On Friday, 6 November, the Senate adopted amendments to the amendment regulating short-term rentals. 93 senators voted in favour of the resolution, and the bill returns to the Sejm.
How the Senate Voted
93 senators voted in favour of adopting the bill together with the amendments, no one voted against, and one senator abstained. The Sejm passed the amendment on 8 October with 407 deputies voting in favour (24 against, 9 abstaining). Now the lower chamber will decide which of the Senate’s amendments to accept. Only after that will the bill go to the president.
Most of the amendments are clarifying, editorial or technical in nature, while a few are substantive. Earlier, the Legislative Bureau of the Chancellery of the Senate had submitted 19 comments on the bill.
What the Bill Provides
The amendment implements the EU regulation on collecting and sharing data on short-term rentals. It introduces a Central Register of Tourist Accommodation Facilities, an obligation to register properties, identification numbers in listings, and administrative fines of up to PLN 50,000.
Residents, housing communities and housing cooperatives will gain the right to initiate inspections of properties. These are to cover not only technical and fire safety requirements, but also safety and public order. A property will be mandatorily removed from the register if three violations concerning safety and public order are recorded within six months of the first confirmed case. Re-entry will be possible after one year.
Restricted Zones and Community Decisions
The municipal council, on the motion of the wójt, mayor or city president, may establish an area where hotel-type services in residential premises will be temporarily prohibited. Housing communities and cooperatives will be able to introduce a ban in their own properties. In the current wording, the powers of municipalities, communities and cooperatives are to apply from 1 January 2028, while the remaining provisions will take effect 14 days after publication.
One of the Senate’s amendments contains an exception: the rules on short-term rentals would not apply to accommodation lasting no less than 30 days in total for a single client, provided the property is predominantly used for such services.
During committee work, some senators pointed out that the bill does not require a community or cooperative to justify a ban, nor does it provide for an appeal against such a decision. There were also proposals to lower the vote threshold needed for a ban in cooperatives. The deputy minister of sport and tourism assured that the bill does not change tax regulations and does not force occasional landlords to set up a company.
