Polish Land and Mortgage Register Check: A Guide for UK Buyers

This guide is general legal information, not legal advice. How the rules apply depends on your individual circumstances, contracts, documents and deadlines. If you need advice or representation, the matter should be assessed by a qualified Polish lawyer. Twoja Sprawa helps you organise the documents for that assessment.

Key points

Who this guide is for

Contents

What the register is, and why it is not the same as a title register

If you know the UK system, the closest analogy to the Polish księga wieczysta (land and mortgage register) is the HM Land Registry title register — both are public registers designed to establish who owns a property and what burdens are attached to it. That is where the similarity largely ends, because the two legal systems operate on different mechanics.

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Land and mortgage registers in Poland exist to establish the legal status of a property — who owns it, whether it is mortgaged, whether someone has a pre-emption right, an easement, or another claim registered against it. The key rule is formal publicity: no one can claim ignorance of entries disclosed in the register, or of notes about pending applications. In other words, if something is in the register, the law presumes you knew about it — even if you never actually checked.

The Act also creates a legal presumption: a right disclosed in the register is presumed consistent with the actual legal state, and a right that has been removed is presumed non-existent. This presumption can be rebutted, but until someone does, the register is the baseline reference point in any transaction.

One difference worth flagging early: a Polish notariusz is not the same profession as a UK notary public, and the process of transferring ownership follows a different logic — the notarial deed, the register entry, and the rules on deposits and preliminary contracts do not map one-to-one onto UK conveyancing. For more on those structural differences, see Legal Due Diligence Before Buying Property in Poland.

Finding the register number and accessing it from the UK

The register number follows a fixed format: court code (4 characters) / register number (8 digits) / check digit, e.g. WA1M/00012345/6. The seller, estate agent or developer should be able to give you this number — if they refuse or stall, that alone is worth noting as a warning sign.

Once you have the number, go to the Electronic Land and Mortgage Registers portal (ekw.ms.gov.pl) — accessible from anywhere in the world, including the UK, with no account needed. Viewing the register's content is free — you just enter the register number. What is paid for is formal documentation: a standard or full copy (odpis), an extract, or a certificate confirming the register has been closed, all orderable through the same portal.

Practically, for someone in the UK: the site works in a standard browser, and you do not need a Polish phone number or a profil zaufany login just to view the register's content — this is one of the few steps in the purchase process you can genuinely do yourself, from anywhere, in about ten minutes.

Sections I-IV explained, one by one

The register is divided into four sections. Cooperative ownership rights to a flat (spółdzielcze własnościowe prawo do lokalu) have an analogous structure with separate rules.

Section Contains What to watch for
Section I-O (property description) Plot number, area, address, use Whether the details match the listing and the contract; for a flat, the share in the shared property
Section I-Sp (rights attached to ownership) Rights linked to ownership (e.g. land share for separate flat ownership) Whether the share is correctly recorded — it affects service charges and rights over common parts
Section II (ownership) Who is the owner or perpetual usufructuary Whether the seller actually appears as the registered owner — the first thing to check
Section III (rights, claims, restrictions) Easements, right of life tenancy, claims, notes on pending applications, warnings Notes and warnings — a signal the legal status may change or is disputed
Section IV (mortgages) Mortgages securing loans or other debts Whether the mortgage will be repaid and removed before or at the notarial deed

For a reader used to the UK system: Section II is the closest equivalent to the "Proprietorship Register" (who owns it), and Section IV resembles a "Charges Register" entry for a mortgage. Section III has no single clean equivalent — it combines several categories of burdens that in the UK may be split across different registers and documents.

For a step-by-step walkthrough of reading each section with worked examples (in Polish), see księga wieczysta — jak ją sprawdzić przed kupnem mieszkania (in Polish) and działy księgi wieczystej — co oznaczają (in Polish).

Public faith of the register

This is a concept you will not find under the same name in English law, but the underlying mechanism is comparable to protecting a good-faith buyer relying on a public register. Public faith of the register (rękojmia wiary publicznej ksiąg wieczystych) means that if the legal status disclosed in the register diverges from the actual legal state, the register's content prevails in favour of a person who acquired ownership or another right in rem from the person registered as entitled.

This matters for a buyer coming from the UK: if you buy from a person registered in Section II as the owner, acting in good faith, the law generally protects your purchase — even if it later turns out someone else had a claim to the property.

