Warsaw Housing Dispute Rekindles Reprivatisation Debate

The news in Polish

1. zachodni
   położony na zachodzie, znajdujący się w kierunku zachodnim ↩︎
2. przyszłość  (f.)
   czas, który dopiero nadejdzie, to co stanie się później ↩︎
3. ziemia  (f.)
   grunt, teren, na którym stoją budynki lub rosną rośliny ↩︎
4. skomplikowany
   taki, który jest trudny do zrozumienia, ma wiele części lub problemów ↩︎
5. dotyczyć
   mieć związek z czymś, odnosić się do czegoś ↩︎
6. majątek  (m.)
   wszystko, co ktoś posiada i ma dużą wartość, np. domy, ziemia, pieniądze ↩︎

Translation

Text comprehension

Question 1: Why are the residents of the blocks on Górczewska street worried?

Question 2: What does the private company want that is causing problems for the residents?

Vocabulary

Polish	English
zachodni	western
przyszłość  (f.)	future
ziemia  (f.)	land
skomplikowany	complicated
dotyczyć	to concern
majątek  (m.)	property / assets

Read the full story

Hundreds of residents in western Warsaw are facing deep uncertainty over the future of their homes, after a private company demanded more than 31 million złoty in compensation for the land under a 1970s housing estate. The conflict has revived Poland’s long‑running and controversial issue of reprivatisation – the return of property taken over by the state after the Second World War.

The case concerns five ten‑storey blocks on the Ulrychów estate in the Wola district, at the junction of streets Górczewska and Księcia Janusza. The buildings belong to the housing cooperative Spółdzielnia Mieszkaniowa “Koło” and contain around 384 flats, home to about 1,500 people, many of them older residents or people nearing retirement.

The dispute is not about ownership of the apartments themselves – many residents paid contributions to the cooperative in the communist era and later bought their homes in the 1990s, while some received them as compensation for property lost during the war. Instead, the conflict centres on the ownership of the land beneath the blocks, a primary school, a nursery and public roads.

The area was historically part of the extensive Ulrich Gardens, run by the horticultural company C. Ulrich founded in 1805. After the war and under post‑war land reform, the grounds were taken over by the municipality of Warsaw and then by the State Treasury. In 1958 the remaining Ulrich gardening enterprise was nationalised, which many lawyers say effectively ended the company’s legal existence and its rights to the land.

Decades later, in 1994, an attempt was made to “reactivate” the pre‑war company C. Ulrich. According to reporting by Polish media, this was based on old company shares, which some experts had previously treated as historical or collector’s items rather than as valid securities. The reactivated entity, registered in Gdynia, then began to pursue claims to around 160 hectares of land in Wola, including the plots under the Górczewska estate.

A key step came in 2012, when the then minister of agriculture declared part of a 1958 nationalisation decision invalid for several specific plots. As a result, the State Treasury lost formal title to the land under the current blocks, and C. Ulrich gained a basis for reprivatisation claims. In 2015, the reactivated company sold these plots to a new firm, Lokaty Budowlane, which in 2025 applied to be entered as owner in the land and mortgage register.

At the same time, court rulings have gone in different directions. Between 2016 and 2021, several courts – including the Court of Appeal in Gdańsk – questioned the legitimacy of the 1994 reactivation, stating in one judgment that the resolutions appointing the company’s authorities “do not exist in a legal sense”. Despite this, C. Ulrich still appears in the official National Court Register, and the 2012 administrative decision on the land has not been overturned.

The situation became even more complex after the Warsaw Regional Court in 2024 rejected a request for the State Treasury to acquire the disputed land by adverse possession (a form of long‑term usage leading to ownership). That decision opened the way for the current owner of the land rights, Lokaty Budowlane, to seek damages for “unauthorised use” of the plots.

According to reports, the company has filed a lawsuit against the State Treasury for about 21 million złoty, later increased with interest to around 31 million złoty. Residents and the cooperative management fear that if the state loses the case or passes on the burden, the cost could ultimately fall on the housing cooperative – and therefore on individual flat owners. On average, this would mean about 80,000 złoty per dwelling, an amount many say they cannot afford.

The dispute has caused serious anxiety among residents. During a protest outside the Ministry of Justice in Warsaw, organised in mid‑February, participants – many of them pensioners – held banners and handed a petition to the minister, asking for state intervention and oversight of ongoing court proceedings. Several residents told Polish media they feared evictions, changes of locks or even future demolition of the blocks, although no such steps have been announced by the landowner.

