LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

When the municipality or the State inherits, i.e. there are no legal or testamentary heirs in Poland.

In the case of a will, the testator inherits.
In the absence of a will, the Civil Code Act indicates who inherits and in what shares. When there are no legal heirs, the municipality or the State inherits.

In accordance with the provisions of Article 934 § 1 and 2 of the Civil Code, in the absence of descendants, spouse, parents, siblings and descendants of the testator's siblings, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's grandparents; they inherit in equal shares; if one of the testator's grandparents has not lived to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would fall to him/her falls to his/her descendants. That share shall be shared in accordance with the rules governing the sharing-out of the estate among the testator's descendants. In the absence of descendants of the grandfather who has not lived to see the opening of the succession, the share of the succession which would have fallen to him falls to the remaining grandparents in equal shares.
In accordance with the provisions of Article 9341 of the Civil Code, in the absence of the testator's spouse and relatives called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls in equal parts to the children of the testator's spouse, who neither of their parents lived to see the opening of the inheritance.

In accordance with Art. 935 of the Civil Code, in the absence of the testator's spouse, his/her relatives and the children of the testator's spouse called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls to the municipality of the testator's last place of residence as a legal heir. If the testator's last place of residence in the Republic of Poland cannot be established, or the testator's last place of residence was abroad, the inheritance is inherited by the State Treasury as a legal heir.

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Inheritance unworthiness in Poland

Article 928 [Inheritance unworthiness].
§ 1. An heir may be declared unworthy by the court if:
1) he has intentionally committed a grave crime against the testator;
2) by trickery or threat has persuaded the testator to draw up or revoke a will, or has prevented him/her from doing either of these acts in the same manner;
3) intentionally hid or destroyed the testator's will, falsified or imitated his or her will, or knowingly used a will falsified or imitated by another person.
§ 2 An unworthy heir shall be excluded from the inheritance as if he had not lived to see the opening of the inheritance.

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Statutory succession by the spouse in Poland

Art. 931 [First group of statutory heirs].
§ 1 The children of the testator and his/her spouse are called to the inheritance first by law; they inherit in equal parts. However, the spouse's share may not be less than a quarter of the total inheritance.
§ 2 If a child of the testator did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to them falls to their children in equal parts. This provision applies accordingly to further descendants.

Art. 932 [Inheritance in the absence of the testator's descendants].
§ In the absence of the testator's descendants the testator's spouse and parents are called to the succession by law.
§ 2. The share of the inheritance of each parent who inherits jointly with the testator's spouse shall be one-fourth of the total inheritance. If the paternity of a parent has not been established, the share of the testator's mother inheriting jointly with the testator's spouse amounts to half of the inheritance.

Art. 933 [Spouse's share of the inheritance].
§ The share of the succession of the spouse who inherits jointly with the testator's parents, siblings and descendants is half of the succession.
§ 2 In the absence of the testator's descendants, his parents, siblings and their descendants, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's spouse.

Art. 9351 [Exclusion of the separated spouse].
Provisions on appointment to the inheritance by statute shall not apply to the testator's spouse remaining in legal separation.

Art. 940 [Exclusion of the testator's spouse from statutory succession].
§ 1 A spouse is excluded from the inheritance if the testator has requested that a divorce or separation be pronounced due to his/her fault, and the request was justified.
§ The spouse is excluded from the inheritance by court decision. The exclusion may be requested by any of the other statutory heirs called to the succession jointly with the spouse; the time limit for bringing an action is six months from the date on which the heir learned about the opening of the succession, but no longer than one year from the opening of the succession.
After a legally valid divorce, we can no longer speak of a spouse, hence statutory succession does not take place.

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Disinheritance in Poland

Article 1008 [Disinheritance].
The testator may, in his will, deprive his descendants, spouse and parents of the retainer (disinheritance) if the person entitled to the retainer:

1) against the will of the testator acts persistently in a manner contrary to the rules of social co-existence;
2) has committed against the testator or one of his closest persons an intentional crime against life, health or freedom, or a gross insult to honour;
3) persistently fails to fulfil family obligations towards the testator.
Article 1009 [Cause for disinheritance].
The reason for disinheriting a person entitled to a reserved portion shall be specified in the will.

Art. 1010 [Effect of disinheritance].
§ 1 The testator may not disinherit a person entitled to a reserved share if he has forgiven him.
§ If at the moment of forgiving the testator did not have legal capacity to act, the forgiveness is effective if it was done with sufficient discernment.
Art. 1011 [Descendants of the disinherited person].
The descendants of a disinherited descendant shall be entitled to a reserved portion of the estate even if they survive the testator.

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Restitution - prescription in Poland

Art. 1007 [Time-barring of claims under a restitution].
§ The statute of limitations for a beneficiary's claims under a reserved portion of an estate and for heirs' claims to reduce an ordinary bequest or recommendation shall expire five years after the testator's will is announced.
§ 2 A claim against a person obliged to supplement the reserved amount on account of a legacy or a gift received from the testator shall be time-barred with the expiry of five years from the opening of the inheritance.

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Restitution in Poland

Restitution

Art. 991 [Entitled to a piece of property].
§ If the beneficiary is permanently incapacitated or if the beneficiary's descendants are minors - two thirds of the value of the share of the estate which would fall to them in the case of succession under the law, in other cases - half of the value of that share (restitution).
§ If a beneficiary has not received the due amount of the remainder of the estate, either in the form of a gift made by the testator, or in the form of an appointment to the inheritance, or in the form of a legacy, he is entitled to a claim against the heir for payment of the amount of money needed to cover the remainder or to supplement it.

Art. 992 [Basis for calculation of the reserved portion].
When determining the share of the estate constituting the basis for calculating the reserved portion, the unworthy heirs and heirs who have rejected the inheritance shall also be taken into account, while heirs who have renounced the inheritance or have been disinherited shall not be taken into account.

Art. 993 [Determining the amount of a reserved portion].
When calculating the amount of the reserved portion of inheritance, ordinary legacies and instructions shall not be taken into account, while gifts and legacies made by the testator shall be added to the inheritance pursuant to the provisions hereunder.

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Dispositions of property upon death - wiills in Poland

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

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Statutory inheritance in Poland

Art. 931 [First group of statutory heirs].
§ 1 The children of the deceased and their spouse are the first to be called up to the inheritance by law; they inherit in equal parts. However, the spouse's share may not be less than a quarter of the total inheritance.
§ 2 If a child of the deceased did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to them falls to their children in equal parts. This provision applies accordingly to further descendants.
Art. 932 [Inheritance in the absence of the testator's descendants].
§ In the absence of the testator's descendants the testator's spouse and parents are called to the succession by law.
§ 2. The share of the inheritance of each parent who inherits jointly with the deceased's spouse shall be one-fourth of the total inheritance. If the fatherhood of a parent has not been established, the share of the inheritance of the testator's mother, who inherits jointly with the testator's spouse, amounts to half of the inheritance.
§ (3) In the absence of the testator's descendants and spouse, the entire inheritance falls to his/her parents in equal shares.
§ If one of the testator's parents did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to the testator's siblings in equal parts.
§ If any of the testator's siblings did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, leaving behind their descendants, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to their descendants. This share shall be distributed according to the rules applicable to the distribution among the further descendants of the testator.
§ If one of the parents has not lived to see the opening of the inheritance and there are no siblings of the testator or their descendants, the share of the inheritance of the parent inheriting jointly with the testator's spouse is half of the inheritance.
Art. 933 [Participation in the succession of the spouse].
§ The share of the succession of the spouse who inherits jointly with the testator's parents, siblings and descendants is half of the succession.
§ 2 In the absence of the testator's descendants, his parents, siblings and their descendants, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's spouse.

Art. 934 [Grandparents' share of the estate].
§ (1) In the absence of descendants, spouse, parents, siblings and descendants of the testator's siblings, the entire inheritance shall fall to the grandparents of the testator; they shall inherit in equal shares.
§ If one of the testator's grandparents did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to their descendants. This share shall be distributed in accordance with the rules governing the distribution of the inheritance among the testator's descendants.
§ If there are no descendants of the grandparent who did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to him shall fall to the remaining grandparents in equal parts.
Art. 9341 [Inheritance of stepchildren].
In the absence of the testator's spouse and relatives called to inherit by law, the inheritance shall fall in equal parts to the children of the testator's spouse, neither of whose parents lived up to the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 935 [Last statutory heirs].
In the absence of the testator's spouse, his/her relatives and children of the testator's spouse who are called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls to the municipality of the testator's last place of residence as a statutory heir. If the testator's last place of residence in the Republic of Poland cannot be established or the testator's last place of residence was located abroad, the inheritance falls to the State Treasury as a statutory heir.

Art. 9351 [Exclusion of a separated spouse].
The provisions regarding a statutory appointment to the inheritance shall not apply to the testator's separated spouse.

