Nieruchomości@ (Mar 2020)
Legal status of tenants of reprivatized real properties in Warsaw
Abstract
The article presents key issues regarding the status of the tenants of premises in real properties subject to the so-called court reprivatization based on the provisions of the decree of October 26, 1945 on ownership and use of land in the capital city of Warsaw. Municipal tenants are the group most affected by reprivatization. The jurisprudence of administrative courts most commonly presents the thesis that a former owner or his/her legal successors regaining the ownership of a building become parties to rental agreements which were concluded in the post-war period by the commune of the Capital City of Warsaw. This thesis is presented on the basis of Article 678 § 1 of the Civil Code, according to which in the event of the sale of a subject of rental, the buyer enters into the rights and obligations of the lessor in the place of the seller. Meanwhile, in the case of the real properties subject to reprivatization under the administrative procedure, a former owner or his/her successor in the event of failure to recognize the application for perpetual usufruct of a real property or in the event of the annulment of a decision to refuse to grant it has never lost ownership of the building. This denotes that municipal tenants previously were and currently are a party to agreements with the city, which, however, in practice, due to the restoration of power to the former right holders or their successors, cannot meet the provision of providing premises to a tenant. As a consequence, a given agreement neither passes to a person regaining the ownership of a building nor expires with the reprivatization of a real property. However, in practice, it cannot be effectively carried out, since the municipality of Warsaw, in the event of the return of a building to a former owner or his/ her successors, no longer has the property, and thus cannot legally effectively make it available to tenants. This, in turn, may result in the establishment of the liability of the city for damages towards the tenants. Due to the significant impact on the legal status of tenants, contrary to the previous jurisprudence of administrative courts, they should be considered as parties to reprivatization proceedings.
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