Wills

Chapter I
General Provisions

Article 941 [Exclusivity of the will].
Property may be disposed of in the event of death only by means of a will.

Art. 942 [Exclusion of joint wills].
A will may contain dispositions of only one testator.

Art. 943 [Revocation of a will].
The testator may revoke both the entire will and its individual provisions at any time.

Art. 944 [Capacity to testify].
§ (1) Only a person who has full capacity to act may draw up and revoke a will.
§ A will may not be drawn up or revoked by a representative.
Article 945 [Conditions for the invalidity of a will].
§ 1. A will is invalid if it was made:
1) in a state excluding conscious or free decision-making and expression of will;
2) under the influence of error justifying the assumption that if the testator had not acted under the influence of error he would not have made a will of this content;
3) under the influence of a threat.
§ The invalidity of the will for the aforementioned reasons cannot be invoked after the lapse of three years from the date on which the person with an interest in the will became aware of the reason for the invalidity, and in any event after the lapse of ten years from the opening of the estate.
Article 946 [Revocation of a will].
A will may be revoked either by the testator drawing up a new will, or by the testator destroying it or depriving it of the features on which its validity depends, or finally by the testator making changes to the will which indicate his intention to revoke its provisions.

Art. 947 [The effects of drawing up a new will].
If the testator draws up a new will without mentioning in it that he revokes the previous will, only those provisions of the previous will which cannot be reconciled with the content of the new will are revoked.

Article 948 [Interpretation of a will].
§ (1) A will must be interpreted so as to ensure that the testator's will is realised as fully as possible.
§ (2) If a will may be interpreted in different ways, it is to be interpreted in such a way as to uphold the testator's dispositions and to give them a reasonable content.

Extract from the Polish Civil Code valid as of 28.01.2022