Art. 936 [Inheritance in the event of full adoption].
§ 1 The adopted person shall inherit from the adopter and his/her relatives as if he/she were the adopter's child, and the adopter and his/her relatives shall inherit from the adopted person as if the adopter were the adopted person's parent.
§ (2) An adoptee shall not inherit from his natural ascendants and their relatives, and these persons shall not inherit from him.
§ If one spouse has adopted the child of the other spouse, the provisions of § 2 shall not apply to that spouse and his or her relatives, and if such adoption has taken place after the death of the other parent of the adopted person, also to relatives of the deceased whose rights and obligations arising from kinship have been maintained in the adoption judgment.
Article 937 [Inheritance in the case of incomplete adoption].
If the effects of the adoption consist solely in the creation of a relationship between the adopter and the adopted, the following provisions shall apply:

1) the adoptee shall inherit from the adopter on an equal footing with the adopter's children, and the adopted person's descendants shall inherit from the adopter on the same basis as the testator's further descendants;
2) the adopted person and his descendants shall not inherit from the adopter's relatives, and the adopter's relatives shall not inherit from the adopted person and his descendants;
3) the adopted person's parents do not inherit from the adopted person, and the adopter inherits from the adopted person instead of them; besides, adoption does not affect the vocation to inherit resulting from kinship.
Art. 938 [Rights of the testator's grandparents].
If the testator's grandparents are in a state of privation and cannot receive the maintenance due to them from the persons who have a statutory obligation to maintain them, they may request from the heir unburdened with such an obligation maintenance in proportion to their needs and to the value of their share of the inheritance. The heir may also satisfy this claim by paying the testator's grandparents a sum of money equivalent to one-fourth of his share of the estate.

Article 939 [Surrogate's legacy].
§ 1 A spouse who inherits by operation of law jointly with other heirs, except for the testator's descendants who were living together with the testator at the time of the testator's death, may claim from the inheritance over and above his/her share of the inheritance the household effects which the testator used jointly with the testator or exclusively by himself/herself during his/her lifetime. The spouse's claims in this respect shall be governed by the provisions on ordinary legacies as appropriate.
§ The spouse is not entitled to the above entitlement if the spouses' cohabitation ceased during the testator's lifetime.
Art. 940 [Exclusion of the testator's spouse from legal succession].
§ 1 The spouse is excluded from the inheritance if the testator has requested that a divorce or separation be pronounced for their fault, and the request was justified.
§ The spouse is excluded from the inheritance by court decision. The exclusion may be requested by any of the other statutory heirs called to the succession jointly with the spouse; the time limit for bringing an action is six months from the date on which the heir learned about the opening of the succession, but no longer than one year from the opening of the succession.

 

Extract from the Polish Civil Code valid as of 28.01.2022

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

General provisions of the inheritance law in Poland

SUCCESSIONS - POLISH CIVIL CODE

TITLE I
General Provisions

Art. 922 [Succession].
§ (1) Upon the death of the deceased, property rights and obligations of the deceased pass to one or more persons pursuant to the Polish Civil Code.
§ (2) The succession shall not include the rights and obligations of the deceased closely connected with his person, as well as rights which, upon his death, are transferred to certain persons regardless of whether they are inheritors.
§ Par. 3 The debts under the succession also include the costs of the testator's funeral to the extent that the funeral is in line with the customary practice in the given community, the costs of succession proceedings, the obligation to satisfy claims for a legacy and the obligation to execute legacies and instructions as well as other obligations provided for in the Polish Civil Code.

Article 923 [Rights of the spouse and relatives].
§ 1 The spouse and other persons close to the testator who lived with him/her until the day of his/her death are entitled to use the testator's flat and household facilities to the extent hitherto within three months from the opening of the succession. A disposition of the testator excluding or limiting this entitlement shall be null and void.
§ 2 The above provisions shall not limit the entitlements of the spouse and other persons close to the testator, which arise from the lease of premises or from the cooperative right to premises.

Art. 924 [Time of opening the inheritance].
The succession shall be opened upon the death of the testator.

Art. 925 [Acquiring the inheritance].
The inheritor shall acquire the inheritance upon the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 926 [Sources of an appointment to inheritance].
§ Art. 926 [Acquiring the inheritance] The appointment to the inheritance shall result from the law or a will.
§ Legal succession in respect of the entire estate takes place when the deceased has not appointed an heir or when none of the persons whom the deceased has appointed is willing or able to be an heir.
§ Subject to the exceptions stipulated by the law, legal succession in respect of a part of the inheritance takes place when the bequeather has not appointed an heir to that part of the inheritance or when any of the several persons whom he has appointed to the entire inheritance is unwilling or unable to be an heir.

Art. 927 [Capacity to inherit; Capacity to inherit by a preborn child].
§ 1. A natural person who is not alive at the time of the opening of the inheritance, nor a legal person who does not exist at that time, may not be an inheritor.
§ Paragraph 2. However, a child already conceived at the time of the opening of the succession may be an heir if he or she is born alive.
§ 3 A foundation established in a will by a testator may be an heir if it is entered in the register within two years from the announcement of the will.

Art. 928 [Inheritance incompatibility].
§ 1. An heir may be declared unworthy by the court if:
1) has intentionally committed a grave crime against the testator;
2) by trickery or threat has persuaded the testator to draw up or revoke a will, or has or she prevented him/her from doing either of these acts in the same manner;
3) intentionally covered up or destroyed the testator's will, counterfeited or forged his or her will, or knowingly used a will forged or forged by another person.
§ 2 An unworthy heir is excluded from the inheritance as if he had not lived to see the opening of the succession.
Art. 929 [Active legitimacy in a lawsuit for unworthiness to inherit].
Declaring an heir unworthy may be requested by anyone who has an interest therein. Such a request may be made within a year from the date on which he learns about the reason for unworthiness, however, no later than within three years from the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 930 [Forgiveness].
§ 1 An heir may not be declared unworthy if the testator has forgiven him or her.
§ 2 If at the moment of forgiveness the testator did not have legal capacity, forgiveness is effective if it was done with sufficient discernment.

Extract from the Polish Civil Code valid as of 28.01.2022

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

In the case of a will, the testator inherits.
In the absence of a will, the Civil Code Act indicates who inherits and in what shares. When there are no legal heirs, the municipality or the State inherits.

In accordance with the provisions of Article 934 § 1 and 2 of the Civil Code, in the absence of descendants, spouse, parents, siblings and descendants of the testator's siblings, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's grandparents; they inherit in equal shares; if one of the testator's grandparents has not lived to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would fall to him/her falls to his/her descendants. That share shall be shared in accordance with the rules governing the sharing-out of the estate among the testator's descendants. In the absence of descendants of the grandfather who has not lived to see the opening of the succession, the share of the succession which would have fallen to him falls to the remaining grandparents in equal shares.
In accordance with the provisions of Article 9341 of the Civil Code, in the absence of the testator's spouse and relatives called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls in equal parts to the children of the testator's spouse, who neither of their parents lived to see the opening of the inheritance.

In accordance with Art. 935 of the Civil Code, in the absence of the testator's spouse, his/her relatives and the children of the testator's spouse called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls to the municipality of the testator's last place of residence as a legal heir. If the testator's last place of residence in the Republic of Poland cannot be established, or the testator's last place of residence was abroad, the inheritance is inherited by the State Treasury as a legal heir.

Article 928 [Inheritance unworthiness].
§ 1. An heir may be declared unworthy by the court if:
1) he has intentionally committed a grave crime against the testator;
2) by trickery or threat has persuaded the testator to draw up or revoke a will, or has prevented him/her from doing either of these acts in the same manner;
3) intentionally hid or destroyed the testator's will, falsified or imitated his or her will, or knowingly used a will falsified or imitated by another person.
§ 2 An unworthy heir shall be excluded from the inheritance as if he had not lived to see the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 931 [First group of statutory heirs].
§ 1 The children of the testator and his/her spouse are called to the inheritance first by law; they inherit in equal parts. However, the spouse's share may not be less than a quarter of the total inheritance.
§ 2 If a child of the testator did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to them falls to their children in equal parts. This provision applies accordingly to further descendants.

Art. 932 [Inheritance in the absence of the testator's descendants].
§ In the absence of the testator's descendants the testator's spouse and parents are called to the succession by law.
§ 2. The share of the inheritance of each parent who inherits jointly with the testator's spouse shall be one-fourth of the total inheritance. If the paternity of a parent has not been established, the share of the testator's mother inheriting jointly with the testator's spouse amounts to half of the inheritance.

Art. 933 [Spouse's share of the inheritance].
§ The share of the succession of the spouse who inherits jointly with the testator's parents, siblings and descendants is half of the succession.
§ 2 In the absence of the testator's descendants, his parents, siblings and their descendants, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's spouse.

Art. 9351 [Exclusion of the separated spouse].
Provisions on appointment to the inheritance by statute shall not apply to the testator's spouse remaining in legal separation.

Art. 940 [Exclusion of the testator's spouse from statutory succession].
§ 1 A spouse is excluded from the inheritance if the testator has requested that a divorce or separation be pronounced due to his/her fault, and the request was justified.
§ The spouse is excluded from the inheritance by court decision. The exclusion may be requested by any of the other statutory heirs called to the succession jointly with the spouse; the time limit for bringing an action is six months from the date on which the heir learned about the opening of the succession, but no longer than one year from the opening of the succession.
After a legally valid divorce, we can no longer speak of a spouse, hence statutory succession does not take place.