This protection has important exceptions you need to know about:

This is why reading the register cannot stop at Sections II-IV: you also need to check for notes (wzmianki) and warnings (ostrzeżenia), because their presence can mean the legal status is in flux or disputed — and in that situation, the public-faith protection will not operate the way you might expect.

What the register will NOT show you

One of the most common mistakes buyers from the UK make is treating a register check as complete due diligence. In fact, the register generally does not disclose:

In short: checking the register is the starting point of due diligence, not its conclusion — especially when buying a house, a building plot, or a resale property with a longer ownership history. Resale-specific risks are covered in Buying a Resale Property in Poland: Legal Risks and Checks.

Red flags when reading the register

Signals that should make you pause and consult a notary or lawyer before you send any money:

  1. The seller does not appear as the owner in Section II — someone else is selling, e.g. under a "power of attorney" you have not verified.
  2. A fresh note about a pending application in Section II or III — a sign the legal status could change before the deed is signed; a note also excludes public-faith protection for that entry.
  3. A warning about a discrepancy between the register and the real legal state — a clear sign of a disputed ownership status.
  4. An active mortgage in Section IV without a clear plan for repayment and removal before or at the notarial deed.
  5. A register number that does not match the address or floor area in the listing — could indicate a mistake or a deliberate attempt to mislead.
  6. A very recent change of owner (e.g. an ownership entry from a few weeks ago) combined with pressure to complete quickly — not proof of a problem on its own, but grounds for further questions.
  7. The seller pushes for a deposit before showing you the register number, or discourages you from checking it yourself.

Documents you will need

Common risks and mistakes

  1. Relying solely on the seller's assurances instead of checking the register yourself online — it takes about ten minutes and costs nothing.
  2. Ignoring notes and warnings in the register because "the owner confirms everything is fine" — these are exactly what determines whether public-faith protection applies.
  3. Treating the register check as the whole of due diligence — skipping service-charge certificates, zoning status, or unauthorised-construction risk.
  4. Checking the register too early and not re-checking it right before the deed — the register's content can change between an offer and the notarial deed.
  5. Assuming the Polish public-faith mechanism works exactly like the UK register — without confirming how it actually operates under Polish law.
  6. Not consulting a notary or lawyer over any unusual entry in Section III — this is not a place for guesswork.

Checklist

Frequently asked questions

Can I check the Polish land and mortgage register while I'm in the UK?

Yes. The ekw.ms.gov.pl portal is accessible from anywhere in the world through a standard browser, and viewing a register's content by its number requires no account. It is free and takes a few minutes.

How is the Polish register different from the UK title register?

Both are designed to establish a property's legal status and are publicly accessible, but they operate under separate legal systems, with different terminology, a different structure (the register's four sections), and a different buyer-protection mechanism (public faith of the register rather than the UK register's own rules).

Is checking the register enough to safely buy property in Poland?

No. The register is a fundamental, but not the only, part of due diligence. It does not disclose, for example, unauthorised construction, service-charge arrears, or compliance with the local zoning plan — these require separate checks, especially for a house or a plot.

What does a "note" (wzmianka) in the register mean?

A note means an application concerning the property has been submitted to the register court but has not yet been decided — so the legal status could still change. The presence of a note excludes public-faith protection in relation to that entry.

As a UK citizen, do I have the same access to register information as a Polish citizen?

Yes — the register's publicity does not depend on the nationality of the person checking it. Online access to the register's content is the same for everyone. Whether you, as a foreign national, need a Ministry of the Interior permit to acquire a particular property is a separate question, unrelated to reading the register.

Does the notary check the register for me, or do I need to do it myself?

The notary verifies the property's legal status when preparing the notarial deed, but that does not replace your own earlier check before signing a preliminary contract and paying a deposit — at that stage, the notary is typically not yet involved in the transaction.

Deadlines

Checking the register's content itself is not subject to any deadline — you can do this at any time, as often as you like. A few related deadlines are worth keeping in mind:

Buying property in Poland from the UK involves several steps running in parallel — checking the register is one of them. If you would like someone to review the documents for a specific transaction before you pay a deposit, request a free initial assessment — include the register number, the transaction stage, and which documents you already have.

Related guides

Przeczytaj po polsku: Jak sprawdzić polską księgę wieczystą przed zakupem nieruchomości

Sources

Information verified on: 11 July 2026.

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