Lessors are increasingly afraid of problems with tenants. There is a solution

The number of people declaring revenues from renting is constantly increasing. In 2023, the number of taxpayers who settled the lump sum of private rent exceeded a million. In fact, the market scale is higher because many apartment owners do not register their activities.

Hidden rental costs

Experts point out that although the owners of apartments have the opinions of those who only collect rent and enjoy easy income, in fact the rental of premises generates considerable costs that are not much talk about.

– We are talking about a market that is crushed, unprofessional, because the crushing majority owners for rent have one, up to two premises. Someone who has a flat, trying to rent it at some point, discovers how frustrating this process is, costing him a lot of time and energy. In fact, this is additional work, in addition free of charge. First search for a tenant, and then rental management. Most owners try to do it themselves, often having no knowledge of how to do it effectively – says in an interview with “Wprost” Ewa Wielgórska, President of the Management Board of Fairy Flats, a company management company.

The solution may be to use a professional agency. However, these in a rather diverse way they value their services. In general, this is the equivalent of one -month rent. So is there a sense to use the support of intermediaries? According to our interlocutor, the answer is not clear.

– Very many owners of apartments are convinced that it makes no sense to spend money on intermediaries. And in fact, if someone has a lot of free time – you can and should try to manage the rent yourself. First, however, you need to read the lease regulations carefully. It may end so that we rent a flat to a tenant who will not want to move out and instead of profit, there will be a large financial loss – Wielgórska tells us.

– Secondly – remember that renting is an unpredictable business. Tenants are different, they often have surprising problems. And the problems of our tenants often become our problems. There are also prosaic failures, and the phone rings when we are on vacation or we just don’t have time. Turning to the intermediary is buying, for relatively little money, holy peace – he adds.

Short -term rental is the best solution?

There are situations that the apartment has been empty for a long time, because their owner alienated rental, e.g. because of trouble with tenants who were in arrears with rent and did not want to move out. The optimal solution for such people may be a short -term rental. There are no regulations regarding the protection of tenants.

– Short -term rental is a good solution for those who are concerned about the protection of tenants’ rights. The law is constructed in such a way that it protects tenants, even when they do not pay rent. However, this does not work in the case of “accommodated” as part of the short -term rental, which is legally an analogous service to the one provided by hotels. After the end of the customer’s accommodation (not to be confused with the “tenant”), you can simply fall out of the apartment if necessary – with the assistance of the police – explains the head of Fairy Flats.

However, those who prefer to rent their premises for longer to have a constant income are nose for this solution. – Of course, short -term rental income is not constant, as in the case of long -term rental. Is subject to seasonal fluctuations. It is also strongly dependent on the attractiveness of the tourist or business location. However, this is also a good solution for those owners who, from time to time, want to use the apartment for their own needs – if only because they work remotely or are permanently abroad, coming to old rubbish several times a year – Arguments Wielgórska.

Our interlocutor sees one more advantage of the short -term rent, which is the fact that the premises are more often controlled and cleaned. – Paradoxically, such apartments can be better maintained than those in the long -term rental. Of course, ultimately everything comes down to what tenant we managed to find – sums up our interlocutor.

Wielgórska emphasizes that the short -term rent “responds to the needs of the changing world”, e.g. the needs of remote employees, visiting only once a month, employer’s office or digital nomads, changing the place of residence every few weeks. Fully equipped apartments with separate kitchen and bedroom are much better satisfying the needs of such people than tight hotel rooms with a bathroom and minibar.

What prices do we deal with in the case of short -term rental of the apartment? – It all depends on the date. And I’m not talking here only about typical tourist destinations in which the “season” is everything. Also in Warsaw in the winter months you can rent a small studio for even about PLN 200 per night (plus a one -time cleaning fee). A flat with a separate bedroom, balcony and kitchen is about PLN 400. However, the closer to summer, the more short -term rental prices are rising. There is still one competitive in relation to hotel rooms if the size of the apartment and its equipment compared – explains Wielgórska.

New recipes, controversial ideas

At the latest next year, Poland together with other Member States of the European Union must implement short -term rental regulations. Work in this area is carried out by the Ministry of Sport and Tourism. Our interlocutor points out that, apart from reasonable proposals (such as forcing the landlords to follow certain standards of proceedings or sealing the tax system, so that short -term rental is always accounted for as business activity), there are also ideas detached from reality, such as the one regarding the consent by housing communities for housing in residential.

– In many large communities, obtaining a resolution in any case is very difficult due to the need to collect votes at least half of the owners – indicates Wielgórska. – This problem is not new and concerns not only lease, but also for even doctor’s offices or notary offices, as well as hundreds of thousands of microfirms, using the address of the apartment only for registration purposes. In the past, some housing communities have tried to introduce resolutions prohibiting owners of conducting business activity. And all these bans fell before the courts as too interfering with the essence of ownership – he adds.

The head of Fairy Flats points out that the ideas of introducing such constitutional doubts, solutions as part of the implementation of EU regulations could “torpedo the entire process of the necessary regulation of the rental market.”