Article 1008 [Disinheritance].
The testator may, in his will, deprive his descendants, spouse and parents of the retainer (disinheritance) if the person entitled to the retainer:

1) against the will of the testator acts persistently in a manner contrary to the rules of social co-existence;
2) has committed against the testator or one of his closest persons an intentional crime against life, health or freedom, or a gross insult to honour;
3) persistently fails to fulfil family obligations towards the testator.
Article 1009 [Cause for disinheritance].
The reason for disinheriting a person entitled to a reserved portion shall be specified in the will.

Art. 1010 [Effect of disinheritance].
§ 1 The testator may not disinherit a person entitled to a reserved share if he has forgiven him.
§ If at the moment of forgiving the testator did not have legal capacity to act, the forgiveness is effective if it was done with sufficient discernment.
Art. 1011 [Descendants of the disinherited person].
The descendants of a disinherited descendant shall be entitled to a reserved portion of the estate even if they survive the testator.

Art. 1007 [Time-barring of claims under a restitution].
§ The statute of limitations for a beneficiary's claims under a reserved portion of an estate and for heirs' claims to reduce an ordinary bequest or recommendation shall expire five years after the testator's will is announced.
§ 2 A claim against a person obliged to supplement the reserved amount on account of a legacy or a gift received from the testator shall be time-barred with the expiry of five years from the opening of the inheritance.

Restitution

Art. 991 [Entitled to a piece of property].
§ If the beneficiary is permanently incapacitated or if the beneficiary's descendants are minors - two thirds of the value of the share of the estate which would fall to them in the case of succession under the law, in other cases - half of the value of that share (restitution).
§ If a beneficiary has not received the due amount of the remainder of the estate, either in the form of a gift made by the testator, or in the form of an appointment to the inheritance, or in the form of a legacy, he is entitled to a claim against the heir for payment of the amount of money needed to cover the remainder or to supplement it.

Art. 992 [Basis for calculation of the reserved portion].
When determining the share of the estate constituting the basis for calculating the reserved portion, the unworthy heirs and heirs who have rejected the inheritance shall also be taken into account, while heirs who have renounced the inheritance or have been disinherited shall not be taken into account.

Art. 993 [Determining the amount of a reserved portion].
When calculating the amount of the reserved portion of inheritance, ordinary legacies and instructions shall not be taken into account, while gifts and legacies made by the testator shall be added to the inheritance pursuant to the provisions hereunder.

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

Art. 931 [First group of statutory heirs].
§ 1 The children of the deceased and their spouse are the first to be called up to the inheritance by law; they inherit in equal parts. However, the spouse's share may not be less than a quarter of the total inheritance.
§ 2 If a child of the deceased did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to them falls to their children in equal parts. This provision applies accordingly to further descendants.
Art. 932 [Inheritance in the absence of the testator's descendants].
§ In the absence of the testator's descendants the testator's spouse and parents are called to the succession by law.
§ 2. The share of the inheritance of each parent who inherits jointly with the deceased's spouse shall be one-fourth of the total inheritance. If the fatherhood of a parent has not been established, the share of the inheritance of the testator's mother, who inherits jointly with the testator's spouse, amounts to half of the inheritance.
§ (3) In the absence of the testator's descendants and spouse, the entire inheritance falls to his/her parents in equal shares.
§ If one of the testator's parents did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to the testator's siblings in equal parts.
§ If any of the testator's siblings did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, leaving behind their descendants, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to their descendants. This share shall be distributed according to the rules applicable to the distribution among the further descendants of the testator.
§ If one of the parents has not lived to see the opening of the inheritance and there are no siblings of the testator or their descendants, the share of the inheritance of the parent inheriting jointly with the testator's spouse is half of the inheritance.
Art. 933 [Participation in the succession of the spouse].
§ The share of the succession of the spouse who inherits jointly with the testator's parents, siblings and descendants is half of the succession.
§ 2 In the absence of the testator's descendants, his parents, siblings and their descendants, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's spouse.

Art. 934 [Grandparents' share of the estate].
§ (1) In the absence of descendants, spouse, parents, siblings and descendants of the testator's siblings, the entire inheritance shall fall to the grandparents of the testator; they shall inherit in equal shares.
§ If one of the testator's grandparents did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to their descendants. This share shall be distributed in accordance with the rules governing the distribution of the inheritance among the testator's descendants.
§ If there are no descendants of the grandparent who did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to him shall fall to the remaining grandparents in equal parts.
Art. 9341 [Inheritance of stepchildren].
In the absence of the testator's spouse and relatives called to inherit by law, the inheritance shall fall in equal parts to the children of the testator's spouse, neither of whose parents lived up to the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 935 [Last statutory heirs].
In the absence of the testator's spouse, his/her relatives and children of the testator's spouse who are called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls to the municipality of the testator's last place of residence as a statutory heir. If the testator's last place of residence in the Republic of Poland cannot be established or the testator's last place of residence was located abroad, the inheritance falls to the State Treasury as a statutory heir.

Art. 9351 [Exclusion of a separated spouse].
The provisions regarding a statutory appointment to the inheritance shall not apply to the testator's separated spouse.

Art. 936 [Inheritance in the event of full adoption].
§ 1 The adopted person shall inherit from the adopter and his/her relatives as if he/she were the adopter's child, and the adopter and his/her relatives shall inherit from the adopted person as if the adopter were the adopted person's parent.
§ (2) An adoptee shall not inherit from his natural ascendants and their relatives, and these persons shall not inherit from him.
§ If one spouse has adopted the child of the other spouse, the provisions of § 2 shall not apply to that spouse and his or her relatives, and if such adoption has taken place after the death of the other parent of the adopted person, also to relatives of the deceased whose rights and obligations arising from kinship have been maintained in the adoption judgment.
Article 937 [Inheritance in the case of incomplete adoption].
If the effects of the adoption consist solely in the creation of a relationship between the adopter and the adopted, the following provisions shall apply:

1) the adoptee shall inherit from the adopter on an equal footing with the adopter's children, and the adopted person's descendants shall inherit from the adopter on the same basis as the testator's further descendants;
2) the adopted person and his descendants shall not inherit from the adopter's relatives, and the adopter's relatives shall not inherit from the adopted person and his descendants;
3) the adopted person's parents do not inherit from the adopted person, and the adopter inherits from the adopted person instead of them; besides, adoption does not affect the vocation to inherit resulting from kinship.
Art. 938 [Rights of the testator's grandparents].
If the testator's grandparents are in a state of privation and cannot receive the maintenance due to them from the persons who have a statutory obligation to maintain them, they may request from the heir unburdened with such an obligation maintenance in proportion to their needs and to the value of their share of the inheritance. The heir may also satisfy this claim by paying the testator's grandparents a sum of money equivalent to one-fourth of his share of the estate.

Article 939 [Surrogate's legacy].
§ 1 A spouse who inherits by operation of law jointly with other heirs, except for the testator's descendants who were living together with the testator at the time of the testator's death, may claim from the inheritance over and above his/her share of the inheritance the household effects which the testator used jointly with the testator or exclusively by himself/herself during his/her lifetime. The spouse's claims in this respect shall be governed by the provisions on ordinary legacies as appropriate.
§ The spouse is not entitled to the above entitlement if the spouses' cohabitation ceased during the testator's lifetime.
Art. 940 [Exclusion of the testator's spouse from legal succession].
§ 1 The spouse is excluded from the inheritance if the testator has requested that a divorce or separation be pronounced for their fault, and the request was justified.
§ The spouse is excluded from the inheritance by court decision. The exclusion may be requested by any of the other statutory heirs called to the succession jointly with the spouse; the time limit for bringing an action is six months from the date on which the heir learned about the opening of the succession, but no longer than one year from the opening of the succession.

 

Extract from the Polish Civil Code valid as of 28.01.2022

SUCCESSIONS - POLISH CIVIL CODE

TITLE I
General Provisions

Art. 922 [Succession].
§ (1) Upon the death of the deceased, property rights and obligations of the deceased pass to one or more persons pursuant to the Polish Civil Code.
§ (2) The succession shall not include the rights and obligations of the deceased closely connected with his person, as well as rights which, upon his death, are transferred to certain persons regardless of whether they are inheritors.
§ Par. 3 The debts under the succession also include the costs of the testator's funeral to the extent that the funeral is in line with the customary practice in the given community, the costs of succession proceedings, the obligation to satisfy claims for a legacy and the obligation to execute legacies and instructions as well as other obligations provided for in the Polish Civil Code.

Article 923 [Rights of the spouse and relatives].
§ 1 The spouse and other persons close to the testator who lived with him/her until the day of his/her death are entitled to use the testator's flat and household facilities to the extent hitherto within three months from the opening of the succession. A disposition of the testator excluding or limiting this entitlement shall be null and void.
§ 2 The above provisions shall not limit the entitlements of the spouse and other persons close to the testator, which arise from the lease of premises or from the cooperative right to premises.

Art. 924 [Time of opening the inheritance].
The succession shall be opened upon the death of the testator.

Art. 925 [Acquiring the inheritance].
The inheritor shall acquire the inheritance upon the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 926 [Sources of an appointment to inheritance].
§ Art. 926 [Acquiring the inheritance] The appointment to the inheritance shall result from the law or a will.
§ Legal succession in respect of the entire estate takes place when the deceased has not appointed an heir or when none of the persons whom the deceased has appointed is willing or able to be an heir.
§ Subject to the exceptions stipulated by the law, legal succession in respect of a part of the inheritance takes place when the bequeather has not appointed an heir to that part of the inheritance or when any of the several persons whom he has appointed to the entire inheritance is unwilling or unable to be an heir.

