Before a commercial property transaction closes in Poland, the collateral question is not hypothetical. Księgi Wieczyste — the Polish land and mortgage register — is the primary source for what encumbers the asset. A foreign buyer or lender who cannot read that register, or cannot locate the correct volume number, faces a structural gap before signing.
- What the register shows
- Ownership, easements, mortgages, and other encumbrances recorded against a specific property. Source: Elektroniczne Księgi Wieczyste (EKW) · verified 2026-06-07
- Access condition
- Search by KW number only. Search by owner name is not permitted for private parties. The KW number must be obtained from the land registry (ewidencja gruntów) or from the seller.
- Cost of online inspection
- Free of charge. The EKW portal delivers the full current content of the register without registration or fee.
- What the register does not show
- Fiscal pledges (zastawy skarbowe), registered pledges on movables (Rejestr Zastawów), insolvency proceedings, and VAT status of the seller — each requires a separate source.
What the KW register contains and what it costs to read it
The EKW portal publishes the full text of every land and mortgage register volume. Access is free and requires no account. The portal returns four divisions of the register: ownership data, rights associated with the property, encumbrances and restrictions, and mortgages. Each mortgage entry names the creditor, the secured amount, and the currency.
A certified paper extract (odpis) costs a nominal fee and is ordered through the Centralna Informacja Ksiąg Wieczystych network. The online view is legally equivalent for due diligence purposes. The certified extract is required for notarial deeds and court proceedings.
The structural access barrier is the KW number itself. The portal accepts only a direct volume number. A foreign party holding only an address or a cadastral parcel reference must first retrieve the KW number from the land and buildings register (ewidencja gruntów i budynków), which is maintained at the district (powiat) level. That step requires a separate request and, in most districts, a declared legitimate interest.
The two pledge registers that sit outside Księgi Wieczyste
Mortgages recorded in the KW register cover immovable collateral. Two separate registries cover movable and fiscal pledges — and neither appears in the KW search result.
The Rejestr Zastawów is maintained by the Ministry of Justice through the Centralna Informacja office. A certificate confirming whether a named entity is a pledgor (DW-1) costs 20 PLN. A certificate by pledged object (DW-2) also costs 20 PLN. A certified extract of a pledge entry (DW-4) costs 15 PLN. These certificates are issued per subject or per object; a complete pledge profile for a commercial seller requires at minimum a DW-1 search.
The Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych is maintained by the Ministry of Finance and accessible through e-Urząd Skarbowy. A subject search is free. A formal statement (wypis or zaświadczenie) costs 50 PLN. Fiscal pledges arise by operation of tax law and do not require registration in the KW register. They attach to the asset, not only to the debtor.
A clean KW extract does not rule out an active fiscal pledge on the same property. Both registries must be checked independently.
Seller entity verification: KRS, KRZ, and Biała Lista
The property register records what encumbers the asset. The seller's legal status is a separate verification layer. Three free registers cover it.
The Krajowy Rejestr Sądowy (KRS) is the companies register. Full current content and filed documents are accessible free of charge. A certified extract costs in the range of 30–60 PLN. KRS shows the company's registered address, management board, representation rules, share capital, and any pending dissolution or liquidation proceedings.
The Krajowy Rejestr Zadłużonych (KRZ) is the insolvency and restructuring register. It is public, free, and requires no login. Search runs by NIP, KRS number, PESEL, or case reference. KRZ contains proceedings opened from 1 December 2021 onward. Proceedings opened before that date were recorded in predecessor registers and are not migrated into KRZ. An absence of a KRZ entry does not confirm an absence of earlier insolvency proceedings.
The Biała Lista (White List of VAT taxpayers) is maintained by the Head of the National Revenue Administration. It is free and requires no login. It returns VAT status, registered business details, and all bank account numbers declared to the tax authority. It supports retroactive queries — a check against any past date is possible. Paying a seller on a bank account not listed in the Biała Lista on the transaction date creates joint VAT liability for the buyer. That makes this check a contractual prerequisite, not an optional step.
Financial statements: what the Repozytorium shows
Filed financial statements are available free of charge through the Repozytorium Dokumentów Finansowych, linked from the KRS record. Coverage depends on the entity type and filing obligations. Statements are delivered as uploaded files — typically PDF or structured XML (e-sprawozdanie). The Repozytorium shows what was filed; it does not verify whether the filing is complete or accurate against the underlying books.
Beneficial ownership: CRBR
The Centralny Rejestr Beneficjentów Rzeczywistych (CRBR) is public, free, and accessible without an account. It contains the declared ultimate beneficial owner for entities subject to the AML reporting obligation. The register shows what the entity's management has declared. It does not independently verify the accuracy of that declaration against shareholding documents or trust arrangements.
