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Habdas, Magdalena; Panek, Grzegorz --- "Balancing the rights of tenants and landlords in the context of rent regulation – Polish experiences in the light of ECtHR case-law" [2018] ELECD 54; in Schmid, U. Christoph (ed), "Tenancy Law and Housing Policy in Europe" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 199

Book Title: Tenancy Law and Housing Policy in Europe

Editor(s): Schmid, U. Christoph

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781788113977

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Balancing the rights of tenants and landlords in the context of rent regulation – Polish experiences in the light of ECtHR case-law

Author(s): Habdas, Magdalena; Panek, Grzegorz

Number of pages: 40

Abstract/Description:

In Poland, after privatization and the ensuing lack of public housing, an unbalanced housing policy induced governments to place the social and financial burden of housing low income groups on landlords up to the 1990s. However, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights has stopped this approach by finding a violation of the owner’s freedom of property. This case law has also had repercussions in neighbouring countries where landlords were exposed to similar problems. It impressively shows the supranational constitutional dimension of commutative justice limiting national legislators. As a reaction, tenancy legislation was deregulated in Poland and its neighbouring countries; and the long-standing fragmentation of the market into privileged and non-privileged rentals as well as the communist legacy of the so-called tenant quasi-ownership were abolished. The new Polish law sets forth detailed provisions on rent setting and rent increase; in particular, the rent must not, as a rule, exceed 3 per cent of the dwelling’s reconstruction value. Shorter time-limited tenancies have been introduced so as to promote the offer of additional dwellings. Despite these reforms, the housing situation in Poland is tense due to a lack of rental dwellings in particular for low income groups.