A foreign buyer or lender verifying Polish commercial property faces a collateral question before any other: what encumbers the asset, what is it actually worth as security, and what do the official sources fail to show. CEIDG — the Central Register and Information on Economic Activity — is the starting point for any sole-trader seller, but the collateral picture requires crossing into six further registries. This page maps each source, states its cost and access condition, and names the ceiling of what the combined picture allows.
- Primary seller registry
- CEIDG: free public search, no login required. Confirms trading name, NIP, registered address, and suspension or cessation status. Source: ceidg.gov.pl · retrieved 2026-08-13
- Registered charges — two separate systems
- Rejestr Zastawów (Ministry of Justice): certificate on pledgor DW-1 costs 20 PLN; certificate on pledged item DW-2 costs 20 PLN. Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych (Ministry of Finance): free search, formal wypis costs 50 PLN via e-Urząd Skarbowy. Both must be checked; neither alone is sufficient. Source: Centralna Informacja · retrieved 2026-08-12
- Land and mortgage register
- EKW (Elektroniczne Księgi Wieczyste): free to read by KW number; search by owner name is not available to private parties. Source: ekw.ms.gov.pl · retrieved 2026-08-12
- Insolvency proceedings
- KRZ (Krajowy Rejestr Zadłużonych): public, free, no login. Contains proceedings opened after 1 December 2021 only. Source: krz.ms.gov.pl · retrieved 2026-08-13
- VAT and bank account status
- Biała lista (White List of VAT Taxpayers): free, no login, searchable on any past date. Shows declared bank accounts. Source: podatki.gov.pl · retrieved 2026-08-12
- Beneficial ownership
- CRBR (Central Register of Beneficial Owners): public, free, no login required. Source: crbr.podatki.gov.pl · retrieved 2026-08-12
What CEIDG shows — and what it does not
CEIDG registers sole traders (jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza) and civil-law partnerships (spółka cywilna). It confirms that the seller is a registered economic operator, shows the NIP and REGON identifiers, lists the registered address, and records any suspension or deletion of the entry. For a buyer verifying collateral, CEIDG is the identity anchor: it proves the counterparty exists in Polish law and gives the identifiers needed to query every downstream registry.
CEIDG does not register charges, mortgages, or encumbrances of any kind. It does not show financial statements. It does not show court judgments or enforcement proceedings. A clean CEIDG entry says nothing about whether the asset is encumbered.
The charge picture: two registries, not one
Poland maintains two separate pledge registries. Confusing them is the most common gap in foreign due-diligence reports on Polish collateral.
The Rejestr Zastawów, administered by the Ministry of Justice through Centralna Informacja, records registered pledges (zastaw rejestrowy) over movable assets and receivables. A search by pledgor (DW-1 certificate) costs 20 PLN. A search by pledged item (DW-2 certificate) costs 20 PLN. A certified extract (DW-4) costs 15 PLN per item. These are statutory fees set by the Ministry of Justice tariff.
The Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych, administered by the Ministry of Finance, records fiscal pledges (zastaw skarbowy) arising from unpaid tax liabilities. A basic search by item is free via e-Urząd Skarbowy. A formal wypis or zaświadczenie costs 50 PLN. Fiscal pledges arise by operation of tax law and attach automatically — they do not require a court or notarial act. They are therefore invisible to a search of the civil pledge registry alone.
| Registry | Administrator | Pledge type | Search cost | Certified document cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rejestr Zastawów | Ministry of Justice / Centralna Informacja | Registered civil pledge (zastaw rejestrowy) | 20 PLN per certificate (DW-1 or DW-2) | 15 PLN per extract (DW-4) |
| Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych | Ministry of Finance / e-Urząd Skarbowy | Fiscal pledge (zastaw skarbowy) | Free (basic search) | 50 PLN (wypis / zaświadczenie) |
Land register: the mortgage picture
Mortgages over Polish real property are registered in the Księga Wieczysta (KW), the perpetual land and mortgage register. The electronic system, EKW, is publicly accessible at no charge. The access condition is the KW number. Without it, a private party cannot search by owner name or address.
