When we decide to rent an apartment, we count on quick and reliable profit. Very often, however, the profit is temporary, especially if we do not sign the lease agreement or do not complete other formalities related to renting the premises. After a few months, tenants move out overnight, delay payments, and there are cases of theft and destruction of rented apartments. How to rent an apartment safely and ensure a stable income for many years?

If you want to arrange a consultation or have any questions regarding the consultation, write here: biuro@ckdom.pl or call: +48 786-221-221.

Duration: 60 min

Real estate consultation: PLN 300 + VAT

Remote consultation: PLN 200 + VAT

Where to start?

Prepare the apartment.

The apartment for rent must be properly prepared. Refreshing the apartment, equipping it with furniture, basic household appliances - this is the minimum. Landlords usually cut costs - especially if they rent to students. However, the higher the standard, the greater the profit. Therefore, renovating a damaged studio apartment is an investment that will pay off. However, it is best to focus on good but cheap materials and prepare a universal apartment, without strictly adapting it to your own taste.

Estimate the rental cost and rent amount properly.

The easiest way is to compare rental offers for similar properties throughout the city and then in the surrounding area. Estimating the costs of maintaining the apartment and the annual profit will allow you to plan the entire investment. Landlords quite often set a high rent, but after a long time, when the apartment or house does not find a tenant, they are willing to lower the offer quite significantly or rent the apartment to the first person who accepts the rent. And that's very risky. It is worth setting the rent at a level lower than the competition! Why is it worth it?

Prepare a lease offer and look for a tenant.

The possibility of renting an apartment in the age of the Internet seems relatively simple. The easiest way is to post an ad on one or several advertising portals, the most popular and reliable ones, to increase the chances of a quick rental. A few good photos and a correctly written text with the rental price should be enough to attract potential tenants. An advertisement in English increases the owners' chances of obtaining a favorable rental. There are many foreigners who are looking for an apartment to rent, so it is worth making the search process easier for them. It is also worth looking for portals that offer translation of offers and distribution on foreign portals.

An undoubted difficulty is renting a premises remotely. Then we often have to ask our loved ones for help and thus control over the apartment. We can use the help of Ckdom.pl, which comprehensively deals with rental management.

Who to rent an apartment to?

Every owner of a rented property would like the person who is to live in his apartment or house to take care of it, pay on time, treat neighbors with respect and not waste too much time. It is therefore worth realizing how important the stage of selecting and verifying tenants is. Checking your ID card or passport is not enough. It is worth preparing a universal set of questions for future tenants. It is important to know the current place of residence, the reasons for moving and to make sure that the future tenant is able to pay the rent regularly. Requesting a certificate of earnings or other confirmation of the permanent nature of employment is the landlord's right. If someone is honest and has no bad intentions, there is no reason not to show the above-mentioned documents. In many countries, references from previous landlords or from your workplace are part of the normal procedure. In Poland, there is no system that would allow checking tenants, so apartment owners have to cope on their own.

Take care of the formalities.

The most important actions to reduce the risk of bad tenants include, apart from the reliable selection of tenants, a lease agreement prepared and readable for the tenant, detailed handover and acceptance protocols, collecting a deposit, monitoring payments and the condition of the apartments, as well as building supervision over the management of the tenant. None of these tools, by themselves, are completely eliminated for rent in an apartment. The use of the entire pallet tool significantly reduces risk.

The lease agreement is a document that is intended to protect the interests of both parties: the landlord and the tenant. It should contain the rights and obligations of both, as well as indicate the boundary between the costs incurred by them in connection with maintaining the property.

Lease of premises based on an occasional lease agreement

Occasional lease is a solution that has been present in Polish law for only a few years. What is it about? The ability to evict the tenant efficiently, if necessary. When signing an occasional lease agreement, the landlord, in the event of termination of the agreement, regardless of the reason, may "force" the tenant to move out of the premises without the need to conduct (often long) court proceedings to obtain an eviction judgment. This is an important advantage of this agreement, because landlords very often struggle with the problem of getting rid of the tenant from the premises after the end of the contract, which makes it impossible to continue renting the premises.

