On 20 October 2020, the Law of 17September 2020, amending the Law on Special Rules for Removing the Legal Effects of Reprivatisation Decisions Regarding Warsaw Properties Issued in Violation of Law, the Law on Commercialisation and Certain Entitlements of Employees, and the Law on Real Estate Management (Journal of Laws 2020, item 1709)(hereinafter: the ‘Amending Law’ or ‘the Amendment’) came into force.
The basic demands of the Amendment are:
(i) reprivatisation of real estate only when it is occupied by tenants within the meaning of Article 2, paragraph 1, item. 1 of the Act of 21 June 2001 on the protection of tenants’ rights, the housing stock of municipalities and amendments to the Civil Code (Journal of Laws 2001 No. 71 item 733), i.e. a tenant of the premises or a person using the premises on a basis other than ownership;
(ii) amended compensation rules by way of compensation for unlawful reprivatisation, including statutory universal succession of the State Treasury,
(iii) the amendment and structuring of the procedure for the functioning of the Reprivatisation Commission (hereinafter: ‘the Commission’),
(iv) the Commission is given the authority to impose an obligation to reimburse the equivalent of the undue benefit on the purchaser of the rights or claims described in Article 7 of the Decree of 26 October 1945 on Ownership and Use of Land in the Area of the Capital City of Warsaw (Journal of Laws of 1945 No. 50, item 279) also in the case of the sale or transfer of such rights or claims free of charge;
(v) in the case of the Commission’s decision to award compensation or reparations, the only person entitled to challenge the decision is the person in whose favour such compensation was awarded (and not the City of Warsaw), and many other important changes aimed at securing the interests of tenants of Warsaw tenements or those harmed by the injustice of reprivatisation decisions.
3 February 2022