The KW number is printed in the notarial deed of sale and in the land survey register (ewidencja gruntów i budynków). For a foreign buyer who does not yet hold the deed, the practical path is: obtain the cadastral parcel number from the seller, query the local starostwo for the KW number, then read the KW online. That intermediate step takes time and requires the seller's cooperation or a local agent with access to the geodetic database.
Section IV of the KW lists all registered mortgages, their amounts, currencies, and creditors. Section III lists other encumbrances: easements, rights of pre-emption, and any enforcement notices (wzmianki o egzekucji). Both sections must be read. A wzmianki entry in Section III means enforcement is active against the property; the entry appears before a full enforcement annotation is entered.
Insolvency: KRZ and its coverage gap
The Krajowy Rejestr Zadłużonych (KRZ) is the public insolvency and restructuring register. It is free, requires no login, and is searchable by NIP, PESEL, KRS number, or case signature. It replaced the former Rejestr Dłużników Niewypłacalnych.
KRZ contains only proceedings opened on or after 1 December 2021. A negative result does not exclude an insolvency or restructuring proceeding opened before that date. Proceedings opened between 2016 and November 2021 were published in the Monitor Sądowy i Gospodarczy (MSiG). The MSiG archive is searchable free of charge at wyszukiwarka-msig.ms.gov.pl, but it requires a separate query and returns PDF issues rather than structured data. A complete insolvency check requires both systems.
VAT status and declared bank accounts
The Biała lista (White List of VAT Taxpayers), maintained by the Head of the National Revenue Administration, is free and requires no login. It shows current VAT registration status, the registered business address, and — critically for a buyer — all bank account numbers declared to the tax authority. It also records the date and stated reason for any deregistration, exclusion, or reinstatement.
The Biała lista is searchable on any past date. This allows verification of VAT status at a specific transaction date, not only today. A payment made to a bank account not listed on the Biała lista on the date of payment triggers joint and several VAT liability for the payer under Polish tax law. That liability is a collateral risk for any buyer assuming accounts payable or taking over a trading business.
Beneficial ownership: CRBR
The Central Register of Beneficial Owners (CRBR) is public, free, and requires no account. It covers Polish companies, partnerships, trusts, and foundations required to file under the AML Act. It shows the name, nationality, and percentage of ownership or control of each declared beneficial owner.
CRBR data is self-reported by the entity. The register does not independently verify the declarations. Where the declared beneficial owner is itself a foreign company, the chain may not be traceable through CRBR alone. A CRBR entry names the declared beneficiary; it does not certify the accuracy of the corporate structure behind that declaration.
Financial statements
Companies registered in KRS are required to file annual financial statements in the Repozytorium Dokumentów Finansowych (RDF). The repository is free and public. Statements are available as XML (e-sprawozdanie) for filings from 2019 onward. Earlier filings are scanned PDFs.
CEIDG-registered sole traders are not required to file statements in RDF. Their financial position is established through other means: tax return data (not public), VAT records (not public), and — where applicable — books maintained under the Księgi Rachunkowe regime. A buyer assessing the collateral value of a sole-trader business cannot rely on publicly filed financial statements as a check.
The limit of what the sources allow
The combined Polish registry picture is unusually complete by EU standards. Mortgages, civil pledges, fiscal pledges, insolvency, VAT status, and beneficial ownership are all in public systems. The ceiling is reached at four specific points.
First: the EKW land register is readable only by KW number. A buyer without the KW number cannot independently locate the correct register entry. The number must be sourced from the seller or from the geodetic database — access to which requires a local intermediary.
Second: KRZ covers proceedings from December 2021 only. Earlier insolvency history requires a separate MSiG search. Neither system is cross-linked. A negative in KRZ with no MSiG check is an incomplete result.
Third: the Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych records fiscal pledges that arise automatically by tax law. They are not visible in the civil pledge registry. A foreign buyer checking only Rejestr Zastawów will miss any fiscal pledge attached to the asset.
Fourth: CRBR beneficial ownership data is self-declared. Where the declared owner is a foreign entity, the chain beyond that entity is not verifiable through Polish public sources alone.