Art. 927 [Capacity to inherit; Capacity to inherit by a preborn child].
§ 1. A natural person who is not alive at the time of the opening of the inheritance, nor a legal person who does not exist at that time, may not be an inheritor.
§ Paragraph 2. However, a child already conceived at the time of the opening of the succession may be an heir if he or she is born alive.
§ 3 A foundation established in a will by a testator may be an heir if it is entered in the register within two years from the announcement of the will.

Art. 928 [Inheritance incompatibility].
§ 1. An heir may be declared unworthy by the court if:
1) has intentionally committed a grave crime against the testator;
2) by trickery or threat has persuaded the testator to draw up or revoke a will, or has or she prevented him/her from doing either of these acts in the same manner;
3) intentionally covered up or destroyed the testator's will, counterfeited or forged his or her will, or knowingly used a will forged or forged by another person.
§ 2 An unworthy heir is excluded from the inheritance as if he had not lived to see the opening of the succession.
Art. 929 [Active legitimacy in a lawsuit for unworthiness to inherit].
Declaring an heir unworthy may be requested by anyone who has an interest therein. Such a request may be made within a year from the date on which he learns about the reason for unworthiness, however, no later than within three years from the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 930 [Forgiveness].
§ 1 An heir may not be declared unworthy if the testator has forgiven him or her.
§ 2 If at the moment of forgiveness the testator did not have legal capacity, forgiveness is effective if it was done with sufficient discernment.

Extract from the Polish Civil Code valid as of 28.01.2022

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

In the case of a will, the testator inherits.
In the absence of a will, the Civil Code Act indicates who inherits and in what shares. When there are no legal heirs, the municipality or the State inherits.

In accordance with the provisions of Article 934 § 1 and 2 of the Civil Code, in the absence of descendants, spouse, parents, siblings and descendants of the testator's siblings, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's grandparents; they inherit in equal shares; if one of the testator's grandparents has not lived to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would fall to him/her falls to his/her descendants. That share shall be shared in accordance with the rules governing the sharing-out of the estate among the testator's descendants. In the absence of descendants of the grandfather who has not lived to see the opening of the succession, the share of the succession which would have fallen to him falls to the remaining grandparents in equal shares.
In accordance with the provisions of Article 9341 of the Civil Code, in the absence of the testator's spouse and relatives called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls in equal parts to the children of the testator's spouse, who neither of their parents lived to see the opening of the inheritance.

In accordance with Art. 935 of the Civil Code, in the absence of the testator's spouse, his/her relatives and the children of the testator's spouse called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls to the municipality of the testator's last place of residence as a legal heir. If the testator's last place of residence in the Republic of Poland cannot be established, or the testator's last place of residence was abroad, the inheritance is inherited by the State Treasury as a legal heir.

Article 928 [Inheritance unworthiness].
§ 1. An heir may be declared unworthy by the court if:
1) he has intentionally committed a grave crime against the testator;
2) by trickery or threat has persuaded the testator to draw up or revoke a will, or has prevented him/her from doing either of these acts in the same manner;
3) intentionally hid or destroyed the testator's will, falsified or imitated his or her will, or knowingly used a will falsified or imitated by another person.
§ 2 An unworthy heir shall be excluded from the inheritance as if he had not lived to see the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 931 [First group of statutory heirs].
§ 1 The children of the testator and his/her spouse are called to the inheritance first by law; they inherit in equal parts. However, the spouse's share may not be less than a quarter of the total inheritance.
§ 2 If a child of the testator did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to them falls to their children in equal parts. This provision applies accordingly to further descendants.

Art. 932 [Inheritance in the absence of the testator's descendants].
§ In the absence of the testator's descendants the testator's spouse and parents are called to the succession by law.
§ 2. The share of the inheritance of each parent who inherits jointly with the testator's spouse shall be one-fourth of the total inheritance. If the paternity of a parent has not been established, the share of the testator's mother inheriting jointly with the testator's spouse amounts to half of the inheritance.

Art. 933 [Spouse's share of the inheritance].
§ The share of the succession of the spouse who inherits jointly with the testator's parents, siblings and descendants is half of the succession.
§ 2 In the absence of the testator's descendants, his parents, siblings and their descendants, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's spouse.

Art. 9351 [Exclusion of the separated spouse].
Provisions on appointment to the inheritance by statute shall not apply to the testator's spouse remaining in legal separation.

Art. 940 [Exclusion of the testator's spouse from statutory succession].
§ 1 A spouse is excluded from the inheritance if the testator has requested that a divorce or separation be pronounced due to his/her fault, and the request was justified.
§ The spouse is excluded from the inheritance by court decision. The exclusion may be requested by any of the other statutory heirs called to the succession jointly with the spouse; the time limit for bringing an action is six months from the date on which the heir learned about the opening of the succession, but no longer than one year from the opening of the succession.
After a legally valid divorce, we can no longer speak of a spouse, hence statutory succession does not take place.

Article 1008 [Disinheritance].
The testator may, in his will, deprive his descendants, spouse and parents of the retainer (disinheritance) if the person entitled to the retainer:

1) against the will of the testator acts persistently in a manner contrary to the rules of social co-existence;
2) has committed against the testator or one of his closest persons an intentional crime against life, health or freedom, or a gross insult to honour;
3) persistently fails to fulfil family obligations towards the testator.
Article 1009 [Cause for disinheritance].
The reason for disinheriting a person entitled to a reserved portion shall be specified in the will.

Art. 1010 [Effect of disinheritance].
§ 1 The testator may not disinherit a person entitled to a reserved share if he has forgiven him.
§ If at the moment of forgiving the testator did not have legal capacity to act, the forgiveness is effective if it was done with sufficient discernment.
Art. 1011 [Descendants of the disinherited person].
The descendants of a disinherited descendant shall be entitled to a reserved portion of the estate even if they survive the testator.

Art. 1007 [Time-barring of claims under a restitution].
§ The statute of limitations for a beneficiary's claims under a reserved portion of an estate and for heirs' claims to reduce an ordinary bequest or recommendation shall expire five years after the testator's will is announced.
§ 2 A claim against a person obliged to supplement the reserved amount on account of a legacy or a gift received from the testator shall be time-barred with the expiry of five years from the opening of the inheritance.

Restitution

Art. 991 [Entitled to a piece of property].
§ If the beneficiary is permanently incapacitated or if the beneficiary's descendants are minors - two thirds of the value of the share of the estate which would fall to them in the case of succession under the law, in other cases - half of the value of that share (restitution).
§ If a beneficiary has not received the due amount of the remainder of the estate, either in the form of a gift made by the testator, or in the form of an appointment to the inheritance, or in the form of a legacy, he is entitled to a claim against the heir for payment of the amount of money needed to cover the remainder or to supplement it.

Art. 992 [Basis for calculation of the reserved portion].
When determining the share of the estate constituting the basis for calculating the reserved portion, the unworthy heirs and heirs who have rejected the inheritance shall also be taken into account, while heirs who have renounced the inheritance or have been disinherited shall not be taken into account.

Art. 993 [Determining the amount of a reserved portion].
When calculating the amount of the reserved portion of inheritance, ordinary legacies and instructions shall not be taken into account, while gifts and legacies made by the testator shall be added to the inheritance pursuant to the provisions hereunder.

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

Art. 931 [First group of statutory heirs].
§ 1 The children of the deceased and their spouse are the first to be called up to the inheritance by law; they inherit in equal parts. However, the spouse's share may not be less than a quarter of the total inheritance.
§ 2 If a child of the deceased did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to them falls to their children in equal parts. This provision applies accordingly to further descendants.
Art. 932 [Inheritance in the absence of the testator's descendants].
§ In the absence of the testator's descendants the testator's spouse and parents are called to the succession by law.
§ 2. The share of the inheritance of each parent who inherits jointly with the deceased's spouse shall be one-fourth of the total inheritance. If the fatherhood of a parent has not been established, the share of the inheritance of the testator's mother, who inherits jointly with the testator's spouse, amounts to half of the inheritance.
§ (3) In the absence of the testator's descendants and spouse, the entire inheritance falls to his/her parents in equal shares.
§ If one of the testator's parents did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to the testator's siblings in equal parts.
§ If any of the testator's siblings did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, leaving behind their descendants, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to their descendants. This share shall be distributed according to the rules applicable to the distribution among the further descendants of the testator.
§ If one of the parents has not lived to see the opening of the inheritance and there are no siblings of the testator or their descendants, the share of the inheritance of the parent inheriting jointly with the testator's spouse is half of the inheritance.
Art. 933 [Participation in the succession of the spouse].
§ The share of the succession of the spouse who inherits jointly with the testator's parents, siblings and descendants is half of the succession.
§ 2 In the absence of the testator's descendants, his parents, siblings and their descendants, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's spouse.

