Replacement Premises
A substitute residential unit that a landlord must in certain statutory situations provide to a tenant — most commonly when a building requires a major renovation or demolition that forces the tenant to vacate — distinct from the narrower, poverty-tested social housing a municipality provides after an eviction.
Сфера дії: Польща.
Визначення
Replacement premises (lokal zamienny) is defined in the Act on the Protection of Tenants' Rights as a unit meeting a set minimum standard — fitting the needs of the tenant and household members, located in the same locality — that the tenant is entitled to when the landlord's own actions, rather than the tenant's fault, make the original unit unusable. The most common trigger is a planned major renovation or demolition of the building requiring it to be vacated: in that situation, the landlord who wants the tenant out is the one who must arrange and cover the cost of the replacement unit.
This is a different mechanism from social housing (lokal socjalny), which a municipality — not the landlord — must provide to certain protected groups when a court orders their eviction for reasons like rent arrears. Replacement premises is about the landlord's own obligation when they interrupt the tenancy for their own purposes; social housing is about protecting a vulnerable tenant being evicted for cause.
Приклади
A landlord planning to gut-renovate a building notifies tenants they must vacate, and is required to offer each one a replacement unit of comparable standard in the same town before the renovation begins.
A tenant refuses to leave for a planned demolition until the landlord actually secures a suitable replacement unit, rather than accepting a vague promise to "sort something out later."
A court ordering the eviction of a tenant with unpaid rent rules separately on their entitlement to social housing from the municipality — a different process from the landlord's replacement-premises obligation.
Як це впливає на купівлю та продаж
Landlords planning a major renovation should budget for the cost and lead time of securing replacement premises before serving any notice to vacate — skipping this step can leave the landlord unable to lawfully force tenants out even with a legitimate renovation need. Tenants facing a renovation-driven move should treat the landlord's replacement-unit offer as a condition of moving out, not an afterthought to be settled once they're already gone.
