Student Apartment Rental: Occasional vs. Standard Lease Agreement

Occasional lease and ordinary contract – the most important legal differences

Signing a lease agreement for the duration of studies involves making a legal commitment for a period of usually 10 or 12 months. The table below shows the key differences between the two types of contracts from the point of view of the student and the owner of the premises.

What exactly is occasional rental and what elements does it consist of?

Occasional lease is a special type of residential lease agrement, introduced into the Polish legal system in order to protect property owners from dishonest tenants. This is determined by the fact that in the case of an ordinary lease agreement, recovering the premises from a person who has stopped paying rent requires a long-term court process.

In order for an occasional lease agreement to be legally valid, a written agreement signed with a student alone is not enough. Three mandatory documents must be attached to the contract.

The first document is a tenant’s statement made in the form of a notarial deed, in which the student submits to enforcement and undertakes to vacate and hand over the premises within the time specified in the owner’s request, pursuant to Article 777 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

The second document is a statement of the tenant indicating another residential unit in Poland in which he will be able to live in the event of enforcement and the need to leave the rented apartment.

The third document is a written statement by the owner of the substitute premises or a person holding a legal title to this premises, expressing consent for the student to live in a given property in the event of enforcement.

Where is the student supposed to get a replacement apartment from? Practical solutions

The biggest challenge for people going to study in another city or for students from abroad is to provide a statement about the replacement premises. There are two main solutions to this problem on the market.

The first and most common solution is a statement from parents, grandparents or relatives. The owner of the house signs a document in which he agrees to accept the student under his roof in the event of termination of the lease agreement. It is worth knowing that Polish law does not require that the signature of the owner of the replacement premises be notarized, unless the landlord himself expressly stipulates such a requirement in the content of the agreement.

The second solution is to use the services of commercial companies providing declarations about replacement premises. In situations where the student’s parents rent an apartment themselves or when the student comes from abroad, there are legal entities on the market that own their own properties, which issue the required statement for a fee. The cost of such a service in 2026 is between PLN 200 and PLN 450 for the entire duration of the lease agreement.

How much does a visit to a notary cost in 2026 and who pays for it?

Drawing up a notarial deed involves the need to pay a notary fee, VAT and a fee for extracts of the deed. The maximum amount of the notarial fee for drawing up a declaration of submission to enforcement is regulated by law and amounts to no more than one tenth of the minimum remuneration for work in Poland. In 2026, the total cost of a visit to a notary’s office usually ranges from PLN 420 to PLN 580 gross.

The question of who pays the cost of a notary is not precisely defined in the law and depends on the arrangements between the parties.

In market practice in academic cities, three approaches are used. The fairest and most common option is to divide the notary costs in half between the student and the owner. In the second variant, the cost is fully covered by the landlord, treating it as their own investment in legal security. In the third variant, which dominates in highly burdened rental markets, such as Warsaw or the center of Krakow, the owners pass on the full cost of the notary to the student.

Regular lease agreement – catches you need to watch out for

An ordinary lease agreement based solely on the provisions of the Civil Code is still commonly used when renting individual rooms in student apartments. When signing such a document, the student should carefully analyze the key provisions.

The first element is a precise distinction between the amount of the administrative rent and utility fees. A provision that only states that the rent is a certain amount plus fees is a source of later conflicts. The agreement must clearly separate the amount constituting the owner’s net profit from advances for electricity, gas, water and rent to the cooperative.

The second element is the rules for returning the deposit. According to Polish law, the owner has a maximum of 30 days from the date of handing over the apartment to settle and return the deposit. You should be wary of illegal clauses that say that the deposit is automatically retained for minor traces of use, such as natural wear and tear of panels or wear and tear of furniture resulting from daily use.

In this way, the handover protocol becomes an extremely important attachment. It should describe in detail the technical condition of the apartment, write down the status of all meters on the day of handing over the keys and make photographic documentation of the apartment before moving in.

The fourth issue is the rules for terminating the contract. A fixed-term contract, such as for the academic year from October to June, cannot be terminated before the deadline, unless the specific reasons justifying the termination are clearly indicated in the contract. A provision stating in general terms about the possibility of termination with a one-month period without giving reasons is invalid by law.

