed into the ownership of the municipality, the City of Warsaw;
- art. 5: buildings stayed with their existing owners, “unless special provisions state otherwise”;
- art. 7: the former owner or their legal successors could, within 6 months of the municipality taking possession of the land, apply for a right of perpetual lease or a right to build.
Decree proceedings are based on those applications, and some are still running. So the risk of claims is decided not by the district but by the specific address and its register. You choose the district for the feel of the street and the commute, and you check the risks for one building.
How do you check the legal status: land and mortgage register, perpetual usufruct, former owners’ claims?
Land and mortgage register (księga wieczysta). Registers are public (art. 2 of the Act on Land and Mortgage Registers and Mortgages). Anyone who knows the number can browse a register online free of charge (art. 36⁴ ust. 6). A printout from online browsing does not have the force of a document issued by the court, so for the transaction you need an official copy (odpis). Ask the seller for the register number before the first viewing.
Section III matters most: limited rights in rem, restrictions on disposal, and “other rights and claims” (art. 25 ust. 1 pkt 3). Mortgages are in section IV. The register’s public-faith guarantee protects the buyer, but it does not apply where the register contains a note of an application or a warning (art. 8). Nor does it protect a buyer in bad faith, that is, one who “could easily have found out” (art. 6 ust. 2). If something is visible in the register, you cannot claim you did not know. How to read all four sections and which costs to add to the price is covered in what to check before buying a resale flat.
The reprivatisation commission. The act of 9 March 2017 entered into force on 5 May 2017. As of September 2026 it is in force, and there is no bill in the Sejm to amend it or abolish the commission. The commission is active: on 23 September 2026 it published further notices, including about new proceedings. According to its chair’s reply to the Ombudsman (RPO), by the end of 2025 the commission had covered 695 cases with preliminary checks and issued 225 decisions opening proceedings.
Three provisions of this act matter to a buyer:
- art. 23: the commission may order a warning to be entered in the register and prohibit selling or encumbering the property; such an entry switches off the register’s public-faith guarantee;
- art. 24a: a warning may appear already at the preliminary-check stage;
- art. 40: a decision annulling a reprivatisation decision may be the basis for deleting entries in the register, including those based on a notarial deed, and entering the city or the State Treasury as owner.
Any commission entry in section III is a signal to pause the purchase and discuss it with a lawyer.
The Act on Real Estate Management (ugn) gives tenants and buyers some protection. Art. 214a ust. 1 lists 12 grounds for refusing to return land to a person entitled under the decree. They include occupation of the unit by a tenant (pkt 6) and the creation or transfer of rights in rem to third parties (pkt 9). Do not treat this as full protection: commission decisions under art. 40 operate independently.
Where to look for information on claims. Decree cases are handled by the Biuro Spraw Dekretowych at ul. Kruczkowskiego 2. It releases case files only on a written request from a party to the proceedings and does not publish a list of properties on its website (as of September 2026). In practice that leaves section III of the register, questions to the seller and the owners’ association, the office’s notices about proceedings where the parties cannot be identified until they are discontinued (posted for 30 days on the office’s website, art. 214b ugn), and the list of commission notices on gov.pl.
Conversion into ownership. On 1 January 2019, perpetual usufruct of land with residential buildings turned into ownership. A conversion charge is paid for this:
- it equals the former annual fee, due by 31 March each year for 20 years from the conversion (art. 7);
- the claim is entered in section III “in respect of each owner for the time being”, so it passes to you (art. 4 ust. 5);
- as a buyer you pay from 1 January of the year after purchase and, within 30 days of acquiring the flat, apply for a certificate (art. 11 ust. 1).
You can pay the charge off in one go at any time. On city land, the Warsaw City Council resolution of 18 October 2018 gives individuals who own residential units a 98% discount on the one-off payment (as of September 2026). For State Treasury land, check the size of the discount with the authority; for some groups, including people with disabilities and large families, the act provides 99% (art. 9a). The fee for an application to delete the claim from the register is PLN 250 after a one-off payment and PLN 75 in other cases (as of September 2026).
Is the building in the register of monuments or the municipal heritage record, and what does that change for renovation?
The register of monuments and the municipal heritage record (gminna ewidencja zabytków, GEZ) are two different things. The GEZ is kept by the city mayor as address cards of monuments (art. 22 ust. 4 of the Act on the Protection of Monuments). Ask the seller and the owners’ association which of them the building is in, and check the answer with the conservator or the city office.
