Blog and legal guides

What to know before you sell a difficult property

We write about what clients ask us in the first conversation: the rules, the deadlines and the documents. No marketing, and no promises that every case ends the same way.

  1. I made a gift and now I regret it. I want to undo it and sell the property. What can I do?

    This is a situation we come across more often than you might think. Parents sign a flat over to a child, counting on being cared for in old age; grandparents give a house to grandchildren as a gesture of goodwill; and after a while relations sour and the donor starts to regret the decision. The law gives no general “right to think again” here, as it does with certain consumer contracts, but in two specific situations it does allow a gift to be revoked. In this article we explain briefly what those are.

    4 min read Read

  2. Selling an indebted flat

    An indebted flat can be sold, but it takes more patience and paperwork than a standard transaction. Before the notarial deed is signed, you have to establish exactly who is owed what, obtain the right documents from every creditor, and structure the settlement so that the buyer receives the property free of encumbrances and the seller genuinely gets rid of the debt. In this article we set out the types of debt that most often burden properties and what the whole process looks like in practice.

    8 min read Read

  3. Dissolution of co-ownership

    When co-owners of a property cannot reach an understanding, the subject of formally dissolving the co-ownership comes up sooner or later. In theory it is a definitive solution: it ends the uncertainty and lets each co-owner regain control over their part of the asset. In practice, however, dissolving co-ownership — especially through the courts — is one of the most time-consuming and expensive proceedings an ordinary property owner can face. In this article we show what the procedure looks like step by step and what it can realistically cost.

    7 min read Read

  4. Selling shares in co-owned property

    Co-ownership of property is one of those legal situations that look simple in theory and in practice can effectively block any free disposal of an asset. It is enough for two people to inherit a property, for a couple to buy a flat together with their parents, or for business partners to invest in a plot without clearly written rules, and you already have co-ownership in which every decision has to be agreed with the other side. But what if one of the co-owners simply wants to sell their share and be done with it? In this article we explain when that is possible, what restrictions the law provides for, and why selling a share alone is in practice considerably harder than selling a whole property.

    6 min read Read

  5. What might my share in a property be worth? Who can buy it, when and for how much?

    This is one of the first questions an owner of a share in co-owned property asks themselves when they start thinking about selling. The answer, contrary to appearances, is not a matter of simple multiplication: percentage share times the market value of the whole property. That figure is only a starting point, a theoretical value from which the market usually deducts a sizeable part. Exactly how much depends on several specific factors, which we set out below.

    6 min read Read

  6. A flat with a life annuitant I am in conflict with. What can I do?

    A life annuity contract is often entered into in good faith, frequently within a family, as a way of giving an elderly person a peaceful old age in exchange for transferring a property. The trouble is that this is not an ordinary legal encumbrance of the kind we have described elsewhere in this series, but a daily, close relationship with another human being, sometimes stretching over years. When that relationship breaks down, the property owner is left not only with a legal problem but above all with a real psychological burden that only grows with time. In this article we explain what a life annuity actually is, why a conflict with the annuitant is not a problem worth simply waiting out, and why in many cases the most sensible way out is simply to part with the property.

    4 min read Read

  7. Consumer bankruptcy, or when your flat is no longer decided by the enforcement court but by the trustee

    The grounds, the consequences, who runs the case and what happens to your assets

    5 min read Read

  8. Enforcement against a property: an ordeal that can be stopped at any stage

    The causes, the stages and, most importantly: right up to the auction itself, you still have a way out

    6 min read Read

  9. Limited rights in rem, part 5: the mortgage, the best-known right in rem that most owners know surprisingly little about

    What it is, what it secures, what types there are and when it starts to threaten the property

    6 min read Read

  10. Limited rights in rem, part 4: the cooperative tenant’s right to premises, or the flat you will not inherit

    How it differs from the ownership right, and why it is the weakest of the rights to premises in Poland

    6 min read Read

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