Art. 934 [Grandparents' share of the estate].
§ (1) In the absence of descendants, spouse, parents, siblings and descendants of the testator's siblings, the entire inheritance shall fall to the grandparents of the testator; they shall inherit in equal shares.
§ If one of the testator's grandparents did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to their descendants. This share shall be distributed in accordance with the rules governing the distribution of the inheritance among the testator's descendants.
§ If there are no descendants of the grandparent who did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to him shall fall to the remaining grandparents in equal parts.
Art. 9341 [Inheritance of stepchildren].
In the absence of the testator's spouse and relatives called to inherit by law, the inheritance shall fall in equal parts to the children of the testator's spouse, neither of whose parents lived up to the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 935 [Last statutory heirs].
In the absence of the testator's spouse, his/her relatives and children of the testator's spouse who are called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls to the municipality of the testator's last place of residence as a statutory heir. If the testator's last place of residence in the Republic of Poland cannot be established or the testator's last place of residence was located abroad, the inheritance falls to the State Treasury as a statutory heir.

Art. 9351 [Exclusion of a separated spouse].
The provisions regarding a statutory appointment to the inheritance shall not apply to the testator's separated spouse.

Art. 936 [Inheritance in the event of full adoption].
§ 1 The adopted person shall inherit from the adopter and his/her relatives as if he/she were the adopter's child, and the adopter and his/her relatives shall inherit from the adopted person as if the adopter were the adopted person's parent.
§ (2) An adoptee shall not inherit from his natural ascendants and their relatives, and these persons shall not inherit from him.
§ If one spouse has adopted the child of the other spouse, the provisions of § 2 shall not apply to that spouse and his or her relatives, and if such adoption has taken place after the death of the other parent of the adopted person, also to relatives of the deceased whose rights and obligations arising from kinship have been maintained in the adoption judgment.
Article 937 [Inheritance in the case of incomplete adoption].
If the effects of the adoption consist solely in the creation of a relationship between the adopter and the adopted, the following provisions shall apply:

1) the adoptee shall inherit from the adopter on an equal footing with the adopter's children, and the adopted person's descendants shall inherit from the adopter on the same basis as the testator's further descendants;
2) the adopted person and his descendants shall not inherit from the adopter's relatives, and the adopter's relatives shall not inherit from the adopted person and his descendants;
3) the adopted person's parents do not inherit from the adopted person, and the adopter inherits from the adopted person instead of them; besides, adoption does not affect the vocation to inherit resulting from kinship.
Art. 938 [Rights of the testator's grandparents].
If the testator's grandparents are in a state of privation and cannot receive the maintenance due to them from the persons who have a statutory obligation to maintain them, they may request from the heir unburdened with such an obligation maintenance in proportion to their needs and to the value of their share of the inheritance. The heir may also satisfy this claim by paying the testator's grandparents a sum of money equivalent to one-fourth of his share of the estate.

Article 939 [Surrogate's legacy].
§ 1 A spouse who inherits by operation of law jointly with other heirs, except for the testator's descendants who were living together with the testator at the time of the testator's death, may claim from the inheritance over and above his/her share of the inheritance the household effects which the testator used jointly with the testator or exclusively by himself/herself during his/her lifetime. The spouse's claims in this respect shall be governed by the provisions on ordinary legacies as appropriate.
§ The spouse is not entitled to the above entitlement if the spouses' cohabitation ceased during the testator's lifetime.
Art. 940 [Exclusion of the testator's spouse from legal succession].
§ 1 The spouse is excluded from the inheritance if the testator has requested that a divorce or separation be pronounced for their fault, and the request was justified.
§ The spouse is excluded from the inheritance by court decision. The exclusion may be requested by any of the other statutory heirs called to the succession jointly with the spouse; the time limit for bringing an action is six months from the date on which the heir learned about the opening of the succession, but no longer than one year from the opening of the succession.

 

Extract from the Polish Civil Code valid as of 28.01.2022

SUCCESSIONS - POLISH CIVIL CODE

TITLE I
General Provisions

Art. 922 [Succession].
§ (1) Upon the death of the deceased, property rights and obligations of the deceased pass to one or more persons pursuant to the Polish Civil Code.
§ (2) The succession shall not include the rights and obligations of the deceased closely connected with his person, as well as rights which, upon his death, are transferred to certain persons regardless of whether they are inheritors.
§ Par. 3 The debts under the succession also include the costs of the testator's funeral to the extent that the funeral is in line with the customary practice in the given community, the costs of succession proceedings, the obligation to satisfy claims for a legacy and the obligation to execute legacies and instructions as well as other obligations provided for in the Polish Civil Code.

Article 923 [Rights of the spouse and relatives].
§ 1 The spouse and other persons close to the testator who lived with him/her until the day of his/her death are entitled to use the testator's flat and household facilities to the extent hitherto within three months from the opening of the succession. A disposition of the testator excluding or limiting this entitlement shall be null and void.
§ 2 The above provisions shall not limit the entitlements of the spouse and other persons close to the testator, which arise from the lease of premises or from the cooperative right to premises.

Art. 924 [Time of opening the inheritance].
The succession shall be opened upon the death of the testator.

Art. 925 [Acquiring the inheritance].
The inheritor shall acquire the inheritance upon the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 926 [Sources of an appointment to inheritance].
§ Art. 926 [Acquiring the inheritance] The appointment to the inheritance shall result from the law or a will.
§ Legal succession in respect of the entire estate takes place when the deceased has not appointed an heir or when none of the persons whom the deceased has appointed is willing or able to be an heir.
§ Subject to the exceptions stipulated by the law, legal succession in respect of a part of the inheritance takes place when the bequeather has not appointed an heir to that part of the inheritance or when any of the several persons whom he has appointed to the entire inheritance is unwilling or unable to be an heir.

Art. 927 [Capacity to inherit; Capacity to inherit by a preborn child].
§ 1. A natural person who is not alive at the time of the opening of the inheritance, nor a legal person who does not exist at that time, may not be an inheritor.
§ Paragraph 2. However, a child already conceived at the time of the opening of the succession may be an heir if he or she is born alive.
§ 3 A foundation established in a will by a testator may be an heir if it is entered in the register within two years from the announcement of the will.

Art. 928 [Inheritance incompatibility].
§ 1. An heir may be declared unworthy by the court if:
1) has intentionally committed a grave crime against the testator;
2) by trickery or threat has persuaded the testator to draw up or revoke a will, or has or she prevented him/her from doing either of these acts in the same manner;
3) intentionally covered up or destroyed the testator's will, counterfeited or forged his or her will, or knowingly used a will forged or forged by another person.
§ 2 An unworthy heir is excluded from the inheritance as if he had not lived to see the opening of the succession.
Art. 929 [Active legitimacy in a lawsuit for unworthiness to inherit].
Declaring an heir unworthy may be requested by anyone who has an interest therein. Such a request may be made within a year from the date on which he learns about the reason for unworthiness, however, no later than within three years from the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 930 [Forgiveness].
§ 1 An heir may not be declared unworthy if the testator has forgiven him or her.
§ 2 If at the moment of forgiveness the testator did not have legal capacity, forgiveness is effective if it was done with sufficient discernment.

Extract from the Polish Civil Code valid as of 28.01.2022

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

When the municipality or the State inherits, i.e. there are no legal or testamentary heirs in Poland.

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

In the case of a will, the testator inherits.
In the absence of a will, the Civil Code Act indicates who inherits and in what shares. When there are no legal heirs, the municipality or the State inherits.

In accordance with the provisions of Article 934 § 1 and 2 of the Civil Code, in the absence of descendants, spouse, parents, siblings and descendants of the testator's siblings, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's grandparents; they inherit in equal shares; if one of the testator's grandparents has not lived to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would fall to him/her falls to his/her descendants. That share shall be shared in accordance with the rules governing the sharing-out of the estate among the testator's descendants. In the absence of descendants of the grandfather who has not lived to see the opening of the succession, the share of the succession which would have fallen to him falls to the remaining grandparents in equal shares.
In accordance with the provisions of Article 9341 of the Civil Code, in the absence of the testator's spouse and relatives called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls in equal parts to the children of the testator's spouse, who neither of their parents lived to see the opening of the inheritance.

In accordance with Art. 935 of the Civil Code, in the absence of the testator's spouse, his/her relatives and the children of the testator's spouse called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls to the municipality of the testator's last place of residence as a legal heir. If the testator's last place of residence in the Republic of Poland cannot be established, or the testator's last place of residence was abroad, the inheritance is inherited by the State Treasury as a legal heir.

Inheritance unworthiness in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

Article 928 [Inheritance unworthiness].
§ 1. An heir may be declared unworthy by the court if:
1) he has intentionally committed a grave crime against the testator;
2) by trickery or threat has persuaded the testator to draw up or revoke a will, or has prevented him/her from doing either of these acts in the same manner;
3) intentionally hid or destroyed the testator's will, falsified or imitated his or her will, or knowingly used a will falsified or imitated by another person.
§ 2 An unworthy heir shall be excluded from the inheritance as if he had not lived to see the opening of the inheritance.

Statutory succession by the spouse in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

Art. 931 [First group of statutory heirs].
§ 1 The children of the testator and his/her spouse are called to the inheritance first by law; they inherit in equal parts. However, the spouse's share may not be less than a quarter of the total inheritance.
§ 2 If a child of the testator did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to them falls to their children in equal parts. This provision applies accordingly to further descendants.

