Developers mock the law: apartments for PLN 1 per sq m.
Over a thousand complaints to UOKiK on developers. The new provisions on the openness of the flat prices are bypassed – the amounts “PLN 1 per sq m” appear in the ads.
The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection has already received more than a thousand complaints regarding developers who celebrate the new provisions on the openness of the prices of apartments, “Rzeczpospolita” said. As the daily notes, from the first day of the Act, some companies found ways to circumvent regulations.
New recipes
According to the new regulations, developers are required to publish the prices of apartments. However, in practice, some enter symbolic amounts on websites, e.g. “PLN 1 per square meter”. Grzegorz Kawecki, president of Pekaabex Development, comments that some wanted to be “clever or witty” and used the fact that information about the price on the site is not yet a commercial offer within the meaning of the Civil Code. Providing only the area of the area does not contain all the elements of the contract, such as the description of the premises or the date of the investment, and is treated rather as an invitation to negotiate.
A similar position is presented by lawyer Andrzej Bućko, indicating that the published price does not prejudge the conclusion of the contract. However, in the event of a discrepancy between the price from the announcement and the one proposed when signing the contract, the buyer has the right to request the conclusion of the contract at the price of the most advantageous for him – this is due to art. 19a para. 6 of the Act.
Additional messages
According to Business Insider Polska earlier, some companies use additional messages instead of providing real amounts, e.g. “Ask for a discount”, “Ask for an offer and leave contact details” or information about flexible payment schedules. Such treatments allow developers to maintain control over the sales process and leave their space for individual negotiations.
In practice, this means that despite the formal obligation to disclose prices, customers are still meeting mechanisms that allow companies to apply a varied price policy towards various buyers. Therefore, the new regulations did not eliminate existing market practices, but only moved them to a different level.