For an honest tenant, it makes no difference which contract he signs with the lessor - the owner of the premises. The occasional lease agreement is intended to protect the landlord against a dishonest tenant.

Check if rental management is for you?

Renting an apartment in a way that guarantees security and a reasonable income means a lot of work. You can do it yourself or outsource it to specialists. Rental management companies free owners from all the hassles related to renting - from searching for a tenant, through monitoring the premises, renovations and repairs, to debt collection from unscrupulous tenants..

Rental management is very popular in Western Europe - e.g. in England, over 50 percent. owners of rented apartments entrust matters related to rent management to professionals. In Poland, this is a new segment of the real estate market, but more and more people decide to use this form of assistance. Most of our clients are people who want a certain monthly inflow of cash from rent, without having to devote time to taking care of the apartment. Another group interested in rental management are people who have moved abroad or to another city. The long distance makes renting an apartment to someone a big problem for the property owner.

Apartment for a foreigner.

Renting to foreigners does not require any special formal procedures. The procedure is exactly the same as in the case of providing an apartment to Poles. The owner has the right to verify the tenant and check documents. A passport or other document confirming identity replaces an ID card.

The most important thing is to prepare documents: lease agreement, handover protocol in two languages ​​- most often in Polish and English. The tenant must know and understand what he or she is signing, so the contract must be sufficiently detailed, with the terms and conditions set out by the landlord clearly indicated..

The length of the rental is often determined by the working time specified in the contract, so foreigners can also look for an apartment for half a year or a year - depending on the company's initial plans..

Foreigners who are looking for apartments for rent in Poland usually know how much it costs. Artificially inflating prices just for the sake of a "foreign customer" is an ineffective procedure.

Do I have to report the contract to the tax office?

Currently, there is no such obligation, i.e. there is no need to report the contract to the office, regardless of whether it is the first or subsequent contract. If this is the first rental agreement for the first premises, i.e. we have just started renting, you should simply start paying tax or an advance payment for rental tax to the office account at the appropriate time..

The only case in which we are obliged to report the contract to the Tax Office may occur when we sign an occasional lease agreement with the tenant. Then it must be done within 14 days from the date of commencement of the lease.

Why is it worth settling rental taxes?

Paying rental tax is not only a legal requirement and an obligation of every taxpayer, but it simply pays off. Above all, however, if rental taxes are settled appropriately. The amount of tax actually paid may be at an acceptable level, and in favorable circumstances it may even be avoided altogether (see: which form of rental taxation should you choose?).

There are many reasons why it is worth settling taxes on income or income obtained from renting real estate. First of all, failure to pay taxes (or paying them late or failing to submit a declaration) results in tax arrears on which interest will be charged. Additionally, you may also be subject to criminal liability for failing to pay the tax due, which may be punishable by a fine and/or imprisonment.

Some landlords hope that the fact of renting and not paying the tax due on the rental income will not come to light. However, the tax office has at least 5 years to conduct an inspection and this is quite a long period during which many circumstances may occur, causing unpleasant consequences for a taxpayer who evades his obligations to the tax office.

One of such circumstances may be any conflict with the tenant. Disclosure of rental income may also occur when the landlord wants to use legal means to force the tenant to, for example, pay outstanding rent, utility bills or move out of the apartment.

Submitting the contract to the tax office is also a necessary condition for using occasional lease. So if you want to take advantage of the benefits of this institution to reduce the risk and problems with a bad tenant, settling your tax is necessary.

Which form of rental taxation should I choose?

In cases where there are high costs, e.g. high depreciation, interest on a loan taken out for the purchase of an apartment, costs of equipment and renovations, it is most often more profitable to settle according to the tax scale. When these costs are absent, a lump sum payment provides a better result (lower tax). The lump sum also has another advantage - it is the simplest settlement method - you simply calculate and pay tax every month in the amount of 8.5% of your income. Settlement of private renting according to the tax scale requires recording all income and expenses, as well as collecting all related documents. In this case, the tax base is income, i.e. revenue less the costs of obtaining it.