Key legal condition: Registration of the agreement with the Tax Office by the owner

There is a very important legal provision that many homeowners forget about, and which is crucial for the legal status of a student.

In order for an occasional lease agreement to have legal effects in the form of the possibility of simplified eviction, the owner of the property who is a natural person is absolutely obliged to report the conclusion of the occasional lease agreement to the head of the tax office competent for the owner’s place of residence, within 14 days from the date of commencement of the lease.

If the owner of the premises does not submit a notification to the Tax Office within the statutory period of 14 days or does not provide the student with a confirmation of such a notification at his request, the occasional lease agreement automatically loses its strict status. In the light of the law, it is transformed into an ordinary lease agreement. The owner then loses the right to immediate notarial enforcement, and the student regains full tenant protection resulting from the Act on the Protection of Tenants’ Rights.

Step by step: How to safely sign a lease agreement for college?

• Read the draft contract at home before the meeting. Ask the owner to send a sample document to your email and consult difficult records with your parents or a lawyer.
• Prepare a set of statements. If you are concluding an occasional lease, obtain a signed statement from the owner of the replacement premises or purchase the appropriate service from a specialized company.
• Go to the designated notary’s office to submit a declaration of submission to enforcement. Remember to bring a valid ID card or passport with you.
• Prepare a detailed handover protocol on the day of collecting the keys to the apartment. Enter the readings of electricity, gas and water meters and take photos of any damage to furniture and walls.
• Apply to the landlord with a request to present a confirmation of the occasional lease agreement to the Tax Office after 14 days from the start of the lease.

Occasional and institutional leases – differences for a student

When analysing the housing rental market in Polish academic cities, it is necessary to distinguish between occasional and institutional rentals. Institutional lease is used by entities conducting business activity in the field of renting premises, such as private dormitories or companies managing portfolios of apartments for rent.

The key difference from the student’s point of view is the fact that in the case of institutional lease, there is no obligation to indicate another premises in which the student could live in the event of enforcement.

A student signing an institutional lease agreement only submits to a notary a statement of submission to enforcement and an obligation to vacate and hand over the premises. He does not have to obtain statements from parents or pay third-party companies to provide surrogate addresses. The costs of the notary fee in the case of institutional lease are analogous to those in the case of occasional lease.

A room lease agreement and a lease agreement for the entire apartment – the trap of joint and several liability

Students renting apartments in groups of three, four or five people often make the mistake of signing one joint lease agreement for the entire apartment instead of individual contracts for individual rooms.

The signing of one contract by several students gives rise to the so-called joint and several liability, regulated in Article 366 of the Civil Code.

Joint and several liability means that the owner of the apartment has the right to demand payment of the full amount of rent from each of the co-tenants separately or from all of them together. If one of the roommates drops out of college, moves out without notice, or stops paying their part, the landlord has the full legal right to collect the entire missing amount from the other students living in the apartment.

Therefore, a safer solution for a student is to strive to sign an individual room rental agreement, which clearly defines the amount of rent for a given room and the rules for using common areas, such as the kitchen, bathroom and hallway.

Division of repair duties – who pays for defects in the apartment?

A common point of contention between students and apartment owners is the costs of repairing equipment and removing breakdowns that occurred during the academic year. This issue is precisely regulated by Article 6b of the Act on the Protection of Tenants’ Rights.

The regulations clearly divide expenditures on repairs into the obligations of the landlord and the obligations of the tenant.

The responsibilities of the owner of the apartment include ensuring the efficient operation of existing building installations, including electrical, gas, water supply and heating installations. The owner covers the costs of replacing and repairing heating stoves, radiators, cisterns, main valves, as well as repairing or replacing used household appliances and electronics that were in the apartment at the time of signing the contract, as long as the damage was not due to the student’s fault.

The student’s obligations as a tenant include the so-called minor expenditures combined with the daily use of the premises. The student is obliged to repair and maintain furniture, replace light bulbs, fuses, batteries in remote controls, take care of the cleanliness of gaskets, replace worn shower hoses, clean filters in the washing machine and hood, and take care of the patency of sewer drains.

It is worth adding a provision to the contract that any failures of household appliances resulting from the age of the device or wear and tear are fully covered by the owner of the property.

