Property Manager (Zarządca) in Poland

Short answer. A zarządca nieruchomości is a business that manages a property under a contract with its owner or with the wspólnota mieszkaniowa. For a community it can carry out the board's tasks if the owners entrust management to it in the way art. 18(1) of the ownership act describes. This article covers who a manager is, how it differs from the board, what it does, which acts need an owners' resolution, what to put in the contract and where software helps. It is information, not legal advice.

We read the real estate management act (Dz.U. 1997 no. 115 item 741) in the consolidated text prepared on the basis of Dz.U. 2026 items 399, 875 and 912, and the ownership act on the basis of Dz.U. 2026 item 232. On the community itself: Wspólnota Mieszkaniowa: Duties and the Board.

Who a property manager is

Article 184a defines a manager as an entrepreneur running a business of managing real property: it manages professionally, as a business, not as a member of the community. Under art. 184b managing a property means taking decisions and acts meant to secure sound management, in particular sound economic and financial management, safe use and proper operation, sound energy management, day-to-day administration, keeping the property from deteriorating and justified investment. That is the statutory list; what a manager does for your community is set by the contract. Article 185(2) says the scope of management is set by a management contract made with the owner, the wspólnota or another person entitled to the property, and that the contract needs written or electronic form on pain of nullity.

Manager and board

In a community with more than three units, the owners must pass a resolution electing a board, whose members can only be natural persons (art. 20(1) of the ownership act), and the board runs the community's affairs and represents it (art. 21(1)). That is one model. The other is art. 18(1): owners may entrust management to a natural or legal person in a notarial deed, and changing that takes a resolution recorded by a notary (art. 18(2a)). Where management was entrusted that way, the chapter's rules apply accordingly unless the contract says otherwise (art. 33). The duties in arts. 29 and 30 fall on the board or the manager to whom management was entrusted under art. 18(1). A community with its own board may also sign a management contract, since art. 185(2) names the wspólnota as a party; how that contract sits with the board's tasks under arts. 21 and 22 is a question for the community's lawyer.

Acts that need an owners' resolution

The board takes acts of ordinary management on its own (art. 22(1)); where management is entrusted under art. 18(1), these provisions apply accordingly unless the contract says otherwise (art. 33). An act beyond that needs a resolution of the owners that consents to it and grants a power of attorney (art. 22(2)); these include setting the remuneration of the board or manager, adopting the annual plan and setting the charges that cover management costs (art. 22(3) pt 1 to 3). If the required majority is missing, the board or manager can ask the court to decide (art. 24). Control stays with the owners: every owner has the right to inspect the board's work, and the owners vote on discharge (art. 29(2) and (3)).

What to put in the contract

The act requires written or electronic form, a defined scope (art. 185(2)) and civil liability insurance for the manager (art. 186(3)). The rest of this list is our practical suggestion, not a statutory requirement: the scope split between what the manager does alone and what needs a resolution; the fee and the fact that setting it needs a resolution; who holds the community's bank account and how costs are recorded; annual reporting and the date by which meeting materials are ready; who keeps the technical documentation and the list of owners and what happens to them when the contract ends; the policy number and cover; term, notice and handover of documents. Have a lawyer check the form and effect of each.

Where software helps, and where it does not

Software does not change who is responsible. Unitify's resident app delivers the manager's notices to residents in the app, by email and on the building website, with read receipts, which is a good trace that owners were informed but does not replace the written notice art. 32 requires. Requests turns each resident request into a tracked ticket with status, address, unit and owner, in one list across all buildings. Voting records residents' votes; it does not by itself make a meeting or resolution valid, so ask a lawyer whether an app vote meets art. 23, and Unitify has no video conferencing. In every plan the number of buildings and users is unlimited and the price depends on the number of apartments; euro prices are net of VAT (see pricing).

What Unitify does not do: it is not a property manager, does not take over the board's or manager's statutory duties, does not draft resolutions and does not replace the community's accounting or a lawyer. The interface is not yet in Polish; texts you type stay in Polish. More on the market: Poland.