Art. 932 [Inheritance in the absence of the testator's descendants].
§ In the absence of the testator's descendants the testator's spouse and parents are called to the succession by law.
§ 2. The share of the inheritance of each parent who inherits jointly with the testator's spouse shall be one-fourth of the total inheritance. If the paternity of a parent has not been established, the share of the testator's mother inheriting jointly with the testator's spouse amounts to half of the inheritance.

Art. 933 [Spouse's share of the inheritance].
§ The share of the succession of the spouse who inherits jointly with the testator's parents, siblings and descendants is half of the succession.
§ 2 In the absence of the testator's descendants, his parents, siblings and their descendants, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's spouse.

Art. 9351 [Exclusion of the separated spouse].
Provisions on appointment to the inheritance by statute shall not apply to the testator's spouse remaining in legal separation.

Art. 940 [Exclusion of the testator's spouse from statutory succession].
§ 1 A spouse is excluded from the inheritance if the testator has requested that a divorce or separation be pronounced due to his/her fault, and the request was justified.
§ The spouse is excluded from the inheritance by court decision. The exclusion may be requested by any of the other statutory heirs called to the succession jointly with the spouse; the time limit for bringing an action is six months from the date on which the heir learned about the opening of the succession, but no longer than one year from the opening of the succession.
After a legally valid divorce, we can no longer speak of a spouse, hence statutory succession does not take place.

Disinheritance in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

Article 1008 [Disinheritance].
The testator may, in his will, deprive his descendants, spouse and parents of the retainer (disinheritance) if the person entitled to the retainer:

1) against the will of the testator acts persistently in a manner contrary to the rules of social co-existence;
2) has committed against the testator or one of his closest persons an intentional crime against life, health or freedom, or a gross insult to honour;
3) persistently fails to fulfil family obligations towards the testator.
Article 1009 [Cause for disinheritance].
The reason for disinheriting a person entitled to a reserved portion shall be specified in the will.

Art. 1010 [Effect of disinheritance].
§ 1 The testator may not disinherit a person entitled to a reserved share if he has forgiven him.
§ If at the moment of forgiving the testator did not have legal capacity to act, the forgiveness is effective if it was done with sufficient discernment.
Art. 1011 [Descendants of the disinherited person].
The descendants of a disinherited descendant shall be entitled to a reserved portion of the estate even if they survive the testator.

Restitution - prescription in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

Art. 1007 [Time-barring of claims under a restitution].
§ The statute of limitations for a beneficiary's claims under a reserved portion of an estate and for heirs' claims to reduce an ordinary bequest or recommendation shall expire five years after the testator's will is announced.
§ 2 A claim against a person obliged to supplement the reserved amount on account of a legacy or a gift received from the testator shall be time-barred with the expiry of five years from the opening of the inheritance.

Restitution in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

Restitution

Art. 991 [Entitled to a piece of property].
§ If the beneficiary is permanently incapacitated or if the beneficiary's descendants are minors - two thirds of the value of the share of the estate which would fall to them in the case of succession under the law, in other cases - half of the value of that share (restitution).
§ If a beneficiary has not received the due amount of the remainder of the estate, either in the form of a gift made by the testator, or in the form of an appointment to the inheritance, or in the form of a legacy, he is entitled to a claim against the heir for payment of the amount of money needed to cover the remainder or to supplement it.

Art. 992 [Basis for calculation of the reserved portion].
When determining the share of the estate constituting the basis for calculating the reserved portion, the unworthy heirs and heirs who have rejected the inheritance shall also be taken into account, while heirs who have renounced the inheritance or have been disinherited shall not be taken into account.

Art. 993 [Determining the amount of a reserved portion].
When calculating the amount of the reserved portion of inheritance, ordinary legacies and instructions shall not be taken into account, while gifts and legacies made by the testator shall be added to the inheritance pursuant to the provisions hereunder.

Dispositions of property upon death - wiills in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

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

Statutory inheritance in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

Art. 931 [First group of statutory heirs].
§ 1 The children of the deceased and their spouse are the first to be called up to the inheritance by law; they inherit in equal parts. However, the spouse's share may not be less than a quarter of the total inheritance.
§ 2 If a child of the deceased did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to them falls to their children in equal parts. This provision applies accordingly to further descendants.
Art. 932 [Inheritance in the absence of the testator's descendants].
§ In the absence of the testator's descendants the testator's spouse and parents are called to the succession by law.
§ 2. The share of the inheritance of each parent who inherits jointly with the deceased's spouse shall be one-fourth of the total inheritance. If the fatherhood of a parent has not been established, the share of the inheritance of the testator's mother, who inherits jointly with the testator's spouse, amounts to half of the inheritance.
§ (3) In the absence of the testator's descendants and spouse, the entire inheritance falls to his/her parents in equal shares.
§ If one of the testator's parents did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to the testator's siblings in equal parts.
§ If any of the testator's siblings did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, leaving behind their descendants, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to their descendants. This share shall be distributed according to the rules applicable to the distribution among the further descendants of the testator.
§ If one of the parents has not lived to see the opening of the inheritance and there are no siblings of the testator or their descendants, the share of the inheritance of the parent inheriting jointly with the testator's spouse is half of the inheritance.
Art. 933 [Participation in the succession of the spouse].
§ The share of the succession of the spouse who inherits jointly with the testator's parents, siblings and descendants is half of the succession.
§ 2 In the absence of the testator's descendants, his parents, siblings and their descendants, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's spouse.

Art. 934 [Grandparents' share of the estate].
§ (1) In the absence of descendants, spouse, parents, siblings and descendants of the testator's siblings, the entire inheritance shall fall to the grandparents of the testator; they shall inherit in equal shares.
§ If one of the testator's grandparents did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to their descendants. This share shall be distributed in accordance with the rules governing the distribution of the inheritance among the testator's descendants.
§ If there are no descendants of the grandparent who did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to him shall fall to the remaining grandparents in equal parts.
Art. 9341 [Inheritance of stepchildren].
In the absence of the testator's spouse and relatives called to inherit by law, the inheritance shall fall in equal parts to the children of the testator's spouse, neither of whose parents lived up to the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 935 [Last statutory heirs].
In the absence of the testator's spouse, his/her relatives and children of the testator's spouse who are called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls to the municipality of the testator's last place of residence as a statutory heir. If the testator's last place of residence in the Republic of Poland cannot be established or the testator's last place of residence was located abroad, the inheritance falls to the State Treasury as a statutory heir.

Art. 9351 [Exclusion of a separated spouse].
The provisions regarding a statutory appointment to the inheritance shall not apply to the testator's separated spouse.

Art. 936 [Inheritance in the event of full adoption].
§ 1 The adopted person shall inherit from the adopter and his/her relatives as if he/she were the adopter's child, and the adopter and his/her relatives shall inherit from the adopted person as if the adopter were the adopted person's parent.
§ (2) An adoptee shall not inherit from his natural ascendants and their relatives, and these persons shall not inherit from him.
§ If one spouse has adopted the child of the other spouse, the provisions of § 2 shall not apply to that spouse and his or her relatives, and if such adoption has taken place after the death of the other parent of the adopted person, also to relatives of the deceased whose rights and obligations arising from kinship have been maintained in the adoption judgment.
Article 937 [Inheritance in the case of incomplete adoption].
If the effects of the adoption consist solely in the creation of a relationship between the adopter and the adopted, the following provisions shall apply:

1) the adoptee shall inherit from the adopter on an equal footing with the adopter's children, and the adopted person's descendants shall inherit from the adopter on the same basis as the testator's further descendants;
2) the adopted person and his descendants shall not inherit from the adopter's relatives, and the adopter's relatives shall not inherit from the adopted person and his descendants;
3) the adopted person's parents do not inherit from the adopted person, and the adopter inherits from the adopted person instead of them; besides, adoption does not affect the vocation to inherit resulting from kinship.
Art. 938 [Rights of the testator's grandparents].
If the testator's grandparents are in a state of privation and cannot receive the maintenance due to them from the persons who have a statutory obligation to maintain them, they may request from the heir unburdened with such an obligation maintenance in proportion to their needs and to the value of their share of the inheritance. The heir may also satisfy this claim by paying the testator's grandparents a sum of money equivalent to one-fourth of his share of the estate.

Article 939 [Surrogate's legacy].
§ 1 A spouse who inherits by operation of law jointly with other heirs, except for the testator's descendants who were living together with the testator at the time of the testator's death, may claim from the inheritance over and above his/her share of the inheritance the household effects which the testator used jointly with the testator or exclusively by himself/herself during his/her lifetime. The spouse's claims in this respect shall be governed by the provisions on ordinary legacies as appropriate.
§ The spouse is not entitled to the above entitlement if the spouses' cohabitation ceased during the testator's lifetime.
Art. 940 [Exclusion of the testator's spouse from legal succession].
§ 1 The spouse is excluded from the inheritance if the testator has requested that a divorce or separation be pronounced for their fault, and the request was justified.
§ The spouse is excluded from the inheritance by court decision. The exclusion may be requested by any of the other statutory heirs called to the succession jointly with the spouse; the time limit for bringing an action is six months from the date on which the heir learned about the opening of the succession, but no longer than one year from the opening of the succession.