Hidden defects of the premises and the student’s right to reduce the rent

If, after moving into the apartment, it turns out that the premises have defects that prevent normal use, the student is entitled to specific legal rights resulting from the rental warranty, described in Article 664 of the Civil Code.

Examples of hidden defects are non-functioning heating in winter, the presence of fungus or mold under the wallpaper, leaky windows causing freezing of rooms, lack of hot water or constant noise resulting from a failure of the building system.

• The first step of the student is to report the defect in writing to the owner with a call to remove it within a set, realistic deadline, for example, seven days.
• If the landlord fails to remedy the defect within the specified period, the student has the right to make a written request for an appropriate reduction in rent for the entire duration of the defect.
• If the defects of the premises are so significant that they endanger the health of the tenants, for example, the presence of a toxic fungus or gas escaping from a leaking stove, the student has the right to terminate the lease agreement immediately without notice, regardless of whether the agreement was concluded for a definite or indefinite period.

Subletting a room for holidays – how to legally reduce costs in July and August?

Most housing lease agreements are concluded for a full calendar year from October to September. Students returning to their family homes for holidays often pay for an empty room for three months of vacation. The solution to this problem is to sublet a room to another student or a seasonal worker.

Subletting of the premises or part thereof requires the absolute consent of the owner, in accordance with Article 668 of the Civil Code.

Subletting a room without the landlord’s consent is a gross breach of contract and gives the landlord the right to terminate the lease agreement immediately and retain the security deposit.

In order to secure yourself for the holidays, it is worth entering a clause allowing the tenant to sublease the room to a third party in July, August and September at the stage of negotiating the lease agreement, provided that the new tenant is presented with the owner’s personal data. An alternative solution is to introduce a provision into the contract about reduced holiday rent, the so-called holiday severance fee, in the amount of, for example, fifty percent of the basic fee for the summer months.

Lump sum vs. meter settlement for utilities – how to avoid underpayment at the end of the year?

Settling service charges in student apartments is sometimes the cause of the most serious financial misunderstandings when handing over the premises.

In practice, two models of utility billing are used.

• The lump-sum model involves paying a fixed, predetermined amount for utilities each month, for example, three hundred zlotys per person, regardless of actual consumption. This model gives the student budgetary stability, but owners rarely agree to it with rising energy prices.
• The advance model with meter settlement consists in paying monthly advances, which are compared with the actual readings of electricity, gas and water meters at the end of the billing period or at the end of the contract.

With the advance model, the student should require the exact rates for utility units to be entered into the contract and the owner’s obligation to present the original invoices of the energy and water suppliers at each settlement. Provisions that allow the owner to set utility fees at their discretion without providing source documents should be avoided.

You have to be careful about the settlement of city heating. Building managers usually settle heating costs once a year, after the end of the heating season in the spring. A student moving out in June should demand that the condition of the heat dividers on the radiators be written down in the handover protocol, so as not to incur the costs of heating the premises by subsequent tenants in the autumn.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a foreign student sign an occasional lease agreement in Poland?

Yes, a foreigner studying in Poland can conclude an occasional lease agreement. If he does not have a family owning real estate in Polish, he can use the commercial service of indicating a substitute premises offered by specialized legal entities.

What happens if the owner of the replacement premises withdraws their consent during the term of the agreement?

In the event of losing the possibility of living in a substitute apartment, the student is legally obliged to notify the owner of the rented apartment within 21 days and to submit a new statement regarding another apartment. Failure to comply with this obligation gives the landlord the right to terminate the lease agreement.

Can the owner of the apartment enter the rented room in the absence of the student?

No. Regardless of whether an ordinary agreement or an occasional lease has been signed, the landlord is not allowed to enter the rented premises or room without prior agreement with the tenant. Arbitrarily entering the apartment is a violation of domestic peace, which is a crime prosecuted under Article 193 of the Criminal Code.

Can a housing deposit be used to pay the last month of rent?

No. The security deposit is used to cover possible damage to the premises and possible arrears in payments after the end of the contract. The student is obliged to pay the rent until the last month of the contract, and the deposit is refundable by the owner after settling the condition of the premises.