Estate Agency Reform in Poland: What Draft Bill UD424 Would Change for Agencies

Since September, one abbreviation has been the talk of Polish estate agencies: UD424. Behind it is a draft bill from the responsible ministry that would noticeably change the estate agency business in Poland. Commission would come from one side only, and listings would only be allowed to go live after an agreement with the owner. In addition, the Trade Inspection would take a closer look. Agencies in Poland would have to change several of their processes. The topic is also relevant for colleagues abroad who market Polish properties or share commission with Polish partners.

This article reflects the situation as of October 2026. Legislative processes change, and details may be dropped or added. Before you change your agreements, check the current status and speak to a lawyer or your professional association.

Where the process stands

According to Propertynews.pl, the project was added to the Council of Ministers' legislative work list in June 2026. A government decision was scheduled for the third quarter of 2026. On 4 September 2026, as Infor.pl reports, the draft entered inter-ministerial consultation and public consultation. After that, it would still have to pass through the Sejm. UD424 is therefore not law in force. Before making any changes, you should check whether the timetable has been met.

Under the draft, there would be six months between publication and entry into force. According to the trade journal Lege Artis, agreements concluded before then would not be affected. An ongoing instruction would therefore not have to be renegotiated midway through marketing.

Commission from one side only

The core of the reform is a ban on charging commission to both the seller and the buyer for the same transaction, as reported by Prawo.pl. Suppose an agency currently gets paid by both the seller and the buyer of a three-room flat in Kraków. Under the draft, it would have to decide: who am I working for in this deal?

With seller instructions, the answer is usually clear. It gets more interesting with buyers who specifically instruct an agency to search for them. If that agency finds a suitable flat in its own stock, i.e. from an owner it already has an agreement with, a conflict arises that the draft apparently no longer allows to be resolved with two invoices. How narrowly "the same transaction" is interpreted, and exactly what applies to lettings, is something you should clarify from the draft text and with specialists rather than relying on summaries. Agencies that currently charge both landlords and tenants on lettings should have this arrangement reviewed first.

According to Rzeczpospolita, the ministry explicitly does not plan a commission cap. The amount remains a matter of negotiation. It is conceivable that agencies will raise the commission on the remaining side. That, however, has to be justifiable to the owner, ideally with a clear description of services in the agreement. Anyone paid by only one side should in any case record more precisely who they are working for and what they provide in return.

Agreement first, listing second

The second major point concerns marketing. According to Prawo.pl, listings would only be allowed once a brokerage agreement with the owner is in place, and they would have to be clearly identifiable as agent listings. That would put an end to a familiar practice: an agency spots a private listing, makes a quick phone call and puts the flat on several portals before anything has even been signed.

Polish law already requires, as Otodom explains, that a brokerage agreement be made in writing or in electronic form; otherwise it is void. A copy of the professional liability insurance policy must be attached. Anyone who already puts every instruction in writing mainly needs to change the order of things: signature first, then the listing.

For portal feeds, this means properties should only go into the XML export once the agreement has been stored in the system. The simplest way to do this is a status field that enables the export. In addition, the advertiser type field in the feed should be correctly set to "agent", and the company name should be visible in the property brochure. Anyone who gets Polish properties onto Polish portals via a partner or their own feed should agree with the partner who is responsible for the agreement and the labelling. Whether and how the rules would apply to listings outside Poland is something you should discuss with specialists. A common weak spot is the feed itself anyway: it was set up once, and nobody has looked at it since.

Checking legal status and condition

According to Rzeczpospolita, the draft would require agents to check the legal status and condition of the property, regardless of what the agreement says, and to inform clients accordingly. In Poland, in practice this mainly means inspecting the land and mortgage register (księga wieczysta) and comparing it with the owner's documents. Condition, on the other hand, is not assessed at a desk but during the on-site visit.

A typical mistake shows up with floor area. The owner says 58 square metres, the purchase deed from fifteen years ago says 54, and the higher figure ends up in the property brochure because it came from the client. Industry portals such as ilezametr.pl are addressing precisely this issue in connection with the draft. Regardless of what ends up in the law, it pays to state in the brochure where a floor area figure comes from and to measure it yourself if in doubt. That protects against disputes after completion at the notary.

Viewings without a signature in advance

Another detail is likely to be noticed immediately in day-to-day work. According to Propertynews.pl, an agent would not be allowed to make a viewing conditional on the prospective buyer signing a brokerage agreement beforehand. The form on the clipboard that some agencies present at the front door would then no longer serve as a condition for getting in.

At the same time, agents would have to document viewings. A short record with the date, time, property, names of those attending and the information provided is a useful starting point; which details the law will ultimately require remains to be seen. It makes sense to create the record straight after the appointment and not weeks later from memory.

Inspections and penalties

According to the available reports, the Trade Inspection would be responsible for inspections. You should check the exact responsibilities in the draft text. According to Lege Artis, the draft provides for fines of two to five times the average monthly salary as reported by Statistics Poland (GUS). Alternatively, according to the same source, an order to cease the objectionable practice is possible. Anyone who fails to comply could, according to Lege Artis, be banned from working as an agent. For a single-office agency, that would be an existential threat.

According to Trojmiasto.pl, there are no plans to reintroduce mandatory licensing for agents.

Criticism from the industry

According to Prawo.pl, the FPPRN federation is unimpressed by the statutory catalogue of duties and the ban on dual commission. From a practical point of view, further questions arise, such as how a property check can be proven in the event of a dispute. It is also unclear how to treat cooperation arrangements in which one agency acts for the seller and another for the buyer. The consultation is where such questions can be raised. The associations' submissions are therefore worth a look, even for agencies that are not members of an association themselves.

A look at the Czech Republic

Anyone wishing to compare rules will find a different model next door. In the Czech Republic, according to the law firm Dostupný advokát, estate agency is a licensed trade requiring a qualification. Insurance of at least CZK 1,750,000 per claim and CZK 3,500,000 for all claims in a year is mandatory. The Czech Republic therefore places greater emphasis on access to the profession. With UD424, Poland would instead lay down specific rules of conduct in business. For agencies working in both countries, this means agreement templates cannot simply be carried over.

What you can change now

Much of the draft is good practice anyway. Those who start today will face less stress if it comes into force:

• Have your agreement templates revised, stating clearly which side you are acting for and what the commission covers
• Establish a fixed procedure for property checks, from the land register and documents through to checking the floor area on site
• Introduce a standard viewing record
• Set up feeds and property brochures so that only properties with an agreement are exported and the agent label appears everywhere

When it comes to agreement templates, you should not experiment on your own. A lawyer specialising in property law or one of the Polish estate agents' associations can assess what makes sense given the current status of the draft. Foreign partners should also have their cooperation agreements with Polish agencies reviewed, especially the commission split.

The first step with your own stock

Getting started takes little time. Go through your current stock and note which properties do not yet have a signed agreement. In a second pass, check whether the land register inspection has been recorded. After that, the remaining question is whether there are any records of past viewings at all. Anyone who already keeps property and viewing data organised in a program such as ImotDesk will spot the gaps more quickly.