Legal Highlights for Real Estate – December 2023
January 2024
1. Maximum price for electricity for entrepreneurs also set for 2024
On Friday, 15 December this year the President signed the Amendment to the Act of 27 October 2022 on emergency measures to cap electricity prices and support certain consumers in 2023 (the “Amendment”). According to the Amendment, energy companies are obliged to apply the maximum price for electricity to eligible customers (including micro, small and medium-sized entrepreneurs) until 30 June 2024.
The maximum price has been set at the level of PLN 693/MWh. A declaration of an eligible customer to be covered by the maximum price must be submitted by 31 January 2024. However, entities that have already submitted such a declaration do not need to submit a new one, provided that they had the status of an eligible customer on 31 December 2023 and still meet the conditions to be recognised as this category of customer on 1 January 2024.
It should be borne in mind that, in the event of a change in circumstances that affect the entitlement to benefit from the maximum price, the eligible customer is obliged to notify the energy supplier
2. Supreme Administrative Court: at the stage of establishing development conditions, the investor’s legal title to the property through which access to a public road is to be executed shall not be examined
In a recent judgment, the Supreme Administrative Court addressed the issue of determining access to a public road in cases where the investor does not have any title to the property designed to provide the aforementioned access.
The Court indicated that at the stage of establishing the development conditions, the ownership relations concerning the properties through which the access to the public road is to be executed are not examined, as these issues are subject to examination at the stage of the proceedings concerning the issuance of a construction permit.
Since access to a public road is established in the first phase of the investment process, including the proceedings for the issuance of a decision on development conditions (the “Decision”), and the Decision itself does not create rights to the land and does not infringe any property rights of third parties, the applicant does not need to have a legal title to the land, which is the subject of the examination, as well as to the properties which will ensure access to the public road in the future.
The role of the public authority is therefore not to examine the investor’s title to the property, but to check the possibility of its use in order to connect the investment with a public road.