Some residents recall that they were informed decades ago that the status of the land was not fully regulated, but say they did not expect it to lead to such high financial claims. They now speak of living in constant stress and uncertainty, and question whether they will ever recover the money invested in their homes and renovations if they are forced to move to replacement social housing.

Local community activists and some politicians have described the case as an example of the risks linked to reprivatisation based on pre‑war corporate rights. Warsaw urban activist Jan Śpiewak has called the situation “unprecedented”, arguing that it should not be possible to gain control of such a large area of land in the capital on the basis of old documents regarded by some experts as having only historical value. He and others have urged the prosecutor’s office and national politicians from different parties to work together to clarify the legal status of the company and the land.

Politicians from various parts of the political spectrum have used the dispute to raise broader concerns. A councillor from the left‑wing party Razem highlighted the lack of a comprehensive national law on reprivatisation, despite more than three decades since the end of communist rule. An MP from the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party linked the current case to what he called the past “pathologies of wild reprivatisation” in Warsaw, claiming that residents again fear losing their homes while others seek to profit from complex property histories. These are political statements and reflect the views of the speakers rather than court findings.

The Wola district authorities, led by mayor Krzysztof Strzałkowski, have formally opposed the outcome of earlier decisions. The district questions both the lawfulness of C. Ulrich’s reactivation and the correctness of the 2012 agriculture ministry decision that reopened ownership claims. Wola has asked the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw to declare that decision invalid and has filed a cassation appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court. According to the district, this appeal has not yet been examined, which contributes to the prolonged legal uncertainty.

District officials say they are cooperating with the “Koło” cooperative within the limits of the law, providing information and exploring the possibility of extraordinary complaints against final court judgments. Such complaints can be filed only by specific institutions, including the prosecutor general, the Ombudsman and the Children’s Ombudsman. Lawyers representing the residents report that they have already obtained temporary court injunctions which suspend some of the resolutions that established the authorities of the reactivated C. Ulrich company. They interpret one court’s brief reasoning as indicating that, at least at this stage, the court sees no basis for the firm’s claims, although the main disputes remain unresolved.

The Ministry of Justice, led by minister Waldemar Żurek, has announced several steps in response to the public outcry. The minister has said he will first examine all existing decisions and judgments, and has ordered the National Public Prosecutor’s Office to conduct a detailed analysis of the case. He has also written to the president of the Supreme Administrative Court to ask when the pending administrative proceedings might be concluded, and promised to review a Supreme Court ruling from February 2024 concerning the case.

One additional complication, noted by the minister, is that at least one Supreme Court decision related to the dispute was issued by a panel including so‑called “neo‑judges” – judges whose appointment has been questioned in Poland’s wider judicial reform conflict. Another chamber of the Supreme Court has ruled that decisions made with such participation should be considered legally ineffective, which could affect how earlier rulings in the land case are treated. The ministry has not yet presented final conclusions and emphasises that the legal situation is extremely complex.

Polish prosecutors have in the past investigated some reactivations of pre‑war companies and have sometimes treated them as attempts to illegally obtain land. In this case, the minister has said that a prosecutorial investigation was opened previously but reportedly ended in a discontinuation; the reasons for this and the current legal status of that decision are now being reviewed.

The company Lokaty Budowlane, which bought the plots in 2015 and is pursuing financial claims, has so far not commented publicly in detail on the accusations raised by residents and activists. Media outlets that reported on the case say their attempts to obtain a reaction from the firm have been unsuccessful. Court decisions to date have recognised the company’s position sufficiently for it to apply for entry into the land register, but further judicial and administrative proceedings could still influence the final ownership structure.

For now, the residents of the Górczewska blocks remain caught between historical property claims, conflicting court rulings and unresolved administrative appeals. Their situation illustrates the broader challenges that Poland continues to face in dealing with property nationalised after the Second World War, and the social consequences when old legal titles collide with the rights and expectations of people who have lived for decades on disputed land.

Info: ‘Polish Learner News’ is a service from ‘Let’s Learn Polish’, a language school dedicated to teaching Polish online, where we share practical advice on how to learn Polish fast and make effective use of our various types of online Polish courses.