Before a foreign buyer or lender commits capital to a Polish commercial property deal, the collateral picture must be established from official registers — not from seller representations. This page describes what Krajowy Rejestr Sądowy and the connected Polish registries reveal about a transaction counterparty, what charges and encumbrances attach to the asset, and where the official record stops.
The collateral question in Polish transactions has two distinct layers. The first is the legal person holding or selling the asset: its registered structure, filing history, and insolvency status. The second is the asset itself: what charges, pledges, and fiscal liens are registered against it. Both layers must be checked before any security analysis is complete.
- What KRS shows
- Full registered particulars of the Polish legal entity: share structure, management board, supervisory board, filed financial statements, and the history of all amendments. Source: Krajowy Rejestr Sądowy (erejestracje.ms.gov.pl) · verified 12 August 2026.
- Cost of access
- Current KRS extracts are free of charge via the public portal. A certified odpis costs approximately 30–60 PLN per entity.
- Pledge registries
- Two separate systems cover charges on movable assets. Rejestr Zastawów (Ministry of Justice): a DW-1 certificate per pledgor costs 20 PLN; a DW-2 certificate per pledged object costs 20 PLN. Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych (Ministry of Finance): search is free; a wypis or zaświadczenie costs 50 PLN via e-Urząd Skarbowy. Source: Centralna Informacja / e-Urząd Skarbowy · verified 12 August 2026.
- Insolvency register
- Krajowy Rejestr Zadłużonych (krz.ms.gov.pl) is publicly accessible without registration or fee. It covers proceedings opened from 1 December 2021. Source: krz.ms.gov.pl · verified 13 August 2026.
- Beneficial ownership
- CRBR (Centralny Rejestr Beneficjentów Rzeczywistych) is open, free, and requires no account. Source: crbr.podatki.gov.pl · verified 12 August 2026.
What the KRS record establishes about the counterparty
KRS is the central register of legal persons in Poland. For a commercial property transaction, it is the starting point for counterparty verification. The register shows the entity's legal form, registered address, share capital, current and historical management board members, supervisory board composition, and the complete sequence of amendments since incorporation.
Repozytorium Dokumentów Finansowych, linked directly to KRS, holds filed annual financial statements. Access is free. The statements allow a lender or buyer to assess whether the counterparty's reported asset base is consistent with the transaction value — and to identify years where no statement was filed.
MSiG (Monitor Sądowy i Gospodarczy) holds official gazette announcements from 1996 onward. The public search tool at wyszukiwarka-msig.ms.gov.pl is free. Search criteria include entity name, KRS number, NIP, announcement type, and date range. A material limitation applies: from December 2021, insolvency and restructuring announcements moved to KRZ. A search limited to MSiG will miss proceedings opened after that date.
Collateral layer: registered charges and pledges
Poland operates two distinct pledge registries for movable assets, and they do not share data. A complete charge profile requires separate searches in both.
Rejestr Zastawów, maintained by the Ministry of Justice through Centralna Informacja, covers registered pledges (zastaw rejestrowy) under the 1996 Act on Registered Pledges. A DW-1 certificate confirms what pledges are registered against a named pledgor. A DW-2 certificate confirms what pledges are registered against a described object. Each certificate costs 20 PLN. A full DW-4 certified extract costs 15 PLN per pledge entry.
Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych, maintained by the Ministry of Finance, covers fiscal pledges (zastaw skarbowy) arising from unpaid tax and customs liabilities. Search by object is free via e-Urząd Skarbowy. A formal wypis or zaświadczenie costs 50 PLN. Fiscal pledges arise by operation of law and do not require registration by the creditor — they attach automatically when a tax liability exceeds the statutory threshold. They are senior to most contractual security.
| Registry | Administrator | What it covers | Search cost | Certificate cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rejestr Zastawów | Ministry of Justice / Centralna Informacja | Registered pledges (zastaw rejestrowy) | Free | DW-1 / DW-2: 20 PLN each · DW-4: 15 PLN |
| Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych | Ministry of Finance / e-Urząd Skarbowy | Fiscal pledges (zastaw skarbowy) | Free | Wypis / zaświadczenie: 50 PLN |
Land register: title and mortgage encumbrances
Elektroniczne Księgi Wieczyste (EKW) is the Polish land and mortgage register. It is publicly accessible and free of charge. The access constraint is structural: search requires the KW number (numer księgi wieczystej). Search by owner name is not available to private parties.
In practice, the path runs through the ewidencja gruntów i budynków (cadastre), which holds the KW number for each parcel. The cadastre is maintained at the district (powiat) level. Access conditions vary by powiat. Once the KW number is obtained, EKW returns the full title sheet: owner of record, mortgage entries (Dział IV), other encumbrances (Dział III), and the land description (Dział I).
A discrepancy between the EKW owner of record and the transaction counterparty identified in KRS is itself a material finding. That discrepancy, when present, is reported as a fact — not interpreted.
Insolvency status: KRZ and the pre-2021 gap
Krajowy Rejestr Zadłużonych (KRZ) replaced the former Rejestr Dłużników Niewypłacalnych from 1 December 2021. It is publicly accessible at krz.ms.gov.pl without registration or fee. Search runs by NIP, KRS number, PESEL, or case reference. The register covers bankruptcy proceedings, restructuring proceedings, and secondary insolvency proceedings opened after the switchover date.
The hard limit: KRZ contains no data on proceedings opened before 1 December 2021. A negative result in KRZ does not confirm that no insolvency proceeding exists or existed. For proceedings predating the switchover, the path runs through MSiG announcements and direct court file inquiry. MSiG archive search covers announcements from 1996 onward, but the archive is in PDF format with no structured data extraction.