Where the sources disagree
KRS and CEIDG sometimes show different addresses for the same operator — where a business has moved and updated one registry but not the other. The operative address for service of process is the one in KRS for corporate entities; for sole traders, CEIDG governs. A mismatch is noted in the report and flagged for the client's legal team.
CRBR declarations and KRS shareholder lists (lista wspólników) occasionally diverge on ownership percentages — particularly after share transfers that have been filed in KRS but not yet updated in CRBR, or vice versa. Where a divergence exists, both versions are reported with their respective filing dates. The report does not resolve which is correct; that determination requires legal review of the underlying transaction documents.
What is included at each tier
| Tier | Price (EUR, excl. VAT) | Included | Not included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signal | €590 | CEIDG status check · KRS entry (if applicable) · CRBR beneficial ownership extract · Biała lista VAT and bank account status · KRZ insolvency check · MSiG search (2016–2021) · Written summary in English stating what each source shows and where the chain stops | EKW mortgage register (requires KW number from client) · Rejestr Zastawów (civil pledges) · Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych (fiscal pledges) · RDF financial statements · Valuation of collateral |
| Standard | €990 | Everything in Signal · EKW search (KW number to be provided or sourced) · Rejestr Zastawów — DW-1 and DW-2 certificates · Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych — free search and 50 PLN wypis · RDF financial statements (last three filed years, where available) · Registry fee disbursements included | Valuation of collateral · Legal qualification of encumbrances · Enforcement history beyond registry entries · Fiscal pledge history prior to current tax year |
| Extended | €2,200 | Everything in Standard · Full KW extract with certified translation · Certified DW-4 extracts from Rejestr Zastawów · Five-year MSiG and KRZ cross-search · Biała lista historical date-specific queries · CRBR chain mapping to first foreign entity · Summary table of all encumbrances by type, amount, and creditor (where disclosed) · English-language executive summary suitable for lender file | Legal advice on enforceability of encumbrances · Valuation · Proceedings prior to 2016 (pre-MSiG digital archive) · Verification of foreign entity beyond CRBR declared layer |
Registry fees (Rejestr Zastawów certificates, KW certified extracts, Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych wypis) are disbursements. At Signal tier they are not incurred. At Standard and Extended tiers they are included in the stated price.
Frequently asked questions
Can the KW number be sourced without seller cooperation?
In most cases, yes, through the ewidencja gruntów i budynków (land and buildings survey register) held by the local starostwo. The parcel number (numer działki) is sufficient to retrieve the KW number. The parcel number is typically available from the seller's property description or the local geodetic portal. Where neither is available, the Extended tier includes sourcing the KW number through the geodetic database.
Does a clean Rejestr Zastawów result mean the asset is unencumbered?
No. A clean civil pledge registry result excludes registered civil pledges only. Fiscal pledges (Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych) are a separate system. Mortgages are in EKW. Enforcement notices are in EKW Section III. All three systems must be checked to form a complete encumbrance picture.
How long does the report take?
Signal: three to five business days. Standard: five to seven business days, subject to KW number availability. Extended: seven to ten business days. Timelines assume all required identifiers (NIP, KRS or CEIDG number, parcel number or KW number) are provided at the time of instruction.
What identifiers are needed to instruct?
At minimum: the seller's NIP (tax identification number) and the property address. For Standard and Extended tiers: the KW number or the cadastral parcel number. CEIDG number and KRS number, where applicable, accelerate the search but can be sourced from NIP alone.
Is CRBR data reliable for beneficial ownership?
CRBR data is self-declared and not independently verified by the registry. It is a starting point, not a conclusion. The report states what CRBR shows, identifies where the declared chain reaches a foreign entity, and notes any discrepancy with KRS shareholder lists. Verification beyond the declared layer requires document review outside the registry scope of this report.
Disclaimer: This report is a factual compilation from official registers and public sources. It is provided for informational purposes only, does not constitute legal advice, and contains no legal qualification of the facts established. KORDECKI & Partners assumes no liability for actions taken or not taken based on this material. For advice regarding your particular situation, please contact info@kordeckipartners.com.