How do you reject a Polish inheritance for your child?

The short answer: with a declaration that you sign for the child, usually after a Polish court has allowed you to make it. The longer answer matters, because families abroad routinely discover the problem late - a parent rejects an estate in Poland to avoid its debts, and only afterward learns that the same debts have just been offered to a seven-year-old in New Jersey. This guide sets out who has to act, when the clock runs, and how the papers are signed without flying to Poland.

Why does a child end up inheriting at all?

Because rejection does not remove the estate from the family; it removes one person from the queue. An heir who has rejected an inheritance is excluded from succession as though they had not lived to see it open (Civil Code, Article 1020). Statutory succession then looks for the next heirs in line, and the next in line after a child of the deceased are that child's own descendants. A rejection by the parent is therefore also, in practice, an offer made to the grandchildren.

The same applies further down. If the minor's rejection is allowed and made, the estate moves on to the next people entitled, which is why these cases are usually handled for the whole family at once rather than person by person.

Do you need a court's permission to reject for your child?

As a rule, yes. Parents may not, without the permission of the guardianship court, perform acts that exceed ordinary management of the child's property (Family and Guardianship Code, Article 101 § 3), and rejecting an inheritance is treated as such an act. Where proceedings for confirmation of acquisition of inheritance are already under way, the permission is given not by the guardianship court but by the succession court handling the estate, and an application already lodged with the guardianship court is transferred there (Code of Civil Procedure, Article 640[1]).

Since the amendment in force from 2023 there is an exception that fits exactly the situation most of our clients are in. No permission is needed where the child was called to inherit because a parent had rejected the estate, the rejection for the child is made by a parent with parental authority acting with the consent of the other parent who also has it, or by both together, and the other descendants of those parents also reject the estate (Article 101 § 4). If the parents do not agree, the ordinary rule applies and the court decides.

Which court decides when the child lives in the United States?

A Polish one, in the ordinary case. Matters between parents and children fall within Polish jurisdiction where the child lives or is habitually resident in Poland, or where the applicant and the child are both Polish citizens (Code of Civil Procedure, Article 1106[3] § 1). For a family in the United States it is normally the second limb that applies, which is why confirming the child's Polish citizenship can matter before anything else is filed. Guardianship and curatorship matters follow a similar rule: they fall within Polish jurisdiction where the person concerned is a Polish citizen (Article 1107 § 1).

The estate itself is a separate question of jurisdiction. Polish courts hear succession matters where the deceased was a Polish citizen at death or was resident or habitually resident in Poland, and also where the estate or a significant part of it is in Poland (Article 1108). In practice these two threads are settled together at the start, because the answer decides which court receives the permission application and which receives the declaration.

How long do you have, and what stops the clock?

Six months, counted from the day the heir learned of the title of their calling (Civil Code, Article 1015 § 1). For a minor that knowledge is the knowledge of the person acting for the child, which in these cases usually means the day the parent's own rejection placed the child in line - a point worth settling on the facts rather than assuming.

Two rules keep that deadline from becoming a trap. Filing a request with the court to receive the declaration before the six months run out is enough to preserve the deadline (Article 1015 § 1(1)). And where the declaration requires the court's permission, the running of the time limit is suspended for the whole duration of those proceedings (Article 1015 § 1(2)). Before that provision was added, families waited for a permission hearing while the clock ran against them; today the waiting itself no longer costs them the right.

How is the declaration signed from the United States?

A declaration of acceptance or rejection is made before a court or a notary, and it may be made orally or in writing with an officially certified signature (Civil Code, Article 1018 § 3). In Poland it is filed with a notary or with the district court for the declarant's place of residence or stay, and that court or notary sends it on to the succession court (Code of Civil Procedure, Article 640 § 1). Neither address exists for a family living in New York, so the written route is the one that works.

A Polish consul certifies the authenticity of a signature at the request of a Polish citizen (Consular Law, Article 28(1)(2)), and consular acts have the same legal force as acts performed by a notary in Poland (Article 29). A declaration can also be made through a representative, and then the power of attorney itself must be in writing with an officially certified signature (Civil Code, Article 1018 § 3) - the form we cover in our guide on signing a power of attorney in the U.S. for a matter in Poland.

What happens if the family does nothing?

The child does not end up personally exposed to the whole of the estate's debts. Where no declaration is made within the six months, the law treats the inheritance as accepted with the benefit of inventory (Civil Code, Article 1015 § 2), which limits liability for the estate's debts to the value of what the estate contains. That is a protection, not a solution: the child still becomes an heir, with a share in whatever the estate holds and in whatever procedure follows, and undoing that later is far harder than rejecting in time. How that liability works in practice is the subject of our guide on whether you can inherit debts along with a house in Poland.

One more rule is worth knowing before a rejection is treated as a way out of somebody else's problem. Where an heir rejects an inheritance to the detriment of their creditors, a creditor whose claim existed at the time may ask the court to declare that rejection ineffective as against them (Article 1024). Rejection protects the family from the estate's debts; it is not a way to move assets away from one's own.

This article is general information about Polish law, not legal advice about your situation, and it does not describe the law of any particular U.S. state. Legal basis: the Civil Code (consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2026 item 795), Articles 1015, 1018, 1020 and 1024; the Family and Guardianship Code (consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2026 item 236), Article 101; the Code of Civil Procedure (consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2026 item 468), Articles 640, 640[1], 1106[3], 1107 and 1108; the Consular Law (consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2026 item 711), Articles 28 and 29. Provisions checked in September 2026.

Sources

This article is based on the acts listed below. Each link opens the text published by the Polish government, checked on September 20, 2026. Acts in force open as a consolidated text; historical acts are marked as such, with the date they stopped applying.

• Civil Codeconsolidated text, Journal of Laws 2026 item 795
• Family and Guardianship Codeconsolidated text, Journal of Laws 2026 item 236
• Code of Civil Procedureconsolidated text, Journal of Laws 2026 item 468
• Consular Lawconsolidated text, Journal of Laws 2026 item 711