 

Extract from the Polish Civil Code valid as of 28.01.2022

General provisions of the inheritance law in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

SUCCESSIONS - POLISH CIVIL CODE

TITLE I
General Provisions

Art. 922 [Succession].
§ (1) Upon the death of the deceased, property rights and obligations of the deceased pass to one or more persons pursuant to the Polish Civil Code.
§ (2) The succession shall not include the rights and obligations of the deceased closely connected with his person, as well as rights which, upon his death, are transferred to certain persons regardless of whether they are inheritors.
§ Par. 3 The debts under the succession also include the costs of the testator's funeral to the extent that the funeral is in line with the customary practice in the given community, the costs of succession proceedings, the obligation to satisfy claims for a legacy and the obligation to execute legacies and instructions as well as other obligations provided for in the Polish Civil Code.

Article 923 [Rights of the spouse and relatives].
§ 1 The spouse and other persons close to the testator who lived with him/her until the day of his/her death are entitled to use the testator's flat and household facilities to the extent hitherto within three months from the opening of the succession. A disposition of the testator excluding or limiting this entitlement shall be null and void.
§ 2 The above provisions shall not limit the entitlements of the spouse and other persons close to the testator, which arise from the lease of premises or from the cooperative right to premises.

Art. 924 [Time of opening the inheritance].
The succession shall be opened upon the death of the testator.

Art. 925 [Acquiring the inheritance].
The inheritor shall acquire the inheritance upon the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 926 [Sources of an appointment to inheritance].
§ Art. 926 [Acquiring the inheritance] The appointment to the inheritance shall result from the law or a will.
§ Legal succession in respect of the entire estate takes place when the deceased has not appointed an heir or when none of the persons whom the deceased has appointed is willing or able to be an heir.
§ Subject to the exceptions stipulated by the law, legal succession in respect of a part of the inheritance takes place when the bequeather has not appointed an heir to that part of the inheritance or when any of the several persons whom he has appointed to the entire inheritance is unwilling or unable to be an heir.

Art. 927 [Capacity to inherit; Capacity to inherit by a preborn child].
§ 1. A natural person who is not alive at the time of the opening of the inheritance, nor a legal person who does not exist at that time, may not be an inheritor.
§ Paragraph 2. However, a child already conceived at the time of the opening of the succession may be an heir if he or she is born alive.
§ 3 A foundation established in a will by a testator may be an heir if it is entered in the register within two years from the announcement of the will.

Art. 928 [Inheritance incompatibility].
§ 1. An heir may be declared unworthy by the court if:
1) has intentionally committed a grave crime against the testator;
2) by trickery or threat has persuaded the testator to draw up or revoke a will, or has or she prevented him/her from doing either of these acts in the same manner;
3) intentionally covered up or destroyed the testator's will, counterfeited or forged his or her will, or knowingly used a will forged or forged by another person.
§ 2 An unworthy heir is excluded from the inheritance as if he had not lived to see the opening of the succession.
Art. 929 [Active legitimacy in a lawsuit for unworthiness to inherit].
Declaring an heir unworthy may be requested by anyone who has an interest therein. Such a request may be made within a year from the date on which he learns about the reason for unworthiness, however, no later than within three years from the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 930 [Forgiveness].
§ 1 An heir may not be declared unworthy if the testator has forgiven him or her.
§ 2 If at the moment of forgiveness the testator did not have legal capacity, forgiveness is effective if it was done with sufficient discernment.

Extract from the Polish Civil Code valid as of 28.01.2022

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

When the municipality or the State inherits, i.e. there are no legal or testamentary heirs in Poland.

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

In the case of a will, the testator inherits.
In the absence of a will, the Civil Code Act indicates who inherits and in what shares. When there are no legal heirs, the municipality or the State inherits.

In accordance with the provisions of Article 934 § 1 and 2 of the Civil Code, in the absence of descendants, spouse, parents, siblings and descendants of the testator's siblings, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's grandparents; they inherit in equal shares; if one of the testator's grandparents has not lived to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would fall to him/her falls to his/her descendants. That share shall be shared in accordance with the rules governing the sharing-out of the estate among the testator's descendants. In the absence of descendants of the grandfather who has not lived to see the opening of the succession, the share of the succession which would have fallen to him falls to the remaining grandparents in equal shares.
In accordance with the provisions of Article 9341 of the Civil Code, in the absence of the testator's spouse and relatives called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls in equal parts to the children of the testator's spouse, who neither of their parents lived to see the opening of the inheritance.

In accordance with Art. 935 of the Civil Code, in the absence of the testator's spouse, his/her relatives and the children of the testator's spouse called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls to the municipality of the testator's last place of residence as a legal heir. If the testator's last place of residence in the Republic of Poland cannot be established, or the testator's last place of residence was abroad, the inheritance is inherited by the State Treasury as a legal heir.

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Inheritance unworthiness in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

Article 928 [Inheritance unworthiness].
§ 1. An heir may be declared unworthy by the court if:
1) he has intentionally committed a grave crime against the testator;
2) by trickery or threat has persuaded the testator to draw up or revoke a will, or has prevented him/her from doing either of these acts in the same manner;
3) intentionally hid or destroyed the testator's will, falsified or imitated his or her will, or knowingly used a will falsified or imitated by another person.
§ 2 An unworthy heir shall be excluded from the inheritance as if he had not lived to see the opening of the inheritance.

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Statutory succession by the spouse in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

Art. 931 [First group of statutory heirs].
§ 1 The children of the testator and his/her spouse are called to the inheritance first by law; they inherit in equal parts. However, the spouse's share may not be less than a quarter of the total inheritance.
§ 2 If a child of the testator did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to them falls to their children in equal parts. This provision applies accordingly to further descendants.

Art. 932 [Inheritance in the absence of the testator's descendants].
§ In the absence of the testator's descendants the testator's spouse and parents are called to the succession by law.
§ 2. The share of the inheritance of each parent who inherits jointly with the testator's spouse shall be one-fourth of the total inheritance. If the paternity of a parent has not been established, the share of the testator's mother inheriting jointly with the testator's spouse amounts to half of the inheritance.

Art. 933 [Spouse's share of the inheritance].
§ The share of the succession of the spouse who inherits jointly with the testator's parents, siblings and descendants is half of the succession.
§ 2 In the absence of the testator's descendants, his parents, siblings and their descendants, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's spouse.

Art. 9351 [Exclusion of the separated spouse].
Provisions on appointment to the inheritance by statute shall not apply to the testator's spouse remaining in legal separation.

Art. 940 [Exclusion of the testator's spouse from statutory succession].
§ 1 A spouse is excluded from the inheritance if the testator has requested that a divorce or separation be pronounced due to his/her fault, and the request was justified.
§ The spouse is excluded from the inheritance by court decision. The exclusion may be requested by any of the other statutory heirs called to the succession jointly with the spouse; the time limit for bringing an action is six months from the date on which the heir learned about the opening of the succession, but no longer than one year from the opening of the succession.
After a legally valid divorce, we can no longer speak of a spouse, hence statutory succession does not take place.

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Disinheritance in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

Article 1008 [Disinheritance].
The testator may, in his will, deprive his descendants, spouse and parents of the retainer (disinheritance) if the person entitled to the retainer:

1) against the will of the testator acts persistently in a manner contrary to the rules of social co-existence;
2) has committed against the testator or one of his closest persons an intentional crime against life, health or freedom, or a gross insult to honour;
3) persistently fails to fulfil family obligations towards the testator.
Article 1009 [Cause for disinheritance].
The reason for disinheriting a person entitled to a reserved portion shall be specified in the will.

Art. 1010 [Effect of disinheritance].
§ 1 The testator may not disinherit a person entitled to a reserved share if he has forgiven him.
§ If at the moment of forgiving the testator did not have legal capacity to act, the forgiveness is effective if it was done with sufficient discernment.
Art. 1011 [Descendants of the disinherited person].
The descendants of a disinherited descendant shall be entitled to a reserved portion of the estate even if they survive the testator.

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Restitution - prescription in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

Art. 1007 [Time-barring of claims under a restitution].
§ The statute of limitations for a beneficiary's claims under a reserved portion of an estate and for heirs' claims to reduce an ordinary bequest or recommendation shall expire five years after the testator's will is announced.
§ 2 A claim against a person obliged to supplement the reserved amount on account of a legacy or a gift received from the testator shall be time-barred with the expiry of five years from the opening of the inheritance.

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Restitution in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

Restitution

Art. 991 [Entitled to a piece of property].
§ If the beneficiary is permanently incapacitated or if the beneficiary's descendants are minors - two thirds of the value of the share of the estate which would fall to them in the case of succession under the law, in other cases - half of the value of that share (restitution).
§ If a beneficiary has not received the due amount of the remainder of the estate, either in the form of a gift made by the testator, or in the form of an appointment to the inheritance, or in the form of a legacy, he is entitled to a claim against the heir for payment of the amount of money needed to cover the remainder or to supplement it.

Art. 992 [Basis for calculation of the reserved portion].
When determining the share of the estate constituting the basis for calculating the reserved portion, the unworthy heirs and heirs who have rejected the inheritance shall also be taken into account, while heirs who have renounced the inheritance or have been disinherited shall not be taken into account.