Building in the register. Building works, conservation and restoration works on a monument in the register need a permit from the voivodeship conservator of monuments (art. 36 ust. 1 pkt 1). Since 3 June 2026 some actions need a notification to the conservator instead (new art. 36aa). This covers, among other things, works in the monument’s surroundings, a change of use, the installation of technical equipment and other actions that alter the monument’s appearance. The conservator has 60 days to object from receiving the notification. From the same date the Building Law requires a conservator’s permit or a notification without objection (art. 39 ust. 1).
Building only in the GEZ. A permit to build or demolish is issued in agreement with the conservator, who has 30 days; silence means no objections (art. 39 ust. 3–4 of the Building Law). This agreement does not apply to works carried out on notification.
Money for renovating a monument. The municipality may grant a subsidy of up to 100% of the necessary costs of works on a monument in the register or the GEZ (art. 81). Warsaw awards such subsidies in 2026 as well and publishes the amounts on um.warszawa.pl (as of September 2026). Ask the management board whether the association has applied and for which works.
The owners’ association and city-owned flats in the building: how do you read resolutions, the renovation fund and advance payments?
The Act on Ownership of Premises does not use the term “renovation fund”. It speaks of the costs of managing the common property: renovations and routine maintenance, utilities in common areas, insurance and taxes, cleaning, and the manager’s pay (art. 14). How much the association saves for renovations therefore follows from owners’ resolutions, not from the act.
Ask for five documents:
- the annual management plan and the resolution on the amount of advance payments; both require a resolution (art. 22 ust. 3 pkt 2–3);
- the management board’s latest annual report; a meeting must be held at least once a year, no later than in Q1 (art. 30);
- resolutions on renovations and loans from recent years;
- information on owners’ arrears and on court cases;
- building inspection records (covered in the next section).
The rules on the management board, resolutions and the management plan apply to an association with more than three units. In a smaller one, the Civil Code rules on co-ownership apply (art. 19).
Why it matters: the association is liable for its obligations without limit, and each owner in proportion to their share (art. 17). Advance payments are made in advance, by the 10th of the month (art. 15 ust. 1).
When the city owns many units. Resolutions are passed by a majority counted by shares (art. 23 ust. 2). If one owner, for example the municipality, holds a majority of shares, owners holding at least 1/5 of shares may demand a “one owner, one vote” ballot (art. 23 ust. 2a). After buying, you have the right to oversee the management board (art. 29 ust. 3). You can challenge a resolution in court within 6 weeks of its adoption at a meeting or of notification of a resolution adopted by individual vote collection (art. 25 ust. 1a).
Technical condition: ceilings, damp, installations. What to ask and which survey to commission?
The Building Law (art. 62) requires the owner or manager of a building to carry out periodic inspections:
- at least once a year: gas installations and flues and ventilation ducts (smoke, exhaust, ventilation); smoke flues, gravity exhaust flues and ventilation ducts are checked by a master chimney sweep;
- at least once every 5 years: the building’s technical condition, plus the electrical and lightning-protection installations.
Each inspection produces a record (art. 62a). Ask the management board for the records from the last 5 years. A missing record is a question for the board, and the recommendations in a record are often a list of the association’s future expenses.
Inside the flat, ask about:
- ceilings and floors: what they are made of, whether the floors sag, whether they were reinforced and when;
- damp: smell and efflorescence in the cellar, damp walls near the floor, the state of gutters and the roof;
- installations: whether the water and sewage risers were replaced, whether the wiring in the flat is new, whether the flat has gas;
- ventilation: whether the vents work, especially in the kitchen and bathroom.
For a viewing before the preliminary agreement, bring someone with building qualifications. The association’s records describe the building, not your unit. How to estimate the cost of works inside the flat is covered in whether buying a flat to renovate pays off.
Stove or gas heating: what the Mazovia anti-smog resolution and the city’s heat-source grants mean for you
Mazovia Regional Assembly anti-smog resolution no. 162/17 sets deadlines for old appliances:
- boilers below class 3 (“kopciuchy”, smoke-belchers) may not be used from 1 January 2023;
- class 3 or 4 boilers may run until the end of 2027 and may not be used from 1 January 2028;
- local heaters, for example fireplaces, must meet ecodesign or have a dust-reduction device from 1 January 2023.
Warsaw has a stricter rule. Since 1 October 2023, burning hard coal and fuels made from it has been banned here (resolution 59/22). An exemption until the end of the appliance’s life applies to ecodesign appliances started up before 1 June 2022 and class 5 boilers started up before 10 November 2017. A class 3 or 4 boiler may therefore run until the end of 2027, but not on coal.
