Is there a legal requirement for us to support aging parents in Poland?

exp1000Threads: 1 Posts: 4 Joined: Feb 4, 12 ♂	Feb 4, 12, 18:11 #1
this is a strange question I know but i am receiving letters from my father in poland who i have had no contact with for 30 years demanding i send him money and saying that i am legally required to support him. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing or is he lying? thankyou for you advice.

dtaylor5632Threads: 49 Posts: 4,459 Joined: May 2, 09 ♂	Feb 4, 12, 18:13 #2
exp1000: this is a strange question I know but i am receiving letters from my father in poland who i have had no contact with for 30 years demanding i send him money and saying that i am legally required to support him. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing or is he lying? thankyou for you advice. Simple answer, no.

delphiandomineThreads: 42 Posts: 9,954 Joined: Nov 25, 08 ♂ [Suspended]	Feb 4, 12, 19:53 #3
exp1000: Has anyone ever heard of such a thing Yes - there is an obligation to do so.

exp1000Threads: 1 Posts: 4 Joined: Feb 4, 12 ♂	Feb 4, 12, 20:01 #4
There is a LEGAL obligation to do so? Really? So someone thinks no, someone else thinks yes - there can only be one answer in law - does anyone know for sure?

delphiandomineThreads: 42 Posts: 9,954 Joined: Nov 25, 08 ♂ [Suspended]	Feb 4, 12, 20:06 #5
exp1000: So someone thinks no, someone else thinks yes - there can only be one answer in law - does anyone know for sure? It's been mentioned on here elsewhere - there is a provision within Polish law where the children can be held responsible for looking after the parents http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alimenty

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Feb 4, 12, 20:16 #6

exp1000:

There is a LEGAL obligation to do so? Really?

The father, who once tormented the family. The mother, whose parental rights are limited. Now - the old, the sick - they are demanding money from adult children unseen for years. Social welfare and the courts are tough: you have to pay.
Polityka, in Polish: http://www.polityka.pl/spoleczenstwo/artykuly/1518414,1,dzieci-placa-a limenty-rodzicom.read

delphiandomineThreads: 42 Posts: 9,954 Joined: Nov 25, 08 ♂ [Suspended]	Feb 4, 12, 20:17 #7
boletus: Social welfare and the courts are tough: you have to pay. Interesting question - if the parents have assets (ie, a nice big flat in a city centre location, like many) - can they be made to sell the flat to support themselves?

Gruffi_GummiThreads: 1 Posts: 167 Joined: Jul 2, 11 ♂	Edited by: Gruffi_Gummi Feb 5, 12, 00:25 #8
Delphi is correct, there is such a legal obligation (Kodeks Rodzinny, Art. 128 and Art. 133 § 2). Naturally, if the father wants to enforce it, he will need to go to court. If he was a non-supportive parent, not present in your life, then the court will probably laugh at him.

JonnyMThreads: 16 Posts: 4,487 Joined: Mar 9, 11 ♂	Feb 5, 12, 01:04 #9
boletus: they are demanding money from adult children unseen for years. Social welfare and the courts are tough: you have to pay. Yes. There have been some well publicised cases over the years. Including one about a woman living in a small flat with teenage kids who had to send money to her mother who lived in a 300sqm house.

antheadsThreads: 13 Posts: 306 Joined: Jan 21, 11 ♂	Feb 5, 12, 01:26 #10
How is this enforceable if the op is in the us?

JonnyMThreads: 16 Posts: 4,487 Joined: Mar 9, 11 ♂	Edited by: JonnyM Feb 5, 12, 03:31 #11
antheads: How is this enforceable if the op is in the us? The usual way - they issue a warrant which means the OP would be arrested should they return. Prior to this there would need to be a court case which might be stressful and perhaps costly for the OP's father and which the OP could contest.

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Feb 5, 12, 06:22 #12

Gruffi_Gummi:

If he was a non-supportive parent, not present in your life, then the court will probably laugh at him.

Would you honestly trust the Polish court to actually make the right decision?

JonnyM:

The usual way - they issue a warrant which means the OP would be arrested should they return.

Worth pointing out that it would also be enforceable through the SIS - Schengen Information System. So they'd be at risk of arrest when crossing any Schengen frontier, not just the Polish one.

exp1000Threads: 1 Posts: 4 Joined: Feb 4, 12 ♂	Feb 5, 12, 06:55 #13
This is scary stuff! Seems fundamentally flawed as no loving, caring parent is likely enforce this on a son / daughter who is in no position to support them financially leaving it as a tool for uncaring / estranged / malicious individuals to extort money and ruin the lives of children they have contributed nothing to.

kondziorThreads: 2 Posts: 441 Joined: Oct 16, 09 ♂	Feb 5, 12, 08:57 #14
What is really scary, that there are human beings, who need the court order to take care for theirs parents.

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Feb 5, 12, 09:05 #15

Kondzior, why should i contribute ANYTHING for my father who left my mother when i was 6 months old and NEVER contributed anything to my upbringing? I would fight any court order imposed on me, and if i decided to contribute anything this would only be out of mercy if mercy he would ask for. Call me cruel, but my father saw me ONCE since he left my mother and that was when I was very young so can't even remember. On the other hand I would do anything to support my mom and need no court order for that.

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Feb 5, 12, 09:06 #16

As I say - depends who your parents are. If you were abused and abandoned as a child and if you are now struggling to make a living abroad is it fair or right that a court can force you to hand everything you have worked for to a complete stranger who has contributed absolutely nothing to your welfare or your life?

At the end of the day parents are just people, there are good and bad - naturally the children of good parents are inclined to support them in any way that they can but the children of the bad should not be forced to. IMHO.

kondziorThreads: 2 Posts: 441 Joined: Oct 16, 09 ♂	Feb 5, 12, 09:07 #17
He is still your father, nothing changes that. Father is a father, I don't know how to put it in English.

exp1000Threads: 1 Posts: 4 Joined: Feb 4, 12 ♂	Feb 5, 12, 09:11 #18
that's a progressive open minded sympathetic and fair view - (don't know how to do sarcasm in english).

sa11yThreads: 4 Posts: 191 Joined: Dec 12, 11 ♀	Feb 5, 12, 09:14 #19
You put it clear enough, but my father was never father to me. He was just a male who impregnated my mom by accident. To me that does not make him a father in a moral way.

kondziorThreads: 2 Posts: 441 Joined: Oct 16, 09 ♂	Feb 5, 12, 09:23 #20
So he was not the great human being. Does it mean, you have be just like him?

sa11yThreads: 4 Posts: 191 Joined: Dec 12, 11 ♀	Feb 5, 12, 09:32 #21
No, but I want to hear "I'm sorry, I messed up. I need you my child". Without this any court order won't do.

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