Renting short-term housing has become in fresh years 1 of the most popular ways to additional income from real estate. The boom of platforms specified as Airbnb or Booking.com enabled local owners to rapidly and easy enter the urban and leisure tourism sector. However, with the emergence in the scale of this phenomenon, many challenges arose. Legal advisor Katarzyna Siwiec explains what needs to be done to legally rent apartments for tourists in Poland this year and next year.
More than a year ago, on 20 May 2024, a fresh Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council of the European Union came into force, to be applied in all associate States from 20 May 2026, which introduces the work to registry tenants of premises or rooms, as well as the work to collect and transmit data on rental services to short-term digital platforms. In practice, this means that any booking will shortly should be accompanied by a unique identifier. Already now platforms specified as Airbnb gotta report, among others, the owner's data, the address of the premises, the number of nights and revenues. These responsibilities will increase further.
The aim of this procedure is to increase marketplace transparency in European Union countries and thus to address social and economical problems more effectively. Thus, each associate State has been obliged to implement access points by which platforms will transmit these data on a monthly or quarterly basis to national authorities. For housing owners, this means the end of the "grey zone". Information about the lease will automatically go to the National taxation Administration, regardless of whether the income was previously reported by the taxpayer.
– In consequence to the recommendations and commitments introduced, the Polish Ministry of athletics and Tourism prepared a bill to regulate short-term rental in Poland. The task provides for the work to registry any premises utilized for tourist purposes – the registry will be kept centrally and each premises will be given a unique recognition number which the owner will gotta supply in the online announcement. The deficiency of a number will be equivalent to the illegal provision of accommodation services, which could consequence in an administrative fine – says legal advisor Katarzyna Siwiec.
The Act is besides intended to let municipalities to impose restrictions on the location or number of dwellings intended for short-term rent. Local governments will be able to designate areas where specified activities will require consent – or even be banned, for example in urban areas with peculiar protection. In practice, this may mean that in parts of cities specified as Kraków, Warsaw or Gdańsk, there will be restrictions akin to those known from Barcelona or Amsterdam.
– 1 of the most controversial points in the bill is the discussed solution allowing the housing community to block short-term rental activities in a given building. This is presently not legally possible. Many communities have adopted resolutions prohibiting this form of activity, citing Article 12(1) of the Local Property Act. According to him, the owner has the right to usage the premises as intended, unless this distorts the usage of others. However, the ultimate Court considered that the housing community could not impose a prohibition on owners to delegate housing units for short-term rental purposes (judgment of 12 January 2021, sygn.act IV CSKP 20/21. However, if regulations were introduced amending the government in this respect, the situation would be completely different and whether short-term rent would be possible would be decided by the Community rules and current resolutions. – adds legal counsel.
According to the draft law and guidelines, any owner of the premises for short stays will gotta meet a number of formal and method requirements. First of all, the ones about the safety of the premises.
Short word rental now
Currently, many people rent apartments under the alleged private lease, alleged a flat on registered income, which is inactive legal – if statutory conditions are met and there is no provision of services beyond average rental, specified as regular cleaning, reception, catering. It is worth noting that the taxation authorities, in a situation where residential premises are rented in the short term, but are not connected with them with additional services specified as the reception, the provision of meals to guests or the cleaning services during the stay of the guests, late admit that specified rent does not constitute the economical activity of the taxpayer. In Poland, despite ongoing work on tightening regulations, short-term rent is inactive legal and easy available – if basic formal conditions are respected.
– Formally short-term rental continues to be based on a specified lease agreement in accordance with the civilian Code. For additional protection, owners may apply occasional contracts. This solution may be beneficial for seasonal rental to tourists and students, as long as the provision of the premises takes more than a fewer days, and this is due to the fact that occasional rent requires enforcement of the work to issue the premises after the conclusion of the contract with a notarial act – notes Katarzyna Siwiec.
Since 1 July last year, Poland has implemented the DAC7 directive, which requires trading data reporting platforms to the National taxation Administration. Homeowners should so be aware that their income is monitored – although formally they can inactive account for a flat (8.5% up to a certain threshold, then 12.5%) or carry out an economical activity consisting of renting a premises.
Short-term rental remains attractive from a financial point of view – especially in large cities. Rental prices increased by more than 40% in Krakow and Warsaw, which makes the strategy of this kind more profitable than long-term rent.
Although fresh regulations are likely to enter into force in 2026, present you can inactive legally rent without central registers and without registration number. The key to the safe moving of the lease is transparency, compliance of formalities and taking account of local regulations.
