Lease of apartments 2023. Stories of owners. “They devastated everything, unimaginable mess.” Expert comments

Tomasz Makowski recalls that he received a signal from a neighbor that dishonest tenants who had not paid rent for several months were simply not heard from behind the walls. They hadn’t answered his calls before.

“That’s how I got into my own home.” I saw how they vandalized everything. Unimaginable mess – he comments in an interview with TVN24 Biznes, calculating that he paid four thousand zlotys for bringing the premises back into use.

He rented an apartment in Poznań three years ago to a family with three children. They signed an occasional lease agreement with a notary public for a period of one year. The purpose of the occasional lease agreement is to guarantee property owners more effective protection of their property, including the possibility of quick eviction than in the case of ordinary lease.

Everything was going well for the first three months, but after that time the money stopped flowing into his bank account. He lost over $10,000.

In the occasional lease agreement, the landlord indicated the place where the potential eviction would take place. It is about a specific address to which the tenant will go if the contract has to be terminated due to non-payment of rent.

– The issue of enforcing all these options is difficult, especially when someone stops answering the phone. As a landlord, I had almost no rights. I couldn’t even get into this apartment even though the tenants weren’t paying. I was in a sticky situation,” he says.

He also says that actions in the form of making life difficult for dishonest tenants were also out of the question. – Out of helplessness came the idea that if they stopped paying rent, I would stop paying electricity so that they would no longer feed on me. It turned out that I can’t do that, because it means I’m making their lives difficult and they can use this argument in a lawsuit – he explains.

And it started very well. The woman who signed the contract with him declared that she had a job and had money to support herself. Makowski did not have any bad experiences with tenants at that time, he says, and he did not verify information, for example by asking for a work certificate.

– After a few months it turned out that this is a person who pathologically lives from a faulty system. She was enrolled in social welfare, but no extra money was credited to her account. So if I wanted to sue and try to get my money back, that would be impossible. Benefits such as childcare or 500 plus are not subject to bailiff enforcement – he reports and states that he had to let go of the fight that would last for years. He also began to realize that he would incur additional legal costs.

– The battle for the tenants to move out lasted half a year – says Makowski in an interview with TVN24 Biznes. When asked why it took so long, he replies that he was legally unable to do anything.

In his case, this was not the only case of problems with tenants. – Another case was that the girl organized something like an escort agency in my apartment. After stories like this, I was sensitive. In each subsequent person I began to see a potential fraudster, a thief, someone who will destroy the apartment or will not pay for it – he sums up.

A similar story happened with travelers and Internet creators, with Ola and Borys from “Planeta Abstrakcja”, who decided to describe the matter publicly as a warning to others.

“In the summer of 2022, a few days before the trip to Madagascar, we decided to rent our studio apartment in Poznań to a young girl. After the introduction, the tenant paid for 2 weeks of July and nothing more. She did not answer calls, text messages, mail “- they share their story.

They say the tenant did not give any specific reasons for the non-payment, but emphasized that she knew her rights. “According to Polish law, we are obliged to pay for electricity, gas and water” – the travelers point out.

“We cannot disconnect it under the threat of criminal proceedings! We also cannot throw it away, because it is protected by the so-called home mir. The police will defend it until we get an eviction decision, which we have been waiting for years!” – they report on social media.

In addition, the couple has to bear additional costs. “A month ago we received information that the cooperative is raising our water fees (1.5 times more!) Because the tenant does not let anyone into the readings” – explain the creators of the “Planeta Abstrakcja” channel.

They also refer to the fact that many people in Poland think that the solution to the so-called squatters is an occasional lease agreement.

“Then a third party, e.g. a parent, undertakes to take in a tenant in the event of insolvency. However, such a commitment can be withdrawn at any time” – they explained. – We talked to people who signed such contracts, checked the tenants and still fight for their apartment for years – they point out.

They also consulted lawyers. “They told us directly – the case will go on for years, we will not get the money back anyway” – they comment. “Many clients simply pay these tenants to move out,” their lawyer said.

They calculate that they lost about PLN 20,000 because of the wild tenant and that their nerves are damaged.

