Short-term rental under new rules. The Sejm decided

On Thursday, the Sejm passed an amendment introducing regulations on the short-term rental market. 407 MPs voted for the act, 24 were against and 9 abstained. Now the Senate will consider the bill.

The amendment to the Act on hotel services and the services of tour guides and tourist guides and certain other acts, designed by the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, introduces a provision according to which owners of premises in a housing community or the general meeting of a housing cooperative will be able to adopt a resolution prohibiting the provision of hotel services in premises located on a given property.

In the case of cooperatives, a majority of over 50% will be required. entitled to vote. After the resolution is adopted, entrepreneurs conducting such activities will have six months to complete it.

Pursuant to the act, residents, communities and cooperatives will be entitled to initiate inspections of facilities used for short-term rental. The inspections are to cover not only technical and fire safety requirements, but also issues of public safety and order.

The Act also provides for the mandatory deletion from the register of facilities where a total of three violations of public safety and order have been recorded within six months of the first detected case. Re-entry into the register would only be possible after one year.

Municipal short-term rental prohibition zones

Municipal short-term rental prohibition zones are also a new solution. The commune council, at the request of the commune head, mayor or city president, may establish an area in which the activity of hotel services in residential premises would be temporarily excluded. The resolutions could provide for subjective, objective or temporal exceptions.

In the opinion of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism, the changes will increase the subjectivity of residents and local governments in shaping the environment in which they live.

Mandatory registration of accommodation facilities and fines up to PLN 50,000. PLN

The Act implements the EU regulation on collecting and sharing data on short-term rentals into Polish law. It introduces, among others: Central List of Tourist Accommodation Facilities, obligation to register facilities providing such services, identification numbers for offers and administrative fines up to PLN 50,000. PLN for breach of new obligations.

When will the new regulations on short-term rentals come into force?

The provisions giving communities and cooperatives the ability to prohibit short-term rentals and regulations regarding municipal prohibition zones would enter into force on January 1, 2028. The remaining provisions of the Act would come into force 14 days after their announcement.

The act was adopted with amendments submitted by KO MPs. They are of a clarifying and editorial nature.

Dispute in the coalition over the regulation of short-term rentals

In July, a dispute occurred within the coalition regarding the solutions proposed by the government regarding short-term rental, after on the day of the Council of Ministers meeting, the Ministry of Development and Technology submitted an amendment that deleted provisions enabling communities, cooperatives and local governments to introduce a ban on short-term rental.

The head of the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, pointed out that the project adopted by the government at that time did not give local governments and residents any rights to limit short-term rental.

The deputy head of MSiT, Ireneusz Raś, argued that the solutions adopted at that time were sufficient.

At the beginning of September, however, the government adopted an amendment restoring the solutions contained in the original bill.