Are there any categories of residential leases that are subject to specific laws (e.g. short term leases for tourists; state supported leases for low income tenants, leases for students, etc.)?
In Polish law there are a few categories of residential leases that are subject to specific laws such as: occasional lease, institutional quality lease, communal flat lease and premises for temporary purposes.
The right to occasional lease applies only to the premises used to satisfy housing needs. Only natural persons not conducting business activity in the scope of rental of premises can take advantage of this form of lease. An occasional lease is granted only to owners understood broadly and includes also holders of the cooperative ownership right to premises. Considering the above, the agreement for occasional lease cannot be used to sublease the premises, or a part thereof.
The term of an occasional lease cannot be longer than 10 years. Such a lease may involve the tenant paying a deposit to secure the payment of amounts due for the occasional lease of premises, which the tenant has to pay on the day of vacating the premises, and any possible costs of enforcement of the obligation to vacate the premises (the deposit is later returned if the owner's claims have been satisfied).
Additionally, after the expiry or termination of the occasional lease agreement, if the tenant has not voluntarily vacated the premises, the owner delivers to the tenant a request in writing to vacate the premises, with an officially certified signature of the owner. To execute the request, prior to concluding the agreement for an occasional lease, the tenant is obliged to deliver a statement in the form of a notarial deed in which he/she submits to enforcement and to vacate and deliver the premises used under the occasional lease agreement within the time limit indicated in the request. In the event of ineffective lapse of the time limit provided in the request, the owner files an application to the court to have an enforcement clause appended to the above-mentioned notarial deed.
Another specific obligation related to this type of lease is the obligation for a prospective tenant to have some other premises to stay in if the obligation to leave the premises is enforced.
The owner of the premises notifies the tax office competent for his/her place of residence of the conclusion of an occasional lease agreement within 14 days from the date of commencement of the lease.
The following documents must be attached to the occasional lease agreement:
In accordance with the Act of 12 March 2022 on assistance to citizens of Ukraine in connection with the armed conflict on the territory of the country, to the tenant who is a citizen of Ukraine shall not apply:
The institutional-quality lease is similar to the occasional lease:
However, the institutional quality lease agreement can be concluded by a natural person, a legal person or an organizational unit other than a legal person, conducting business activity in the scope of leasing premises, and it is concluded for a specified period of time.
There is also a specific kind of that lease – the institutional-quality lease with subsequent ownership. For details please see Registration and taxes.
Premises to be let for communal-flat lease must be suitable for habitation thanks to their equipment and technical condition; the room area per tenant cannot be less than 5 m2 and in the case of a single-person household, 10 m2.
The right to a communal flat is acquired by a court judgment by persons with low or no income who are forced to vacate occupied flat. The court decides whether the persons concerned have the right to conclude a communal flat lease agreement, or not, in a judgment ordering to vacate other premises. The obligation to ensure the communal flat lease of the premises is binding on the commune competent for the location of the premises that have to be vacated.
The court, when examining whether the person is entitled to conclude a communal-flat lease agreement takes into account the manner in which he/she has used the premises so far and the specific material and family situation.
There are some groups of people in respect of whom the court cannot declare the lack of right to conclude a communal flat lease agreement of premises, such as: pregnant women, minors, disabled persons, pensioners or disability pensioners fulfilling the criteria for receiving a social assistance benefit persons, those officially recognized as unemployed – unless they can reside in premises other than those used to date or their financial situation allows them to satisfy their housing needs on their own.
The communal-flat lease agreement is concluded for a fixed period of time and it can be terminated by a commune if the tenant has obtained a legal title to another property.
The lease of premises for temporary purposes may be concluded for the period of one to six months. Eligible persons are those against whom the enforcement proceedings have been commenced on the basis of an enforcement order regarding the duty to vacate the housing premises, without the right to lease communal flat (described above) or replacement premises.
The replacement premises are premises located in the same city as the existing premises, equipped with at least the same technical devices and having the same surface area of the rooms as the premises used to date; one household member may enjoy 10 m2 of the total surface area of the rooms, and in the case of a single household, 20 m2 of that surface. The commune ensures the delivery of replacement premises.
There are some specific cases when the right to lease premises for temporary purposes is not granted, such as: if the order to vacate the premises was made by reason of domestic violence or gross or persistent infractions against the domestic order, if the debtor is obliged to vacate the temporary premises or if the debtor was obliged to vacate the premises occupied under the institutional lease agreement with subsequent ownership.
Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure of 12 April 2002 on the technical conditions to be met by buildings and their locations specifies some other categories of residential premises. The Regulation distinguishes and provides technical specifications, among others:
Public utility buildings: buildings intended for the needs of public administration, justice, culture, religious worship, education, higher education, science, education, health, social or social care, banking, commerce, gastronomy, services, including postal services or telecommunications, tourism, sport, passenger service in rail, road, air, sea or inland water transport, and another building designed to perform similar functions.
Individual recreation buildings – a building intended for periodic recreation.
Commercial buildings – buildings intended for the non-standard performance of workshop works and for storage of materials, tools, equipment and agricultural produce for residents of a residential building, a collective residence, an individual recreation building, and their surroundings, and for farm storage in agricultural buildings, equipment and agricultural produce.
The regulation covers: