Warning! AUTOMATIC TRANSLATION FROM POLISH LANGUAGE
- New rules on acquiring ownership of found property – changes from 2026
PLEASE NOTE: the following is an automatic translation
Finding someone else’s property does not mean that the finder automatically becomes its owner. In such a situation, one must act in accordance with the provisions of the Act on Found Property and the relevant provisions of the Civil Code.
Both of these pieces of legislation were amended by the Act of 23 January 2026 amending the Act on Found Property and the Civil Code. As indicated in the explanatory memorandum to the draft Act, the aim of the amendment was, amongst other things, to streamline and rationalise the obligations of finders and public authorities, as well as to enhance the security of legal transactions and the protection of personal data.
The provisions of Article 187(1) and (2) of the Civil Code, governing the conditions for the finder to acquire ownership of a found item, have also been amended.
Firstly, as a result of the amendment, the time limits after which a found item becomes the property of the finder have been shortened, provided that the finder has fulfilled the obligations laid down in the Act. Currently, this occurs if the item has not been collected by the entitled person within 6 months of the date of service of the notice to collect it, and, where service of the notice is impossible, within one year of the date on which it was found. Previously, these time limits were, respectively, one year from the date of service of the notice and two years from the date on which the item was found.
The obligations of the finder are set out in the Act on Found Property and include, amongst other things, the obligation to notify the relevant authority of the discovery of the item and, in certain cases, to hand it over to the relevant district administrator. It should be borne in mind that failure to fulfil the obligation to report the discovery of an item constitutes an offence punishable under Article 125 of the Code of Misdemeanours.
Secondly, the amendment introduces a rule whereby items enabling access to premises, vehicles and other lockable objects – in particular keys, access cards and remote controls – as well as documents containing personal data, become the property of the county once the deadline for their collection by an authorised person has expired without result. Consequently, the possibility for the finder to acquire ownership of such items, which existed under the previous legislation, has been removed.
The new regulations apply exclusively to items found after the date on which the amending Act comes into force. With regard to items found before that date, the previous provisions continue to apply.
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