The limit of what the sources allow
The EKW portal is free and complete for the registered content of the KW volume. The ceiling is the KW number itself. Without it, the portal returns nothing. Obtaining the number from the ewidencja gruntów requires a district-level request with a stated legitimate interest — a step that is not self-service for a foreign party without a Polish national identifier.
KRZ covers insolvency proceedings from December 2021 onward. Proceedings opened before that date are not in KRZ. Checking for earlier proceedings requires separate queries to court archives and the Monitor Sądowy i Gospodarczy (MSiG), which publishes announcements in PDF format without structured data export. MSiG search is free; interpreting the results requires reading Polish legal notices.
CRBR records the declared beneficial owner. It does not reflect undisclosed nominee arrangements, trust structures, or stale entries where the declaration has not been updated after a change of control. The register is a starting point, not a verified ownership map. Pledge registers require separate paid queries per subject and per object — a single search does not cover the full encumbrance profile.
Where the sources disagree
The KW register and the Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych operate independently. A property can appear unencumbered in the KW while carrying an active fiscal pledge. The two registers do not cross-reference. Reconciling them is a manual step.
The CRBR declaration and the KRS shareholding structure can diverge when a change of control has occurred but the CRBR entry has not been updated within the statutory seven-day window. Where the KRS and CRBR records show different control chains, the discrepancy is itself a due diligence finding — not a data error to be resolved by choosing one source over the other.
What is included at each tier
| Tier | Price (EUR) | Included | Not included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signal | €710 | KW extract retrieval (KW number located via ewidencja gruntów); current ownership and mortgage summary; KRS current status; KRZ insolvency check; Biała Lista VAT and bank account verification on transaction date; CRBR beneficial ownership declaration; written summary in English. | Rejestr Zastawów (movable pledges); Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych (fiscal pledges); pre-2021 insolvency history; financial statement review; historical KW content (prior entries, deleted mortgages); land use and zoning data. |
| Standard | €1,500 | Everything in Signal, plus: Rejestr Zastawów search by seller entity (DW-1 certificate); Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych search with formal zaświadczenie; MSiG archive search for pre-2021 insolvency and restructuring announcements; three years of filed financial statements from Repozytorium; annotated encumbrance table cross-referencing all sources. | Zoning and planning register (MPZP) review; environmental register check; historical KW reconstruction beyond what the current extract shows; physical inspection or valuation; legal qualification of findings. |
| Extended | €3,400 | Everything in Standard, plus: full historical KW reconstruction including deleted entries and prior mortgage chains; zoning and local development plan (MPZP) status; environmental register and RDOŚ check; five years of financial statements with ratio summary; Rejestr Zastawów search by pledged object (DW-2) for identified assets; consolidated English-language report with source-by-source discrepancy log. | Legal advice or qualification of findings; representation in negotiations or proceedings; physical site inspection; valuation; any registry that requires a court order for access. |
All tiers are delivered as written reports in English. Delivery time is stated in the engagement confirmation. Payment is by invoice.
Several registers used in this report are public and free of charge. What the fee covers is the removed path: locating the KW number through the district land registry, navigating Polish-language portals, obtaining paid certificates from the Rejestr Zastawów and Rejestr Zastawów Skarbowych, cross-referencing sources that do not communicate with each other, and delivering findings in English in a single document.
Frequently asked questions
Can a foreign buyer access Księgi Wieczyste directly?
The EKW portal is publicly accessible from any jurisdiction. The barrier is the KW number, not the portal itself. Without a KW number — which requires a prior step in the district land registry — the portal returns nothing. That step is where foreign parties typically encounter difficulty.
Does a clean KW extract mean the property is unencumbered?
No. The KW register records mortgages and easements registered against the title. Fiscal pledges arising under tax law and pledges registered in the Rejestr Zastawów do not appear in the KW extract. A complete encumbrance picture requires all three registries.
How far back does the KRZ insolvency register go?
KRZ covers proceedings opened from 1 December 2021. Earlier proceedings were published in the Monitor Sądowy i Gospodarczy and in the predecessor Rejestr Dłużników Niewypłacalnych. Those records are not migrated into KRZ. Checking the full insolvency history of a seller requires MSiG archive queries in addition to the KRZ search.
What is the Biała Lista and why does it matter for a property purchase?
The Biała Lista is the official register of VAT-active taxpayers maintained by the Head of the National Revenue Administration. It lists every bank account number declared by the entity to the tax authority. Under Polish VAT law, a buyer who pays on an account not listed in the Biała Lista on the payment date becomes jointly liable for the seller's VAT obligations on that transaction. Verifying the payment account against the Biała Lista before transfer is a standard contractual protection.
What does the CRBR beneficial ownership record actually confirm?
CRBR records the beneficial owner as declared by the entity's management. It does not verify the declaration against shareholding agreements, trust deeds, or nominee arrangements. Where the CRBR entry and the KRS shareholding structure diverge, both records are reported and the discrepancy is flagged — not resolved by choosing one source.
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.