City grants. Applications for 2027 investments are open from 1 September 2026 to 31 March 2027, and works may start only after signing an agreement with the city. The city subsidises scrapping a gas boiler that has been used for at least 10 years or has an open combustion chamber, a class 3, 4 or 5 solid-fuel boiler, or an oil boiler. The new source must be a heat pump, a district heating substation or electric heating. Replacing a gas boiler with a new gas boiler gets no grant. The city accepted grants for replacing “kopciuchy” until 31 December 2024.
Scroll the table sideways to see all columns.
| New heat source | Individual | Association |
|---|---|---|
| Air-to-water heat pump | up to PLN 30,000 | up to PLN 40,000 |
| Ground-source heat pump | up to PLN 40,000 | up to PLN 50,000 |
| Electric heating | up to PLN 10,000 | up to PLN 20,000 |
| District heating substation | up to PLN 30,000 | up to PLN 40,000 |
Amounts according to eko.um.warszawa.pl, as of September 2026.
At the viewing, ask what heating appliance is in the flat, its class, when it was started up, and whether the boiler documents exist. That determines whether you face replacing the heating before the end of 2027.
What a foreign buyer who does not read Polish should factor in
All documents mentioned in this guide, namely the register, owners’ resolutions, annual reports, inspection records and the conversion-charge certificate, are drawn up in Polish. Ask the seller and the management board for them early, before the preliminary agreement, and do not sign anything you have not understood. For the key papers (section III of the register, resolutions on renovations and loans, inspection records), arrange a translation, where needed by a sworn translator (tłumacz przysięgły), or go through them with a lawyer who speaks the language.
Two deadlines are easy to miss if letters arrive in Polish: the application for the conversion-charge certificate, 30 days from acquisition, and a challenge to an association resolution, 6 weeks. If you do not live in Warsaw or in Poland, give the management board a correspondence address and ask about resolutions right after each meeting. Budget in złoty: the conversion charge, the association’s advance payment and a possible heating replacement before the end of 2027 are part of the cost of ownership, not just the advertised price.
FAQ
Can a Warsaw tenement house still be subject to claims by former owners?
Yes. The 1945 Warsaw Decree formally remains in force, and the reprivatisation commission is active: on 23 September 2026 it published further notices. According to its chair’s reply to the Ombudsman (RPO), by the end of 2025 the commission had examined 695 cases. Before signing, read section III of the land and mortgage register (księga wieczysta) and ask the owners’ association about decree cases.
Will I pay a conversion charge after buying a flat in a tenement house?
If the land passed from perpetual usufruct (użytkowanie wieczyste) to ownership on 1 January 2019, the charge runs for 20 years and is due by 31 March each year. The claim is entered in section III of the register and passes to the buyer. On city-owned land the one-off payment carries a 98% discount for individuals who own residential units (2018 city council resolution, as of September 2026).
Does renovating a flat in a listed tenement house need the conservator’s consent?
For a building in the register of monuments, building works need a permit from the voivodeship conservator. Since 3 June 2026 some actions need only a notification, and the conservator has 60 days to object. For a building only in the municipal heritage record (gminna ewidencja zabytków), the conservator agrees the building permit within 30 days. Legal position as of September 2026.
Can I buy a flat in a tenement house that has a coal stove?
You can buy it, but since 1 October 2023 burning hard coal has been banned in Warsaw, apart from exceptions in resolution 59/22. A class 3 or 4 boiler may keep running on another fuel until the end of 2027. The city accepts applications for a grant to replace such a boiler until 31 March 2027 (as of September 2026).
For which debts of the owners’ association am I liable as a flat owner?
You are liable for the association’s obligations in proportion to your share of the common property; the association itself is liable without limit (art. 17 of the Act on Ownership of Premises). Advance payments are due in advance, by the 10th of the month. A resolution you disagree with can be challenged in court within 6 weeks. Legal position as of September 2026.
Eyeing a flat in a tenement house? Browse resale flats in Warsaw or write to us before the viewing and before the preliminary agreement. We will go through this list with you: the register, the association’s documents and the inspection records, and point out what to ask the seller, the owners’ association or a lawyer. For resale purchases we work under a brokerage agreement in which we set the fee and who pays it. We advise in English.
Jawno · +48 692 649 839 · infojawno@gmail.com
This text is for information only and is not legal advice. Legal position as of September 2026.