Polish property and inheritance records

Two registers that answer different questions

Polish real estate is described in two separate systems, and you usually need both. The land and mortgage register (księga wieczysta), kept by district courts, establishes legal title and shows mortgages, easements and claims. The cadastre (ewidencja gruntów i budynków), kept by district authorities, establishes physical facts: location, boundaries, area, land classification, buildings.

Notaries check that the two agree with each other. Discrepancies are common in older rural holdings and must be resolved before any transaction can complete.

Why the register is decisive

Under Polish law the land register carries a presumption of correctness: what it says about ownership is treated as true, and a buyer acting in good faith on its contents is protected. That makes the extract the first document in any property matter, not a formality at the end.

The problem almost every inherited property has

Polish inheritance does not update the land register automatically. Somebody has to apply. Until that happens the register still names the person who died — sometimes two generations back.

The property cannot be sold or mortgaged in that state, and each generation has to be resolved in turn. It is slow but it is a known procedure with a known end point, and the register extract is what tells you how many steps you are facing.

When there is no register at all

Polish law does not require every property to have one, and rural land in particular is often unregistered. Ownership is then proven through other documents: notarial deeds, agricultural land certificates, inheritance rulings. Establishing which of these exist is itself part of the work.

What we need to start

The address or location of the property and the name of the person you expect to find as owner. The register number if you have it. If you do not — normal for inherited property — we identify it from the address and cadastral data before ordering anything.