The largest financial pyramid of the PRL? Millions of Poles stuck in a bottle

” – What are these?

– cooperative points.

– Aa …

– Director, here is the lake.

– Aa. It’s not, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, okay! This is the lake we will give here, and let him stand in greenery. ”

– This famous dialogue with the iconic comedy of Stanisław Barea “Wanted, Wanted” is an ideal introduction to the topic of cooperative apartments, and a strictly famous System of the Tabian booklet system for these apartments. It is often referred to as the largest financial pyramid of People’s Poland – or reasonably?

-The unpleasant finale of the collective saving system for housing purposes from the PRL period causes that the system is sometimes called a financial pyramid, because there are still a lot of people who feel cheated by the state-notes Andrzej Prajsnar, expert of the Rynekpierwotny.pl portal

He reminds that recently the Ombudsman demanded about the right of book owners to use the warranty bonus easier.

– It’s just that the bonus is not a full compensation for savings “eaten” by inflation – adds the expert.

A People’s Housing Miracle

As an expert reminds, the idea of ​​housing books with a bonus appeared in Poland in the late 1950s, when the previous model of development of “housing” was abandoned on the thaw wave.

– Citizens, through their savings, were to participate in a greater extent in the costs of building rental apartments, which was emphasized by, among others Władysław Gomułka. The rules of saving on housing books for the next decades, of course, have changed many times. Until the end of the Polish People’s Republic, the order of the President of the National Bank of Poland of April 21, 1983 was in force-explains Andrzej Prajsnar.

According to the mentioned ordinance, funds from books could be used to finance cooperative construction (contributions to cooperative flats) and individual construction.

– The incentive incentive system was interesting. The necessary periods of systematic saving and the minimum amount of monthly payments were determined. If the increase in conversion costs of construction (calculated on the basis of an official indicator) was higher than the interest rate on the contribution, the state granted a warranty bonus for regular saving – explains the expert.

System of housing books – first breakdown

This feature of the history reminiscent of the genesis of the Peerel’s collective saving system for its own “M” indicates that it was not designed as a financial pyramid. However, there is one “but”.

-It should be remembered that he acted in very specific economic realities of the Polish People’s Republic. Already at the end of the 1970s, the centrally controlled economy fell into great trouble, which resulted in the extension of the queue after the allocation of cooperative apartments – notes Andrzej Prajsnar.

It indicates an analysis, which shows that the housing queue also extended in the next decade.

– Data from 1985 indicate that then 731 thousand waited in the queue for the apartment. cooperatives and over 2.1 million candidates for cooperative members. More than half of the waiting ones had a full contribution to the cooperative “M”. The results of 1988 did not look better at all – the number of cooperatives in the queue broke the record (867,000, including 533,000 cooperative members with a full contribution waiting for at least 7 years). However, candidates for members of the cooperative (approx. 1.7 million) have lost – the expert lists.

System of housing books – warranty bonuses with a fantasy

The warranty bonus system also gradually broke down. In 1985 it was heavily limited, especially in the case of building houses. These restrictions have significantly influenced the functioning of the construction market.

– It is worth remembering that the guarantee of the value of savings cartridges (while saving for an apartment covering the cost of construction up to 55 sq m), it was based on conversion costs of construction, not the overall inflation indicator. With the lengthening of queues to a cooperative apartment, the guarantee of maintaining the purchasing power of the contribution (based on official construction costs) was more and more fictitious. However, the decrease in the value of money was real. We would like to remind you that the cumulative inflation for the period from the beginning of 1988 to the end of 1990 amounted to 3757 percent. – says Prajsnar.

System of housing books – the third definitive collapse

The idea of ​​housing books collapsed for the third time and this time in a definitive way. This happened during the economic transformation, which radically changed the housing market – there was no return to the books.

– Article 13 of the Act of July 28, 1990 amending the Act – Civil Code (Journal of Laws 1990 No. 55 item 321) was of key importance. In accordance with the solution adopted by the then Sejm, the provisions on judicial valorisation did not apply, among others to housing books. Three years later, a resolution of the Supreme Court of July 29, 1993 (III CZP 58/93) was adopted confirming the inability to correctly valorize the contributions on housing books – explains the expert of the RynekPierpierwotny.pl portal.

Expert: “The topic of books was not settled for 35 years”

Over time, claims for full valorisation of cartridges on housing books were raised less and less.

– Currently, book owners rarely use warranty bonuses – compared to the situation, e.g. 25 years ago. In the current form, these bonuses are a partial compensation for savings “eaten” by inflation. That is why the Ombudsman a year ago again appealed to facilitate the payment of warranty bonuses by extending the list of activities awarded with a bonus. This is an important issue, because about a million housing books have still not been liquidated. In 2024, only about 6,200 books were paid out of the average value of PLN 20,000 due to liquidation – notes Prajsnar.