They point out that many people are afraid to talk about such problems in public. “We know this from our own experience. Then you hear that it’s your fault because you had a bad contract or you didn’t check the tenant properly.” According to them, this is nonsense, because, as they point out, no contract protects against a squatter.

They show another difficulty that appearances are deceiving. A squatter may turn out to be a person who has a job. “It should be noted that she was not a ‘patusiara’. A normal, eloquent person (…) She had a job, friends” – they describe the wild tenant and point out that “she simply used the system, because the law in Poland allows it” .

Mirosław Jasiak from the Easy Home real estate agency notes that indeed the provisions of Polish law do not put an equal sign between landlords and tenants, preferring tenants. – They are more protected. Despite everything, I am in favor of signing the occasional lease agreement, which has been operating in Poland since 2009 – he points out in an interview with TVN24 Biznes.

– The difference between an ordinary contract and an occasional lease contract is drastic. Here, the most important thing is the time to part with dishonest tenants. I have signals from the market that people cannot finish such a case for several years, and in the case of an occasional contract it should not last more than a few months. It’s a huge difference, he says.

Piotr Dobrowolski, legal advisor, specialist in real estate law, warns in an interview with TVN24 Biznes that the landlord cannot evict himself. Under civil law, the lessee could bring a lawsuit to restore possession.

In legal language, possession is an institution of property law consisting in the fact that a given person possesses a thing and manifests the intention of such possession outside. – If you bring it down to the issue of living in a place, you could say – I live here, I actually own the place and I intend to live. Possession may result from a legal title, for example a lease agreement. There are a number of legal consequences associated with possession. One of them is the prohibition against infringing possession, whether it is in good or bad faith. This is one of the reasons why the owner of the premises is unable to remove the tenant from the premises on his own – he explains. The legal adviser lists the situations in which the owner can legally enter the premises. The first one is a failure causing damage or directly threatening to cause damage. Then the tenant is obliged to immediately make the premises available for removal.

– If he is absent or refuses to make the premises available, the landlord has the right to enter the premises in the presence of a police officer or city ​​guard. If there was a need to get into the premises by breaking the door or through the window, he may ask the fire brigade for help – reserves Piotr Dobrowolski and emphasizes that when entering the premises in the absence of the tenant, a protocol is written and the items in the premises are secured.

Another case in which the owner may enter the premises is the need to perform inspections, both periodic ones – resulting from the law (e.g. inspection of ventilation or gas furnace), and ad hoc, aimed at determining the scope of work necessary to perform.

– The tenant is also obliged to let the landlord in if the premises requires repairs that the tenant should have done but did not. The problem is that in these situations the owner cannot force such entry. In the event of refusal to open the door, the owner cannot enter the premises alone or with the police.

Are there any other situations where you can legally enter your own home? – The easiest way is the one agreed with the tenant, for example, offering a cleaning service as part of the rent can be a kind of ‘carrot’ for the tenant. For the landlord, it will be a legal method of entering the premises, controlling its condition on an ongoing basis – he gives an example.

He explains that if we take action to force the tenant to move out, persistently or significantly hindering him from using the apartment, we may be imprisoned for up to 3 years.

– The legislator did not introduce a distinction between possession of premises on the basis of a legal title or without it. Both cases are covered. The provision of art. 191 § 1a of the Penal Code covers such situations as the replacement of locks preventing the tenant from entering the premises, cutting off utilities – he concludes.

We ask various gas and electricity distributors whether and to some extent they are able to help their customers who have fallen victim to scams by squatters.

The PGE Press Office informs TVN24 Biznes that “there are occasional cases in which the owners of the premises seek help in solving problems with troublesome tenants from the service provider, but these are events of a negligible scale”.

“In such a situation, at the request of the energy seller, e.g. prepayment metering and billing systems dedicated to customers who do not have a legal title to the premises are installed, and energy supplies are suspended” – the solution is provided.

The Enea Press Office emphasizes in response to questions from TVN24 Biznes that “the person with whom the contract was concluded is responsible for securing the premises, energy devices inside and for energy consumption”.

“The customer has the option of submitting an application for payment in installments. Each such application is considered individually. the customer is entitled to, is the termination of the contract and the disassembly of the meter” – he explains.

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