Polish law on inheritance and real estate

Hi,
i was wondering if someone could help us please. my mother is polish and was adopted by my polish grandparents. they moved to england in the sixties and my grandparents went back to poland in the nineties. My grandad died seven years ago and my grandmother past away five weeks ago. My mother and sister went over for the funeral and were greeted by my grandmothers lawyer. my grandmother had already mentioned to my mum that she was going to leave quite alot to the church when she passed including maybe the house. On the day of the funeral the lawyer and a priest or someone to do with radio maria came to pick them up and take them to the town where she was getting buried. Obviously my mum was very upset that day, and on the way to the funeral the priest showed my mum a envelope with my grandmothers will in it already opened. It was in her handwriting and it said the house was getting left to radio maria and all the belongings were getting left to her cousins and their family's. They asked my mum to sign something, she cant remember what it was, but because her head was all over the place with it being the day of the funeral, she just signed it. Now i dont know the law of whether the will has to be read out in front of everyone who was on it, or it has to be in a office. I also want to know why the priest had it and it had already been opened. My mother didn't get mentioned in the will or neither did myself, sister or our children. When my mother mentioned this to my grandmothers neighbours and friends, they were quite shocked as all my grandmother ever talked about where her daughter, grandkids and great grandkids. The lawyer also wanted my mother to take all her adoption certificates over and he took them off her and gave them back before she headed back home. He said he would send everything over to her in the next week, i.e death certificate, copy of will etc, but after five weeks and several e-mails he hasn't sent anything over. We just found out yesterday that he picked the keys up of the neighbour and was going around with a estate agent measuring and taking pictures of the house ready to put on the market. We was wondering if there was anything we could do to detest this until we had all the proper paperwork ourself and to see if there was anything due for my mother. The neighbour told us of a law 'zachowek'. my mother also brought home loads of pictures and paperwork in which she found a will from early 1990's leaving the estate to her and kids. she cant remember what date was on the will the priest showed her a couple of weeks ago. if anyone could help us that with wha legal rights she's got that would be great. thanks

Can I ask where that is? Basically you will need a local lawyer (who speaks English). On the plus side, I doubt the case would actually go as far as court. Sounds very much like some people who should know better are trying it on.

Hi, the city my grandma lived was Poznan. The town she was getting buried in was Krostackin this was the town she was born in. Were just in the process of trying to find a English speaking lawyer. We thought it sounded a bit fishy, but we dont know what it is my mum has signed whilst over there.

Krostackin? There's no such town - do you mean Krotoszyn?

Anyway - with Poznan, I can help you out - I live here, and your story makes my blood boil. If you need a good English speaking lawyer - I can get you one :)

Really, that would be great, I'd really appreciate any help you could offer.

I don't know off the top of my head, personally - but I suspect that the way that it's been done will probably be illegal in some way.

The most crucial thing right now is to get a lawyer on the case quickly - I can personally recommend pernet.com.pl - Ewalina is a lovely woman who won't mess you around - and she isn't your typical arrogant Polish lawyer!

In that case, Delph is your man. I suggest that you take him up on his offer.

Thank you very much guys, you don't know how much I appreciate this. I'll get on it straight away. Thanks again :)

No problem - any problems, let me know (you can send a private message to me on here) and I'll help you the best I can!

Most likely she waived all her rights to claim zachówek.
"Zachowek" means that even if the dead bequeathed his/her property to people other than his/her children or wife, or siblings (if s/he doesn't have children),

the wife, the children (or the siblings) may claim a part of his/her property.

In other words the church would have to pay off your mother. Now they don't hve to

That's what I'm afraid of. Until we can get in touch with the lawyer and get all the paper work sent to us, we'll just have to hope for the best.

Delphiandomine- Any problems I'll let u know, thanks again pal.

I would be amazed if something as important as that did not need to be signed before a notary in order to be valid.

Don't ask him again: instruct a Polish lawyer to tell him to do it.

Will do Harry. Thanks again pal :)

Get your own lawyer quick !! That one is working for Radio Maria. They are waiting to all docs to get legalized by the Polish court. This is why your are not geeting anything back from them. Time is an issue

I thought he possibly could be. Have you heard of anything happening like this before with radio Maria. I've googled them and there seems to be a few controversial things about them for a church. My mum has e-mailed Ewalina and she has got back in touch, so hopefully the ball is rolling now.

Fingers crossed. Ewalina's English is fine too - so you can help if needs be.

I wish you all the best of luck - and as I said, if you need any help 'on the ground' - I'm here to help.

You need to get onto that, seems as though somebody is trying to pull a fast one. Not uncommon considering the vested interests.

I am a lawyer in Poland. I would be able to help you with this.

My wife's father is Polish. He left England in the late 1940's and returned to Poland where he had his marriage annulled and remarried. He recently died and my wife has received a copy of the will and several accompanying documents, all in Polish naturally, which we cannot read. We have used Google Translate and it appears that her father's current family are seeking to disinherit her. This may be in line with the will but GT is not good at coping with legalese. What is the best way to establish exactly what is going on? Can anyone offer advice on how to proceed? My wife is more interested in knowing what is going on than inheriting anything from someone who effectively abandoned her and her sister and mother (both now deceased) many years ago.

hello,
the safe way is to hire an attorney. You can check us and contact us if you like. We could check the documents for you and suggest you how to proceed.

Bren
Dear Bren,
it's difficult to advice something wright in this matter, without viewing a documents. The point is according to the polish civil code, children and the spouse of the testator have the equal right to the inheritance. If testator wants to exclude someone from the inheritance he must prepare the will and disinheritence him. When testator left, disinheritance may also require others heir. To take such action the testator or other heirs must have some basics. In polish law the basics for this will be for exemple situation when one the the heir left the testator, broke touch with him, caused him harm and so on. This basics must be real and cann't be false. If the testator leave his first family probably it wasn't be a good basics to disinheritance his children. However everything depends from the circumstances and your actions.

In my opinion your father in law disinherited your wife under pressure the family to make her off from the assetss. I can tell you more about it whole case, but to do this I need see the docs.

If you have any additional question please let me know.

I didn't mention that if you you take a legal action against disinheritance of your wife and get positive judgement, your wife will be entitled to the concept. The concept is a part of the inheritance after her father. According to article 991 polish civil code The heir who get the inheritance under the will is obliged to paid it for entitled person.

Art. 991. Concept
§ 1. The deceased's descendants, spouse and parents who would be named to inherit under the law are entitled, if permanently without the capacity to work or if the entitled descendant is a minor, to two-thirds of the value of the share in the estate which would fall to him in the case of statutory (intestate) succession, and in other cases, to one-half of the value of that share (legitim).

§ 2. If an entitled person has not received the legitim due to him in the form of a donation made by the deceased, or by being named to inherit, or in the form of a legacy, he is entitled to a claim against the heir for payment of the sum of money needed to cover or supplement the legitim.

Thank you very much for taking an interest. Would you advise employing a Polish attorney to look into this?

Yes, I think the best way for you is to get attorney who will see the files and tell you what to do next. In my opinion your wife have a chance for concept. If you need help in this matter or have any question I can help you I'm a professional lawyer too.

Kind Regards

Thank you Argen. Do you have website through which I can contact you?

Your wife needs to decide if she is interesting in what is going on or in inheriting. If she wants only to know what is going on, you only need a translator, not a (more expensive) lawyer.

Of course Bren. Please contact me at gslegaladviser@gmail.
I'm trainee soliciotor in law office in Lodz, central Poland. You can also find some info about our law office by the web on chudzik.pl.

Currently our web is under construction, but you will find there basic information.


Don't worry if you need only advice it's for free ;).

Hello, my name is Renata, I live in the UK, I was born in the UK to Polish parents, I have dual nationality. My Grandmother left a will leaving my mother land and property in Poland, however my mother whilst she was alive did nothing to put the deeds in her name. Now my mother has passed away a few years ago and she in turn left a will leaving me and my brothers her entire estate. I have copies of both wills ,my Grandmothers and my mothers. The problem I have is my Aunt lives in the property that belonged to my mother and I now want to repossess the land and the property. I did start legal proceedings in Poland a few years ago but the lawyer was not very forth coming with the information. I would like to know how much you charge for your services,

Merged: Inheritance of Real Estate - taxes

if someone inherits real estate from a mother or father - do they pay taxes on this or is it a direct transfer? Would making the child a co-owner before death prevent this?

in the UK what you say would be true, but I think there would have to be some time lapse between the transfer and the death of the owner.

Also you only have to pay tax if it is over a certain amount. But of course Poland will have different laws.
If I were you I would consult a lawyer.

Depends where the property is and where the person is a tax resident. But you really, really, really should speak to a tax advisor about this topic.

Related info:

Real estate inheritance in Poland


yup but as with all wills, they'd have to be digested by probate court.