In the first September article in the series entitled "Tuesday Mornings for the Construction Industry", we would like to present to you the Draft Act amending the Act on Land and Mortgage Registers and the Act on the National Court Register ( UDER89 ), which appeared on August 22, 2025, in the list of legislative and programmatic works of the Council of Ministers.
The proposed change is primarily intended to involve further significant changes, increasing the level of digitalisation of the register and facilitating the obtaining of documents that will have the nature of official documents.
Planned changes to the Act on Land and Mortgage Registers
The most important change is to equalize the legal validity of electronic documents from the electronic land and mortgage register (" EKW ") system, located at https://ekw.ms.gov.pl/ . Currently, it allows access to browse the contents of the electronic land and mortgage register, which means the legal status of each land and mortgage register can be verified. To view its contents, users must enter a number consisting of the district court maintaining the register, a sequence of eight digits, and a check digit. After entering this sequence of digits, which also constitutes the number of the given land and mortgage register, anyone with internet access can view the entries in the electronic land and mortgage register.
As a reminder, it contains, among other things, identification data about the property itself, providing information about its location, area, and current purpose (section IO), information about the owner or perpetual usufructuary (section II), and information about entries in established mortgages (section IV). All of this information is significant for the property's value, and in today's world, verification of the content of the electronic land and mortgage register is an absolutely fundamental element of every transaction.
Therefore, from a trading perspective, not only the existence of the system itself is important, but also its accessibility and the timeliness of its content. The presented assumptions for the amendment assume granting it the status of a register, from which the information retrieved (in the form of "Electronic Land and Mortgage Register Printouts") will be equivalent in terms of validity to extracts issued by the Central Land and Mortgage Register Information Office, which currently require a fee. Specifically, it will be possible to obtain documents confirming the legal status disclosed in the land and mortgage register (or a certificate of closure of a specific land and mortgage register) independently without having to request a document from the Central Land and Mortgage Register Information Office. According to the project's authors, this form of procedure, i.e., confirming the number and content of entries in a given land and mortgage register, could significantly speed up the process and, in the same way, reduce the workload of district courts .
Currently, in order to obtain an extract from the land and mortgage register, an application must be submitted and an additional fee paid pursuant to Article 36 1 section 4 of the Act of 6 July 1982 on land and mortgage registers and mortgages, while the assumptions of the amendment stipulate that the document from the Land and Mortgage Register should have the nature of an official document (Article 244 of the Code of Civil Procedure) and that it should be obtained independently by the viewer.
Searching for land and mortgage register numbers using the PESEL number
A significant change will also apply to data searches, as a solution will be introduced that will allow users to search land and mortgage registers using the PESEL number of a given individual listed in the EKW (Electronic Land and Mortgage Register), i.e., the person who is an authorized entity in Section II of the individual land and mortgage register. This means that, according to the announced amendment, mObywatel users should be able to view all properties belonging to them where they are listed as an authorized entity.
Interestingly, current information on the Council of Ministers' website also indicates that it will be possible to search for properties owned by legal entities using their REGON or NIP numbers. Given the current nature of the application's operation and the explanations provided by the Ministry, it is expected that it will first link PESEL data with data from the National Court Register (KRS) (by verifying the details of the partners of a specific company), and only then will the KRS data for the searched company be used to identify the specific land and mortgage register.
It's also worth noting that the amendment will require authentication in the user's application, which will then facilitate the identification of land and mortgage register numbers. This means that the amendment is aimed at immediately locating land and mortgage register numbers in situations where, for example, a person doesn't know the number.
In practice, there are cases where the seller is confident of their legal title to a given property (e.g., due to a land deed from the communist era, or based on an inheritance that opened decades ago), but is unable to provide the buyer with the land and mortgage register number because they have lost all their documents or, for various reasons, never obtained the land and mortgage register number for their property. In this situation, verification of the legal status is difficult, and verifying the entry sometimes requires contacting the District Court, which the amendment aims to significantly simplify. If the proposed solutions are adopted, such a person would be able to instantly check the number, which is expected to speed up and simplify the process of verifying the legal status of such property.
At the same time, the amendment will demonstrate the importance of securing accounts in the mObywatel app. Logging into the portal by an unauthorized person could pose serious challenges to maintaining personal data protection and security, as obtaining the PESEL number will enable verification of, for example, all properties owned by the person, as well as the number of existing liabilities owed to a specific entity based on the entry in Section IV..
We will be following the planned amendment with great interest. We would like to point out that this article was prepared solely based on the assumptions available on the Government Legislation Centre website, and that no draft bill has yet been published. Given that this amendment will affect a key register for real estate law, which is undoubtedly the land and mortgage register, we will begin analyzing the specific proposals as soon as the draft is published.
At the same time, we would like to remind all developers about the amendments to the Development Act, i.e.:
- September 11, 2025 will be the first day of application of the amendment regarding price transparency in relation to all investments,
- On August 25, 2025, the Act of July 9, 2025, amending the Act on the Protection of the Rights of Purchasers of Residential Premises or Single-Family Homes and on the Developer's Guarantee Fund, was published introduces developer liability under the warranty . The amendment will enter into force after a 14-day vacatio legis , i.e., on September 9, 2025.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Legal status as of September 1, 2025
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