POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Michał Wielhorski, Mateusz Prokopiuk, Małgorzata Wąsowska and Klaudia Michalec, act legal Poland
2.6 Important Areas of Law for Investors Investors, when purchasing a property, should pay particular attention to the following issues (among others): • legal title to the property; • possible pre-emption; • encumbrances or other rights in rem or obligations in favour of third parties on the real estate (eg, easements, usufruct, lease, mortgage); • real estate development decisions, including: (a) decisions on zoning and land develop - ment; (b) decisions on building permit; (c) decisions preceding the issuance of building permit; (d) notifications of construction works not re - quiring building permission together with certificates of non-objection thereto; and (e) decisions on occupancy permission; • agreements with neighbours or public author - ities concerning the development or use of the property and/or adjacent properties (eg, concerning the sharing of infrastructure); • zoning plan; • access to the public road and utilities; and • agreements with public road authorities for the construction, reconstruction, modernisa - tion and maintenance of public roads serving the properties. 2.7 Soil Pollution or Environmental Contamination The principles of liability for environmental dam - age prevention and remediation are governed by the Act of 13 April 2007 on environmental dam - age prevention and remediation (the “Remedia - tion Act” ). The entity using the environment and therefore the entity liable under the Remediation Act is defined very broadly and, in practice, may be either:
• the owner of the real estate; • a private investor constructing, for example, an office building; • a public investor modernising a road, con - structing a water basin or a new water supply system; or • a construction company carrying out con - struction projects. If the threat of damage or the damage itself was caused by more than one entity, their liability under the Remediation Act will be joint and sev - eral. However, if the damage was caused with the consent or knowledge of the landowner (eg, the owner of the property), the latter will be obliged to take preventive and remedial meas - ures jointly and severally with the entity using the environment that caused the damage. In the event of an imminent threat of environ - mental damage, the entity using the environment is obliged to take preventive action immediately. The costs of carrying out preventive or remedial action shall be borne by the entity using the envi - ronment, unless it demonstrates that the threat of environmental damage or the damage itself was caused: • by another designated entity; or • as a result of compliance with an order issued by a public administration body. In Poland, there is an information and communi - cation technology system that includes the reg - ister of direct environmental damage and actual environmental damage, as well as the register of historical land contamination. 2.8 Permitted Uses of Real Estate Under Zoning or Planning Law The purpose of real estate in Poland is deter - mined on the basis of planning documents,
766 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook