Change of use – representation of owners
The firm represents clients in numerous administrative proceedings before construction supervision authorities throughout Poland pending on the subject of changing the use of premises.
Proceedings are initiated when individual rooms in the premises are rented to tenants, often equipped with their own bathroom and kitchenette (while not being a short-term rental), or when the premises are just being prepared for such development (dividing with partition walls, changes in installation). In the opinion of some authorities, there is then a change of use of the premises from a residential function to a communal residence function, and such a facility must meet other requirements, among others. fire safety, hygiene and sanitation or health than a residential unit.
According to the reasoning in the decisions of the authorities, in such situations several households are run side by side in the premises after it is made available to the tenants, and then it does not have the characteristics of a dwelling, which is defined in the regulations as a set of rooms, among other things
allowing permanent human residence and running an independent household (Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure of April 12, 2012 on the technical conditions to be met by buildings and their location).
Since this issue is fairly new (and affects an increasing number of landlords), no consistent line of administrative court decisions has developed in this area.
The law firm appeals against unfavorable decisions of administrative bodies to administrative courts, seeing the need to interpret such concepts as “permanent residence” in relation to long-term tenants or “household,” the definition of which is lacking in Polish law.