Failure to provide this information may result in the loss of the apartment. This is grounds for termination.

• The current system for verifying the situation of municipal housing tenants is inconsistent and ineffective. Municipalities face enormous difficulties in verifying both the income and assets of tenants, reports Interia Biznes.
• This situation was brought about by the 2018 Act, which limited the possibility of verifying the situation of tenants after concluding a lease agreement to a narrow group of people with new agreements.
• It happens that municipal apartments with low rents are occupied not only by people in difficult circumstances, but also by those who own a house or apartment in another city.

Municipalities are struggling to monitor the financial and income situation of tenants in municipal housing , reports Interia Biznes. They lack the tools to verify the financial situation of tenants in municipal housing .

The current system for verifying the situation of municipal housing tenants is inconsistent and ineffective. Municipalities face significant difficulties in verifying both the income and assets of tenants. They lack access to databases that would allow them to verify whether someone owns property in another district or province.

– Alina Muzioł-Węcławowicz, housing policy expert from the Institute of Urban and Regional Development, told Interia Biznes.

Andrzej Prajsnar, an expert from the RynekPierwotny.pl portal, who has been analyzing the functioning of the municipal housing system for years, points out in an interview with Interia Biznes that because municipalities can only verify the right to a flat within their own territory, it happens that municipal flats with low rents are occupied not only by people in a difficult situation, but also by those who own a house or apartment in another city .

However, omitting such information may result in the tenant terminating the contract.

When applying for an apartment from the municipal resources, the applicant submits a declaration of legal title to the property. When reviewing the application, the municipality can verify within its own municipality whether the applicant (or later the tenant) holds legal title to other properties, also based on its own databases. Possessing legal title to another property may be grounds for rejecting an application for housing assistance or—if the person is already a tenant, pursuant to Article 11, Section 3, Item 2 or Section 10 of the Tenants' Rights Protection Act (…), it may constitute grounds for terminating the lease agreement.

- explains Interia Biznes, the press office of the Warsaw City Hall.

Expert Alina Muzioł-Węcławowicz also added that municipalities have no control over how many people a household has , and declarations often do not correspond to reality.

The problem of impossibility of verification applies especially to people who already live there.

The ability to verify tenants' situation after entering into a lease agreement was limited to a narrow group of individuals with new agreements by the Act of 22 March 2018 amending the Act on Financial Support for the Creation of Social Housing, Protected Housing, Night Shelters, and Homes for the Homeless, the Act on the Protection of Tenants' Rights, Municipal Housing Resources, and Amending the Civil Code, and Certain Other Acts. This Act introduced income verification and the related possibility of rent increases only for agreements concluded after these provisions came into force, not for agreements already in force.

Tomasz Lewandowski, Deputy Minister of Development and Technology, spoke about this problem in June 2025 in an interview with Portal Samorządowy (Local Government Portal), emphasizing that municipalities currently do not verify who occupies municipal apartments because they lack the tools to do so . "We want to give them the information because the problem is significant. Recently, a news station highlighted a shocking situation: a relatively wealthy deputy marshal of one of the voivodeships lives in a municipal apartment and pays very little for it," emphasized Deputy Minister Tomasz Lewandowski, as we wrote about at this link and this link .

In order to solve the reported problem, the government has started work on a law that will enable the verification of the income of all tenants, not only those who concluded contracts after 2019.

Until new solutions come into force, cities have their own ideas for solving this problem.

For example, although tenants' income is not currently verified in Krakow, work is underway to establish the rules for such verification . Meanwhile, in Warsaw, as Monika Beuth, spokesperson for the Warsaw City Hall, explains to Interia Biznes, the income of those applying for municipal housing is analyzed by officials before a decision is made to allow the rental of a municipal apartment. Tenants who entered into a lease agreement after April 21, 2019, are subject to periodic income verification, and the tenant also declares the number of people living in the household.

Lease agreements, but not the regulations, stipulate that a tenant renting a municipal property is obligated to report the presence of people other than those declared when entering into the lease with the city . However, if they fail to do so, due to the lack of regulations, they will not face sanctions , as Łukasz Kubiak from the Poznań Municipal Housing Resources Board pointed out in an interview with Interia Biznes.

Obviously, the tenant does not have the right to freely rent out the premises to third parties or extended family members , as the information provided in the declaration affects the amount of fees incurred for using the premises. However, if the tenant rents to other people, the municipality or city could terminate the municipal lease agreement.