VAT status and bank account verification
Biała lista podatników VAT, maintained by the Head of KAS (Krajowa Administracja Skarbowa) at podatki.gov.pl, is free and requires no login. It returns the entity's current VAT status, registered NIP, and the bank account numbers declared to the tax authority.
The bank account check carries a direct financial consequence. Under Polish VAT law, a payment made to an account not appearing on Biała lista triggers joint and several liability for the payer in respect of the counterparty's VAT obligation on that transaction. Verification of the account before settlement is not optional for a buyer seeking to avoid that exposure. The register allows point-in-time queries on past dates, which is relevant for verifying the status at the date a prior payment was made.
Beneficial ownership: CRBR
CRBR (Centralny Rejestr Beneficjentów Rzeczywistych) is open and free, accessible without registration at crbr.podatki.gov.pl. It shows the ultimate beneficial owners declared by the entity, with percentage ownership and control thresholds.
The register reflects what the entity has declared. It does not independently verify the accuracy of those declarations. Where the CRBR entry is inconsistent with the shareholding structure shown in KRS, that inconsistency is a reportable fact. Cross-referencing CRBR against KRS share structure is a standard step in this report.
The limit of what the sources allow
Each register described on this page has a defined ceiling. KRS shows what was filed and registered — not what was omitted. Financial statements in Repozytorium Dokumentów Finansowych reflect what was reported to the register; the report does not audit them. KRZ covers insolvency proceedings from 1 December 2021 only: a clean KRZ result is not a clearance for the period before that date. Rejestr Zastawów covers registered pledges — unregistered security interests and reservation-of-title arrangements do not appear. Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych covers fiscal pledges that have been formally entered; a tax liability that has not yet reached the registration threshold may not yet appear. EKW shows the registered title position; off-register agreements, pre-emption rights exercised informally, or occupancy arrangements do not appear in the land register. CRBR shows declared beneficial owners; the declaration is the entity's own.
Where two registers produce inconsistent results — for example, KRS share structure diverging from CRBR beneficial ownership, or EKW owner of record differing from KRS — the report states the inconsistency as a finding. The report does not resolve it. Resolution requires legal analysis, which is outside the scope of a factual register report.
The ceiling of what the sources allow is stated before payment. The report scope at each tier corresponds to what the official registers can return — not to what would be needed for a complete legal opinion on the transaction.
Where the sources disagree
Three divergences arise regularly in Polish commercial property transactions. First: KRS share capital versus CRBR beneficial ownership. A structure where the declared beneficial owner holds less than the KRS-registered shareholding — or more — is a discrepancy that both registers will show simultaneously. Second: EKW owner of record versus KRS registered seat or name. After a corporate restructuring, a merger, or a name change, the land register update may lag the KRS update by months. Third: MSiG and KRZ insolvency coverage. A proceeding announced in MSiG before December 2021 will not appear in KRZ. A proceeding opened after December 2021 will not appear in MSiG. Searching only one source produces an incomplete picture.
What is included at each tier
| Tier | Price (EUR) | Included | Not included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signal | €710 | KRS extract and amendment history · Repozytorium Dokumentów Finansowych — last three filed statements · KRZ insolvency search · CRBR beneficial ownership extract · Biała lista VAT status and account check · Summary table of findings with source references | Pledge registry searches (Rejestr Zastawów and Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych) · EKW land register review · MSiG pre-2021 archive search · Cross-register inconsistency analysis |
| Standard | €1,500 | All Signal items · Rejestr Zastawów: DW-1 certificate per pledgor + DW-2 per identified object · Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych: search and zaświadczenie · EKW title sheet review (Działy I–IV) — requires KW number supplied by client · MSiG archive search from 1996 · Cross-register inconsistency table | Cadastre (ewidencja gruntów) search to obtain KW number where not supplied · Review of pre-1996 encumbrances · Legal qualification of findings · Verification of off-register security arrangements |
| Extended | €3,400 | All Standard items · Cadastre inquiry to establish KW number · Full EKW history including closed entries · Extended MSiG and KRZ timeline reconciliation · Rejestr Zastawów searches on all identified related entities · CRBR cross-check against KRS share register for each layer of the ownership chain · Written findings memorandum with source-by-source inconsistency analysis | Legal opinion on the transaction · Advice on structuring security · Review of transaction documents · Any register or source not named in this scope |
Frequently asked questions
Does a clean KRS record confirm the entity is solvent?
No. KRS is a registration register, not a solvency monitor. An entity may be registered in good standing in KRS while a restructuring proceeding is active in KRZ. The two registers serve different functions and must be checked independently.
Can the report be obtained without the KW number for the property?
At Signal and Standard tier, the EKW review requires the KW number as a client-supplied input. The cadastre inquiry to obtain the KW number is included in the Extended tier. Without the KW number, the land register component of the report cannot be completed.
What if the seller is an individual, not a legal entity?
KRS covers legal persons only. For an individual seller, the applicable registers are EKW for title, Rejestr Zastawów for pledges on movables, Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych for fiscal pledges, and KRZ for insolvency status. The scope of this report covers corporate sellers. Contact info@kordeckipartners.com to discuss scope for individual counterparties.
How long does the report take?
Signal reports are typically delivered within three to five business days of receiving the entity identifiers. Standard and Extended reports depend on the number of related entities and the responsiveness of cadastre offices. An indicative timeline is confirmed at the time of instruction.
Is this report a substitute for legal due diligence?
No. This is a factual register compilation. It establishes what the official registers show and identifies inconsistencies between them. It does not constitute legal advice and contains no legal qualification of the facts established. Legal due diligence on the transaction is a separate instruction.
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.