A debtor check on the counterparty is not optional when Polish commercial property changes hands. The land register records title and encumbrances. It does not record the financial condition of the entity that holds title. Establishing collateral value requires layering several official sources — each with its own access path, cost, and ceiling.
- What the land register shows
- Current owner, mortgage entries, third-party rights, and pending annotations. Source: Elektroniczne Księgi Wieczyste (EKW) · retrieved 2026-08-12
- Access condition
- Search requires the KW number. Search by owner name is not available to private parties. The path to the KW number runs through the land and buildings register (ewidencja gruntów i budynków).
- Cost
- Free of charge. No registration required.
- What it does not show
- Registered pledges over movables, tax liens, VAT status, insolvency proceedings, or the financial condition of the owning entity.
Why the land register alone is not enough for collateral assessment
Collateral value depends on what already encumbers the asset and who owns it. The KW register answers part of the first question. It does not answer the second in any useful depth. A property owned by a company in restructuring, carrying unregistered tax liens, or pledged under a separate civil-law instrument will not show those facts in the land register entry alone.
Polish law maintains two parallel pledge registries that operate independently of the KW system. The Rejestr Zastawów covers civil-law registered pledges. The Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych covers tax-authority liens. Neither feeds into the KW automatically. A complete encumbrance picture requires all three sources to be checked and cross-referenced.
Step-by-step: reading the KW entry
Each KW is divided into four departments. The collateral-relevant content sits primarily in Departments III and IV.
| Department | Content | Collateral relevance |
|---|---|---|
| I-O | Property designation, area, land use | Asset identification |
| I-Sp | Rights associated with the property | Easements running with the asset |
| II | Owner and title basis | Chain of title, co-ownership shares |
| III | Third-party rights, restrictions, pending annotations (wzmianki) | Encumbrances other than mortgages; unprocessed applications |
| IV | Mortgages (hipoteki): amount, currency, creditor, ranking | Direct lien exposure; priority order |
A wmianki entry in Department III signals that an application has been filed but not yet processed. The register reflects the state at the moment of printing, not the state at the moment of the transaction. Pending applications are legally visible — they are not hidden — but they are easy to miss without a trained reading of the entry.
The two pledge registries: access and cost
Civil-law registered pledges are recorded in the Rejestr Zastawów, administered by the Ministry of Justice. A certificate confirming whether a given entity (DW-1) or a given asset (DW-2) carries a registered pledge costs 20 PLN per inquiry. A full extract (DW-4) costs 15 PLN. These fees are set by ministerial regulation and payable through the Centralna Informacja system.
Tax liens are recorded separately in the Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych, administered by the Ministry of Finance. A search by asset is available free of charge through the e-Urząd Skarbowy portal. A formal certificate (wypis or zaświadczenie) costs 50 PLN and is issued through the same system. The two registries do not cross-reference each other.
Insolvency and restructuring: KRZ
Insolvency and restructuring proceedings opened after 1 December 2021 are published in the Krajowy Rejestr Zadłużonych (KRZ). The register is public, free of charge, and requires no login. Search runs by NIP, KRS number, PESEL, or case signature.
Proceedings opened before that date were published in the Monitor Sądowy i Gospodarczy (MSiG). The MSiG archive is searchable back to 1996 at no charge. Since December 2021, insolvency notices have moved to KRZ and are no longer published in MSiG. A complete picture requires both systems.
VAT status and bank accounts: the white list
The Biała lista (White List of VAT Taxpayers), maintained by the Head of the National Revenue Administration, records the VAT status of every registered entity. It also records the bank account numbers the entity has declared to the tax authority. A payment made to an account not on the list creates joint VAT liability for the payer under Polish tax law. That is a direct financial exposure, not a theoretical risk.
Access is free and requires no login. The list can be checked as of any past date, which allows verification of the entity's VAT status at the time of a prior transaction. A full machine-readable extract is available in JPK_WB format. An API exists, with rate limits.
Corporate structure: KRS and beneficial ownership
The Krajowy Rejestr Sądowy (KRS) is publicly accessible and free of charge. It records the entity's legal form, registered address, management board, supervisory board, share capital, and filed financial statements. Certified extracts (odpisy) are available for a fee in the range of 30–60 PLN.
