A debtor verification report maps what official Polish registers record about a natural person or legal entity carrying a payment obligation. The collateral angle asks one specific question: what encumbers the debtor's assets, and what remains free to secure a new claim or enforce an existing one. Three registers answer that question at different levels of depth.
- What the registers show
- Court enforcement proceedings, pledges over movables and receivables, restructuring and insolvency status. Sources: Krajowy Rejestr Zadłużonych (KRZ), Rejestr Zastawów, portal orzeczeń sądów powszechnych · verified June 2026.
- Access condition
- KRZ is publicly searchable by name or PESEL/NIP. Rejestr Zastawów requires the debtor's identifier. Court portal searches are free and require no registration.
- What the registers do not show
- Informal liens, undisclosed assignments of receivables, and off-balance encumbrances do not appear in any public register.
- Currency of data
- KRZ entries reflect court orders. A proceeding filed but not yet entered produces no visible record.
What each register covers for collateral purposes
The Krajowy Rejestr Zadłużonych is the primary insolvency and enforcement register in Poland. It records restructuring proceedings, bankruptcy declarations, and court-supervised enforcement against debtors. A clean result in KRZ means no entered proceeding — it does not mean no filed application.
The Rejestr Zastawów records registered pledges (zastaw rejestrowy) over movable assets and sets of rights. Each entry identifies the pledgee, the pledgor, the secured claim amount, and the asset description. Priority among competing pledges follows registration order. A pledged asset cannot be freely disposed of without the pledgee's consent.
Mortgage encumbrances over real property are held in individual land and mortgage registers (księgi wieczyste), not in the debtor register. A debtor search without a corresponding real property search leaves that layer unexamined.
| Encumbrance type | Register | What is visible | What is not visible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insolvency / restructuring | KRZ | Entered proceedings, appointed administrators, plan approvals | Applications filed but not yet entered; pre-filing negotiations |
| Registered pledge over movables | Rejestr Zastawów | Pledgee, pledgor, secured amount, asset description, priority date | Possessory pledges (zastaw zwykły); undisclosed assignments |
| Mortgage over real property | Księgi Wieczyste (EKW) | Mortgage amount, creditor, rank, currency | Informal charges; unregistered transfers |
| Court enforcement (egzekucja) | KRZ | Active enforcement proceedings entered by court | Bailiff proceedings not yet entered; administrative enforcement |
| Tax and ZUS arrears | No public register | Not publicly available | Entire category — requires debtor disclosure or court order |
What a tiered report establishes at each level
The three tiers differ in the number of registers searched, the depth of document retrieval, and whether cross-register inconsistencies are flagged.
| Tier | What is included | Not included |
|---|---|---|
| Signal | KRZ status check (insolvency and restructuring); Rejestr Zastawów search by debtor identifier; written summary of entries found | Real property mortgage layer; document retrieval from court files; cross-register reconciliation; connected-entity search |
| Standard | All Signal content; KSH extract (KRS) for legal-entity debtors; Księgi Wieczyste search against identified properties; flagging of register inconsistencies | Document retrieval from court files; enforcement-docket review; search extended to related entities or guarantors |
| Extended | All Standard content; enforcement-docket review where proceedings are found; connected-entity search (subsidiaries, guarantors, pledgors acting on debtor's behalf); written reconciliation note where sources disagree | Tax and ZUS arrears (no public register); off-balance or informal encumbrances; legal qualification of findings |
The limit of what the sources allow
Polish public registers record what courts and registrars have formally entered. The ceiling is the entry date, not the event date. A restructuring application filed today may not appear in KRZ for days or weeks. A registered pledge discharged but not yet struck off still shows as active. Both conditions produce misleading snapshots.
Tax arrears owed to the Polish tax authority (US) and social insurance arrears owed to ZUS are not held in any register accessible to third parties without a court order or debtor consent. This category is structurally invisible to any third-party search, regardless of tier.
Possessory pledges (zastaw zwykły) and informal assignments of receivables do not require registration. They do not appear in Rejestr Zastawów. A debtor may have transferred its primary revenue stream to a creditor without any public record. The Extended tier flags the absence of an expected asset — it cannot confirm the absence of an unregistered encumbrance.
Where the sources disagree
The most common divergence is between KRS and KRZ. A company in KRS shows as active; KRZ shows an entered restructuring proceeding. The proceeding may have been filed against the entity's predecessor, a connected entity, or the same entity under a prior NIP. Cross-register reconciliation identifies which scenario applies and records the discrepancy in the report.
A second divergence arises between Rejestr Zastawów and the debtor's own balance sheet where that is available. A pledge securing a claim that the debtor reports as settled may still appear as active if the pledgee has not filed a discharge. The report records the entry as it stands in the register and notes the discrepancy.
How the search is conducted for a foreign requester
Polish registers require a national identifier — PESEL for natural persons, NIP or KRS number for legal entities. A foreign requester without that identifier cannot initiate a search directly. The firm retrieves the identifier from KRS, REGON, or CEIDG depending on entity type, then conducts the register searches. Results are delivered in English.
KRZ and Rejestr Zastawów are publicly accessible and carry no per-search charge set by the register itself. What the report charges for is the removed path: identifier retrieval, multi-register navigation, language, and the written reconciliation layer that a raw register output does not provide.
Frequently asked questions
Does a clean KRZ result mean the debtor has no insolvency exposure?
No. KRZ records entered proceedings. An application filed but not yet processed by the court produces no visible entry. A clean result means no entered proceeding as of the search date.
Can the report cover a natural-person debtor as well as a company?
Yes. KRZ covers both. Rejestr Zastawów searches by debtor identifier regardless of entity type. The real property layer (Księgi Wieczyste) applies to any registered property owner.
What if the debtor's assets include property held through a related entity?
The Signal and Standard tiers search the named debtor only. The Extended tier extends the search to identified subsidiaries, guarantors, and pledgors acting on the debtor's behalf. Identifying those entities is part of the Extended scope.
How long does the report take to produce?
Turnaround depends on register response times and the number of entities in scope. The firm confirms the timeline at the point of instruction. Rush processing is available on request.
Is the report usable in court or before a lender?
The report is a factual compilation from official registers. It does not constitute legal advice and contains no legal qualification of the findings. Whether it satisfies a particular lender's or court's evidentiary requirements depends on that forum's rules — a question outside the scope of this document.
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.