A foreign buyer or lender verifying a Polish commercial property asset faces a layered collateral picture. The Krajowy Rejestr Sądowy (KRS) anchors the entity side. Land charges, pledges, insolvency proceedings, tax status, and financial statements each live in a separate register. This report maps what each source shows, what it costs to access, and where the chain stops.
- What KRS shows
- Corporate structure, registered share capital, management board, supervisory board, registered address, and filed financial statements. Source: Krajowy Rejestr Sądowy (krs.ms.gov.pl) · verified July 2026
- Cost
- Free search and free electronic extracts. Certified paper extract: approximately 30–60 PLN per entity.
- Access condition
- No registration required. No declaration of legitimate interest required.
- What KRS does not show
- Registered pledges (Rejestr Zastawów), tax pledges (Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych), mortgage entries in the land register (EKW), and insolvency proceedings opened before December 2021.
What KRS covers — and what sits outside it
KRS is a public register maintained by the Ministry of Justice. It records the legal existence, ownership structure, and registered officers of Polish commercial entities. Access is free and requires no account. Certified extracts carry a fee of approximately 30–60 PLN per entity.
KRS links to the Repozytorium Dokumentów Finansowych (RDF), where filed financial statements are stored. The repository is also free and open without registration. A buyer can retrieve balance sheets and profit-and-loss statements directly from the same portal.
KRS does not record pledges, mortgages, tax claims, or insolvency proceedings. Those require four additional registers, each with its own access path and fee structure. Collateral verification is never a single-register task in Poland.
Pledge and charge registers
Two separate systems record security interests over movable assets and receivables in Poland. Checking one without the other leaves the collateral picture incomplete.
The Rejestr Zastawów, administered by the Ministry of Justice through Centralna Informacja, charges 20 PLN for a DW-1 certificate (search by pledgor) and 20 PLN for a DW-2 certificate (search by collateral object). A certified extract (DW-4) costs 15 PLN. The register covers registered pledges under the Act on Registered Pledges and the Pledge Register.
The Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych, administered by the Ministry of Finance, covers tax pledges securing public-law claims. A free search by collateral object is available through e-Urząd Skarbowy. A formal wypis or zaświadczenie costs 50 PLN. Tax pledges arise automatically upon tax assessment and are not entered by the debtor — they require active checking.
Land register — the mortgage picture
Mortgage entries for Polish real property are held in the Elektroniczne Księgi Wieczyste (EKW), maintained by the Ministry of Justice. The register is free to search. The critical constraint: search by entity name is not permitted for private parties. Access requires the Księga Wieczysta (KW) number for each specific property unit.
The KW number is not recorded in KRS. The path runs through the ewidencja gruntów i budynków (land and building cadastre), which links cadastral parcel identifiers to KW numbers. Obtaining the KW number from the cadastre is a separate step, typically requiring the property address or parcel number from the seller's documentation.
Once the KW number is known, EKW shows the current owner of record, all mortgage entries with creditor names and secured amounts, easements, and any pending transfer proceedings. The register reflects the state as at the moment of search — it does not show the history of entries that have been discharged.
Insolvency and restructuring proceedings
Since December 2021, all insolvency and restructuring proceedings in Poland are published in the Krajowy Rejestr Zadłużonych (KRZ) at krz.ms.gov.pl. The register is public, free, and requires no login. Search is available by NIP, KRS number, PESEL, or case reference.
KRZ replaced the Rejestr Dłużników Niewypłacalnych for new proceedings. A clean result in KRZ means no proceeding has been opened since 1 December 2021. It says nothing about earlier proceedings, which were published in the Monitor Sądowy i Gospodarczy (MSiG).
MSiG archives are searchable at wyszukiwarka-msig.ms.gov.pl, free of charge, from 1996 onward. Search criteria include entity name, KRS number, NIP, case type, and date range. Issues are published as PDFs — there is no structured data export. Cross-checking both KRZ and MSiG is required for a complete insolvency picture.
VAT status and bank accounts — the Biała Lista
The Biała Lista (White List of VAT taxpayers) is maintained by the Head of the National Revenue Administration (szef KAS) and is available free of charge at podatki.gov.pl without login. It shows current VAT registration status, registered business addresses, and — critically — all bank account numbers declared to the tax authority.
The register allows retrospective checks: a buyer can verify the entity's VAT status and declared accounts as at any past date. A payment made to a bank account not listed on the Biała Lista at the date of payment triggers joint and several VAT liability for the payer. This makes the register directly relevant to transaction structuring.
Beneficial ownership — CRBR
The Centralny Rejestr Beneficjentów Rzeczywistych (CRBR) is public, free, and accessible without an account. It records the declared ultimate beneficial owners of Polish entities subject to the AML Act. The register shows names, nationalities, PESEL numbers, and the nature and extent of control.
CRBR reflects declarations made by the obliged entity. The register does not independently verify the accuracy of those declarations. Where the declared ownership structure differs from the KRS shareholding picture, that discrepancy is itself a material finding.
The limit of what the sources allow
Several registers in this stack are public and free of charge. What a foreign buyer or lender is paying for is the removed path: identification of the correct entity identifiers (NIP, KRS, REGON), navigation of Polish-language interfaces, extraction of the KW number from the cadastre before EKW can be searched, cross-referencing of KRZ with MSiG archives predating December 2021, retrieval of certificates from both pledge registers, and assembly of findings into a single structured document.
The sources have hard limits that no report can overcome. EKW shows the current state of mortgage entries, not the history of discharged mortgages. KRZ covers proceedings from December 2021 only. The Rejestr Zastawów shows registered pledges — it does not capture informal retention-of-title arrangements or undisclosed assignments of receivables. CRBR shows declared beneficial ownership; it cannot detect undisclosed arrangements that contradict the declaration. Financial statements in RDF reflect what was filed — auditor qualifications and going-concern notes require reading the full document, not just the summary figures.
Where the sources disagree — for instance, where the CRBR declaration names a different controller than the KRS shareholding structure implies — that discrepancy is reported as a finding. Reconciliation of the discrepancy falls outside the scope of a factual register report.
Where the sources disagree
Three types of divergence appear regularly in Polish commercial property transactions. First, the KRS shareholder list and the CRBR beneficial ownership declaration name different persons or assign different percentages. Second, the Rejestr Zastawów shows a pledge over equipment described as part of the property asset, while the EKW entry for the same property shows no encumbrance — because the pledge attaches to the movable, not the real property. Third, filed financial statements in RDF show a debt-free balance sheet for a period in which the Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych records an active tax pledge. Each of these is a reportable finding, not an error in the registers.
What is included at each tier
| Item | Signal — €590 | Standard — €990 | Extended — €2,200 |
|---|---|---|---|
| KRS extract — current state | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| RDF financial statements — last two filed years | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CRBR beneficial ownership record | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Biała Lista VAT status check (current and retrospective to transaction date) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| KRZ insolvency search | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| MSiG archive search (pre-December 2021 proceedings) | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rejestr Zastawów certificate (DW-1 by pledgor) | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych search and wypis | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| EKW land register extract (requires KW number from client or cadastre) | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| RDF financial statements — up to five filed years with auditor notes | — | — | ✓ |
| Rejestr Zastawów DW-2 certificate (search by collateral object) | — | — | ✓ |
| Cross-register divergence analysis (KRS vs CRBR vs EKW vs pledge registers) | — | — | ✓ |
| Summary of encumbrances in English with source references | Flags only | Structured table | Full narrative with source citations |
| Not included at any tier | |||
| Legal qualification of findings · advice on transaction structure · verification of undisclosed arrangements not recorded in any register · physical inspection of the asset · valuation | |||
Frequently asked questions
Does a clean KRS record mean the asset is unencumbered?
No. KRS does not record pledges, mortgages, tax pledges, or insolvency proceedings. A clean KRS record confirms the entity's legal existence and registered structure. Encumbrance verification requires the four additional registers described above.
Can the land register be searched by company name?
Not by private parties. EKW search requires the KW number for each property unit. That number must be obtained from the seller's documentation or from the ewidencja gruntów i budynków cadastre using the property address or parcel identifier.
What does the Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych cover that the Rejestr Zastawów does not?
The Rejestr Zastawów covers pledges created by agreement under the Registered Pledges Act. The Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych covers pledges arising by operation of law from tax assessments. The two registers are maintained by different ministries and must be checked independently.
Why does the report cost money if the registers are free?
Several registers in this stack are public and free of charge. The fee covers the removed path: identification of the correct national identifiers, navigation of Polish-language portals, retrieval of the KW number before EKW can be accessed, cross-referencing of KRZ with MSiG archives, payment of statutory certificate fees to the pledge registers, and delivery of findings in structured English. This register is public and free of charge. What you are paying for is the removed path: registration, national identifier, language, electronic signature, declaration of legitimate interest.
How long does the report take?
Signal and Standard reports are delivered within five business days of receipt of the entity name and property address. Extended reports require up to ten business days. Certificate retrieval from the pledge registers may extend timelines if postal delivery is required.
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.