The Centralny Rejestr Beneficjentów Rzeczywistych (CRBR) records the ultimate beneficial owner as declared by the entity. The register is public, free, and requires no account. The declared beneficial owner is the entity's own submission — it is not independently verified by the registry.
Financial statements
Entities registered in the KRS are required to file annual financial statements in the Repozytorium Dokumentów Finansowych (RDF). Access is free of charge. Filing compliance is uneven: small entities and single-member companies frequently file late or not at all. The absence of a filing does not confirm the absence of an obligation to file.
The limit of what the sources allow
Each registry listed above is official. Each has a defined ceiling. The KW register shows mortgages that have been registered — not mortgages that have been agreed but not yet filed. The KRZ covers proceedings from December 2021 onward; earlier proceedings require a separate MSiG search. The CRBR shows the beneficial owner as declared — the declaration is the entity's own, not a verified finding. The Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych covers tax liens; civil-law pledges sit in a separate system with a separate access path.
A negative result in any single registry is not a clean bill of health. It means no record was found in that registry at the time of the search. The limit of each source is stated before payment is made.
One structural gap applies to all registries: timing. A court order, a pledge registration, or a VAT deregistration may have occurred within days of the search. No registry provides real-time data. The search date is part of the result.
Where the sources disagree
The KW entry may show a mortgage in favour of a creditor whose insolvency proceeding is simultaneously visible in KRZ. The financial statements in the RDF may show a going-concern qualification that does not appear anywhere in the KW. The CRBR may list a beneficial owner whose entity does not appear in the KRS as a shareholder. Each of these discrepancies is itself a finding. The report records the discrepancy and identifies which source it comes from.
What is included at each tier
| Tier | Price (EUR, excl. VAT) | Included | Not included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signal | €590 | KW entry (all four departments); KRZ check; MSiG insolvency search; KRS extract; Biała lista status and account verification; written summary of findings with source dates | Pledge registry certificates (Rejestr Zastawów and Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych); CRBR beneficial ownership trace; financial statement analysis; discrepancy cross-referencing |
| Standard | €990 | Everything in Signal; Rejestr Zastawów certificate (DW-1 and DW-2); Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych certificate; CRBR beneficial ownership check; cross-referencing of KW, pledge registries, and insolvency records; written discrepancy section | Financial statement analysis; legal qualification of findings; representation or advice on transaction structure |
| Extended | €2,200 | Everything in Standard; three-year financial statement review (RDF); VAT history check at prior transaction dates; full cross-registry discrepancy analysis; written report with source-dated findings and a section on the ceiling of each source used | Legal qualification of findings; representation; advice on transaction structure or financing |
Payment is by invoice. Contact: info@kordeckipartners.com.
Frequently asked questions
Can the KW number be found without the seller's cooperation?
Yes, through the ewidencja gruntów i budynków (land and buildings register), which links cadastral parcels to KW numbers. The cadastral data is held by the relevant starost (powiat authority). Access conditions vary by powiat; some provide online lookup, others require a written request.
Does a clean KRZ result mean no insolvency proceedings?
No. KRZ covers proceedings opened from 1 December 2021. Proceedings opened before that date were published in MSiG. A complete insolvency check requires both systems. A clean result in both means no record was found — not that no proceeding has ever occurred.
Is the CRBR entry reliable?
The CRBR records what the entity has declared. The registry does not independently verify the declaration. Discrepancies between the CRBR entry and the KRS shareholder list are a finding in themselves and are flagged in the Standard and Extended tiers.
What if the property is owned by a foreign entity?
The KW entry records the owner as registered. If the owner is a foreign entity, the KRS will not contain its corporate data. The report identifies the gap and states which Polish registries have been checked. Cross-border corporate verification falls outside the scope of this report.
How long does the report take?
Signal and Standard reports are typically delivered within five business days of receiving the KW number and the entity's NIP or KRS number. Extended reports require up to ten business days, depending on the volume of financial statements to be reviewed.
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.