Art. 993 [Determining the amount of a reserved portion].
When calculating the amount of the reserved portion of inheritance, ordinary legacies and instructions shall not be taken into account, while gifts and legacies made by the testator shall be added to the inheritance pursuant to the provisions hereunder.

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Dispositions of property upon death - wiills in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

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

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

Statutory inheritance in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

Art. 931 [First group of statutory heirs].
§ 1 The children of the deceased and their spouse are the first to be called up to the inheritance by law; they inherit in equal parts. However, the spouse's share may not be less than a quarter of the total inheritance.
§ 2 If a child of the deceased did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to them falls to their children in equal parts. This provision applies accordingly to further descendants.
Art. 932 [Inheritance in the absence of the testator's descendants].
§ In the absence of the testator's descendants the testator's spouse and parents are called to the succession by law.
§ 2. The share of the inheritance of each parent who inherits jointly with the deceased's spouse shall be one-fourth of the total inheritance. If the fatherhood of a parent has not been established, the share of the inheritance of the testator's mother, who inherits jointly with the testator's spouse, amounts to half of the inheritance.
§ (3) In the absence of the testator's descendants and spouse, the entire inheritance falls to his/her parents in equal shares.
§ If one of the testator's parents did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to the testator's siblings in equal parts.
§ If any of the testator's siblings did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, leaving behind their descendants, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to their descendants. This share shall be distributed according to the rules applicable to the distribution among the further descendants of the testator.
§ If one of the parents has not lived to see the opening of the inheritance and there are no siblings of the testator or their descendants, the share of the inheritance of the parent inheriting jointly with the testator's spouse is half of the inheritance.
Art. 933 [Participation in the succession of the spouse].
§ The share of the succession of the spouse who inherits jointly with the testator's parents, siblings and descendants is half of the succession.
§ 2 In the absence of the testator's descendants, his parents, siblings and their descendants, the entire inheritance falls to the testator's spouse.

Art. 934 [Grandparents' share of the estate].
§ (1) In the absence of descendants, spouse, parents, siblings and descendants of the testator's siblings, the entire inheritance shall fall to the grandparents of the testator; they shall inherit in equal shares.
§ If one of the testator's grandparents did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have gone to them falls to their descendants. This share shall be distributed in accordance with the rules governing the distribution of the inheritance among the testator's descendants.
§ If there are no descendants of the grandparent who did not live to see the opening of the inheritance, the share of the inheritance that would have fallen to him shall fall to the remaining grandparents in equal parts.
Art. 9341 [Inheritance of stepchildren].
In the absence of the testator's spouse and relatives called to inherit by law, the inheritance shall fall in equal parts to the children of the testator's spouse, neither of whose parents lived up to the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 935 [Last statutory heirs].
In the absence of the testator's spouse, his/her relatives and children of the testator's spouse who are called to the inheritance by law, the inheritance falls to the municipality of the testator's last place of residence as a statutory heir. If the testator's last place of residence in the Republic of Poland cannot be established or the testator's last place of residence was located abroad, the inheritance falls to the State Treasury as a statutory heir.

Art. 9351 [Exclusion of a separated spouse].
The provisions regarding a statutory appointment to the inheritance shall not apply to the testator's separated spouse.

Art. 936 [Inheritance in the event of full adoption].
§ 1 The adopted person shall inherit from the adopter and his/her relatives as if he/she were the adopter's child, and the adopter and his/her relatives shall inherit from the adopted person as if the adopter were the adopted person's parent.
§ (2) An adoptee shall not inherit from his natural ascendants and their relatives, and these persons shall not inherit from him.
§ If one spouse has adopted the child of the other spouse, the provisions of § 2 shall not apply to that spouse and his or her relatives, and if such adoption has taken place after the death of the other parent of the adopted person, also to relatives of the deceased whose rights and obligations arising from kinship have been maintained in the adoption judgment.
Article 937 [Inheritance in the case of incomplete adoption].
If the effects of the adoption consist solely in the creation of a relationship between the adopter and the adopted, the following provisions shall apply:

1) the adoptee shall inherit from the adopter on an equal footing with the adopter's children, and the adopted person's descendants shall inherit from the adopter on the same basis as the testator's further descendants;
2) the adopted person and his descendants shall not inherit from the adopter's relatives, and the adopter's relatives shall not inherit from the adopted person and his descendants;
3) the adopted person's parents do not inherit from the adopted person, and the adopter inherits from the adopted person instead of them; besides, adoption does not affect the vocation to inherit resulting from kinship.
Art. 938 [Rights of the testator's grandparents].
If the testator's grandparents are in a state of privation and cannot receive the maintenance due to them from the persons who have a statutory obligation to maintain them, they may request from the heir unburdened with such an obligation maintenance in proportion to their needs and to the value of their share of the inheritance. The heir may also satisfy this claim by paying the testator's grandparents a sum of money equivalent to one-fourth of his share of the estate.

Article 939 [Surrogate's legacy].
§ 1 A spouse who inherits by operation of law jointly with other heirs, except for the testator's descendants who were living together with the testator at the time of the testator's death, may claim from the inheritance over and above his/her share of the inheritance the household effects which the testator used jointly with the testator or exclusively by himself/herself during his/her lifetime. The spouse's claims in this respect shall be governed by the provisions on ordinary legacies as appropriate.
§ The spouse is not entitled to the above entitlement if the spouses' cohabitation ceased during the testator's lifetime.
Art. 940 [Exclusion of the testator's spouse from legal succession].
§ 1 The spouse is excluded from the inheritance if the testator has requested that a divorce or separation be pronounced for their fault, and the request was justified.
§ The spouse is excluded from the inheritance by court decision. The exclusion may be requested by any of the other statutory heirs called to the succession jointly with the spouse; the time limit for bringing an action is six months from the date on which the heir learned about the opening of the succession, but no longer than one year from the opening of the succession.

 

Extract from the Polish Civil Code valid as of 28.01.2022

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

General provisions of the inheritance law in Poland

Written by Ewa Kosowska-Czapla

SUCCESSIONS - POLISH CIVIL CODE

TITLE I
General Provisions

Art. 922 [Succession].
§ (1) Upon the death of the deceased, property rights and obligations of the deceased pass to one or more persons pursuant to the Polish Civil Code.
§ (2) The succession shall not include the rights and obligations of the deceased closely connected with his person, as well as rights which, upon his death, are transferred to certain persons regardless of whether they are inheritors.
§ Par. 3 The debts under the succession also include the costs of the testator's funeral to the extent that the funeral is in line with the customary practice in the given community, the costs of succession proceedings, the obligation to satisfy claims for a legacy and the obligation to execute legacies and instructions as well as other obligations provided for in the Polish Civil Code.

Article 923 [Rights of the spouse and relatives].
§ 1 The spouse and other persons close to the testator who lived with him/her until the day of his/her death are entitled to use the testator's flat and household facilities to the extent hitherto within three months from the opening of the succession. A disposition of the testator excluding or limiting this entitlement shall be null and void.
§ 2 The above provisions shall not limit the entitlements of the spouse and other persons close to the testator, which arise from the lease of premises or from the cooperative right to premises.

Art. 924 [Time of opening the inheritance].
The succession shall be opened upon the death of the testator.

Art. 925 [Acquiring the inheritance].
The inheritor shall acquire the inheritance upon the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 926 [Sources of an appointment to inheritance].
§ Art. 926 [Acquiring the inheritance] The appointment to the inheritance shall result from the law or a will.
§ Legal succession in respect of the entire estate takes place when the deceased has not appointed an heir or when none of the persons whom the deceased has appointed is willing or able to be an heir.
§ Subject to the exceptions stipulated by the law, legal succession in respect of a part of the inheritance takes place when the bequeather has not appointed an heir to that part of the inheritance or when any of the several persons whom he has appointed to the entire inheritance is unwilling or unable to be an heir.

Art. 927 [Capacity to inherit; Capacity to inherit by a preborn child].
§ 1. A natural person who is not alive at the time of the opening of the inheritance, nor a legal person who does not exist at that time, may not be an inheritor.
§ Paragraph 2. However, a child already conceived at the time of the opening of the succession may be an heir if he or she is born alive.
§ 3 A foundation established in a will by a testator may be an heir if it is entered in the register within two years from the announcement of the will.

Art. 928 [Inheritance incompatibility].
§ 1. An heir may be declared unworthy by the court if:
1) has intentionally committed a grave crime against the testator;
2) by trickery or threat has persuaded the testator to draw up or revoke a will, or has or she prevented him/her from doing either of these acts in the same manner;
3) intentionally covered up or destroyed the testator's will, counterfeited or forged his or her will, or knowingly used a will forged or forged by another person.
§ 2 An unworthy heir is excluded from the inheritance as if he had not lived to see the opening of the succession.
Art. 929 [Active legitimacy in a lawsuit for unworthiness to inherit].
Declaring an heir unworthy may be requested by anyone who has an interest therein. Such a request may be made within a year from the date on which he learns about the reason for unworthiness, however, no later than within three years from the opening of the inheritance.

Art. 930 [Forgiveness].
§ 1 An heir may not be declared unworthy if the testator has forgiven him or her.
§ 2 If at the moment of forgiveness the testator did not have legal capacity, forgiveness is effective if it was done with sufficient discernment.

Extract from the Polish Civil Code valid as of 28.01.2022

Category: LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT