If you were celebrating too heavily on 3rd May, 2012 another anniversary of the Constitution, you could have missed that also on that day important changes to the Civil Procedure Code, relevant for purchasing and leasing of real estate, came into force.
Firstly, in art. 929 of that Code a new § 11 has been added, stating that collection upfront by the debtor before the seizure of the rent for period exceeding three months (in case of one type of lease under Polish law - najem) or six months (in case of the other type of lease under Polish law – dzierzawa), counted from the day of seizure, does not release the tenant from obligation to pay the rent to the enforcement officer. Therefore currently not only for the sake of insolvency (see. art. 107 sec. 2 of the Insolvency Law) one should avoid agreeing rent payments for longer periods when negotiating lease agreements (or basing securities on such agreements) as the risk of double payments may materialize.
Secondly, in art. 930 a new § 4 has been added, stating that giving of a seized real estate for lease, leasing, tenancy or rent-free usage shall not be effective towards the purchaser of the real estate in the course of enforcement proceedings.
And last but not least, a very important change from the perspective of the buyers (but also for the tenants for the same reason): amended art. 1002 of the Civil Procedure Code makes it possible for the purchaser of the real estate to terminate lease agreement if such was entered for period longer than two years, even if it was entered into observing the officially endorsed date requirement and it had been handed over to the tenant (hence despite those requirement that “normally” decide about the safety of lease agreements). What seems a bit problematic is the requirement of placing the termination notice within one month from the entry into force of the court decision on the ownership transfer – apparently regardless of the moment when the acquirer learned about the existence and the terms of the lease. The safety of the long-term leases has suffered therefore another blow – it should be noted that also to the long-term agreements (of premises) the art. 6851 of the Civil Code applies: „Landlord may increase the rent, terminating the hereto amount, observing one month notice period, effective on the end of the calendar month”.
Contact
ul. Małopolska 11/3
81-813 Sopot
ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 13
00-071 Warszawa
Tel: +48 58 712 85 45
