Joint and personal property

When does the joint estate arise?

Article 31 § 1 of the Family and Guardianship Code provides that upon the conclusion of a marriage, joint property arises between the spouses by operation of law, covering assets acquired during its duration by both spouses or by one of them. Assets not covered by it belong to the personal estate of each spouse.

Two points matter here. First, the regime arises by operation of law - nobody has to establish it. Second, it covers what one spouse acquired, provided this happened during the marriage.

What belongs to the joint estate?

Article 31 § 2 gives examples. The joint estate includes in particular:

• each spouse's salary and income from other gainful activity, once received;
• income from the joint estate and from each spouse's personal estate;
• funds in each spouse's Polish open or employee pension fund, contributions recorded on a ZUS sub-account (ZUS is the Polish Social Insurance Institution), and funds in a pan-European personal pension product (PEPP) account.

A salary that has not yet been paid is treated differently: the claim to it belongs to the personal estate of the spouse who earned it (Article 33, point 7). Under Article 34, ordinary household furnishings used by both spouses are joint even if one spouse inherited them or received them as a gift, unless the testator or donor decided otherwise.

Does a house inherited in Poland form part of the joint estate?

This is the question most often asked by people who inherited property in Poland while already married. Article 33 answers it: the personal estate of each spouse includes, among other things, assets acquired by inheritance, bequest or gift, unless the testator or donor decided otherwise.

An inheritance or a gift therefore does not enter the joint estate - it remains the personal property of the spouse who received it. The only exception is where the testator or donor themselves decided otherwise.

What else stays personal?

Article 33 lists ten categories. Besides inheritances and gifts, these come up most often in families living between two countries:

• assets acquired before the joint property arose;
• items that serve only one spouse's personal needs;
• compensation for bodily injury or harm to health, and compensation for harm suffered, but not an annuity paid to the injured spouse for lost earning capacity or increased needs;
• assets acquired in exchange for personal assets, unless a specific provision states otherwise.

The last point has practical weight. If a spouse sells an apartment inherited in Poland and buys another with the proceeds, the purchase falls under that rule.

Can my spouse sell our property in Poland without me?

Not if the property belongs to the joint estate. Article 37 § 1 requires the other spouse's consent for, among other things, a legal act leading to the transfer or encumbrance of real estate or its acquisition for payment, for handing real estate over for use or for collecting income from it, and for a gift from the joint estate, other than small customary gifts.

A contract concluded without the required consent is not automatically void. Under § 2, its validity depends on the other spouse confirming it, and under § 3 the other party to the contract may set a reasonable deadline for that confirmation. A unilateral legal act made without the required consent is invalid (§ 4).

In what shares is the joint estate divided?

Article 43 § 1 puts it briefly: both spouses have equal shares in the joint estate. The rule is therefore an equal division, regardless of who earned more. While the joint property lasts, neither spouse may demand its division or dispose of the share that would fall to them once it ends (Article 35).

There is an exception. Under Article 43 § 2, for important reasons either spouse may demand that the shares reflect how much each contributed to the joint estate, and under § 3 personal work raising the children and running the household counts as a contribution.

What if joint money was spent on an inherited house?

Article 45 § 1 covers exactly this. Each spouse should repay expenses and outlays made from the joint estate on their personal estate, except necessary expenses on income-producing assets. In the other direction, a spouse may demand repayment of what they spent from their personal estate on the joint estate. Expenses used to meet the family's needs are not repaid, unless they increased the value of the property at the time the joint property ended.

Under § 2, these repayments are settled when the joint estate is divided, although the court may order earlier repayment if the family's welfare requires it.

Can spouses change these rules?

Yes, by an agreement made as a notarial deed. Under Article 47 § 1, spouses may extend or limit the joint property, or establish separate property, or separate property with equalization of what each acquired. The agreement may be concluded before the marriage, and it may later be changed or terminated (§ 2). A spouse may rely on it against other people only if they knew that it had been concluded and what type it is (Article 47¹). Some assets cannot be brought into the joint estate even by agreement, including those one spouse receives by inheritance, bequest or gift (Article 49 § 1).

Why this matters when life spans two countries

Property in Poland often comes from an inheritance after parents or grandparents and therefore - under Article 33 - belongs to the personal estate. It also happens that joint money was spent on it in the meantime, and then Article 45 decides what has to be repaid on division. Which country's law governs the property of a couple whose life spans Poland and the United States is a separate question, and it has to be answered before any of these rules is applied.

How we help

We establish what belongs to the joint estate and what to the personal estate, assess the position of property located in Poland, and prepare the division case. Under a power of attorney we act for you in Poland.

This article is general information about Polish law, not legal advice about your matter. Legal basis: the Family and Guardianship Code (consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2026 item 236), Articles 31, 33 to 35, 37, 43, 45, 47, 47¹ and 49. Which law applies to spouses living in different countries, and how the division runs in a particular case, has to be checked case by case. Describe your situation if you would like to know how it applies to you.