Gdańska - Kamienice, by Marcin Polak,
via Flickr
Łódź- Piłsudskiego Centrum Biznesu (Piłsudskiego Business Centre), By Nemo5576 (Own work),
via Wikimedia Commons
Every true history must force us to remember that the past was once as real as the present and as uncertain as the future.
G. M. Trevelyan, British historian
PRUDENT STRATEGIES TO FOLLOW
This webpage will be soon updated and revised.
With the looming 2019 deadline, time is running out.
In view of this and the big disappointment with Project HEART, we suggest to potential claimants the following strategies to help them structure their recovery efforts efficiently (whether they work with us or not):
- Explore and define your potential claims with
professionals, highly specialized in recovering properties in
Poland. If you do this with us, there will be no charge for this step,
in so far as client interviews and review of client documents is
concerned.
- Do not expect that beyond an initial review, highly experienced professionals will work many hundreds of hours (more likely thousands of hours), on a purely contingent basis on mandates (projects), which take several years to fruition.
- Semi-contingent arrangements are still available from some seasoned professionals, including from our team.
- If prospects which emerge from preliminary review (item A above) are favorable, and there are joint heirs to a succession, assemble them to act together and to share expenses. If you assemble heirs working with us, we do not charge for related assistance (unless this task turns out to be unusually complex).
- Consider if in your Family, it would make sense for elderly heirs to transfer their inheritance rights in Poland to the next generation, who would then bear related costs. This has worked well for some families.
- When there are joint heirs, ensure that they act in concert to recover and monetize their inheritance in Poland. In such situations, we further suggest that:
- With special exceptions, joint heirs should bear costs in proportion to their share of their joint inheritance.
- When some of the joint heirs are willing but unable to pay their share of costs, other heirs may pay for them, all or a part of the relevant costs. The arrangement may be for the paying heirs to recover their outlay, with a bonus at the time claims are monetized in Poland.
- When some of the joint heirs are able but unwilling to
pay their share of costs, other heirs may buy out their claims.
The arrangement may be an outright purchase of inheritance rights, or
may concern only the financing of recovery costs. In the latter
case, the selling heirs may still receive a significant part of net
recovery.
- Joint heirs should empower a Representative to act for all
of them, towards professionals, courts and governmental offices
in
Poland. Of course, joint heirs may
replace their Representative. Failure to appoint a Representative can
cause problems to the recovery and monetization efforts. Indeed, we
have refused mandates from groups of heirs, who proved unable to
empower Representatives.
- If the number of joint heirs is large, they may also want
to appoint an Heirs’ Committee to advise the Representative.
- We have forms suitable for arrangements mentioned above in items D through H.
- Heirs, particularly foreign, should engage a team of specialized professionals, who collectively, possess the full range of skills required to:
- Obtain, in Poland and abroad, documents necessary for all proceedings:
- Succession proceedings,
- Proceedings to declare as deceased those of heirs’ legal predecessors who died or disappeared without death certificates having been issued,
- Recovery proceedings,
- All other incidental proceedings, which may be required, such as (rare) proceedings to recreate lost property registers or lost civil status documents.
- Conduct all above-mentioned proceedings.
- If monetization is a part of the contracted
services, transparently and fairly monetize heirs’ recovered rights.
- Enter into recovery agreements which:
- Are comprehensive — include all work
required, see item J above.
- Define all major milestones.
- Provide ongoing reporting to heirs, including copies of all official filings and all decisions / judgments — so that heirs may follow the progress.
- Comprise a significant component of contingent fees — so that the professionals have some skin in the game.
- Provide heirs with control over the
monetizing — so that they actually receive fair amounts from the
recovery.
- If required early on in the mandate, secure a supported approximate valuation of the recoverable value for all relevant properties — so that the heirs know the stakes. In some cases, such as lots of 1,000 m2 or more, located near the center of major Polish cities, sufficient values are obvious. In other cases, research is required to locate properties, determine the size of lots inherited and obtain information on buildings on these lots.
- As soon as feasible within a
mandate, obtain from a specialized Polish attorney, a supported written
legal opinion concerning the prospects for recovery of each relevant
property.
As a rule, this is only possible after obtaining restricted-access expropriation files (using documented proof of Legal Interest to gain access).
- In effect, steps mentioned in items L
and M above constitute due diligence.
- Pursue recovery of only those properties, which have a sufficient recoverable value and reasonable prospects for recovery.
We are proud to have all these skills within our team.
