Utility bills when renting in Warsaw: czynsz administracyjny, advance payments and the annual settlement

Your monthly payment for a rented flat in Warsaw usually has three parts: czynsz najmu (the rent that goes to the landlord), czynsz administracyjny (the cost of running the building) and media, meaning electricity, gas, water, heating and waste collection. The lease decides the total and how it is split into lines, so get the breakdown before you sign. Water and heating are often paid as monthly advances (zaliczki), the building settles them after the period closes, and after winter that can mean a top-up or a refund.

This article is written by allproperty, an agency that finds rental flats for tenants, so our own terms sit in the last section. It is not legal advice. Where we write “the law requires”, the provision is cited next to it; “estimate” means practice, not a rule. The provisions were checked against the texts on api.sejm.gov.pl and eli.gov.pl on 7 October 2026.

Which leases these rules cover. The rules below (art. 6 sec. 4, 6c, 8a and 9 of the Tenant Protection Act) are written for an ordinary najem. They do not apply to najem okazjonalny and najem instytucjonalny, where the Act applies only the provisions it lists (art. 19e and 19j). In those leases a rent rise follows art. 685¹ of the Civil Code (notice at the latest one month ahead, to the end of a calendar month) and the lease, and the deposit is returned under art. 19a sec. 5, also within one month. Najem okazjonalny is common among foreigners in Warsaw; we explain it in our guide to najem okazjonalny. Ask the landlord which type of lease you are being offered.

What is my monthly payment made of?

An advert sometimes shows only the first part, with the rest in the description or revealed during talks. So the first question to the landlord is how much leaves your account each month in total and which lines make it up. A rough map (the payment methods describe practice, so they are estimates):

Line	What it is	How it is usually paid	What to check
Czynsz najmu	Rent, the landlord’s income	Bank transfer to the landlord	Whether czynsz administracyjny is already inside this sum
Czynsz administracyjny	The owner’s contribution to running the building, paid to the owners’ association (wspólnota) or housing cooperative (spółdzielnia)	You pay the landlord with the rent and the landlord pays the building	What it covers and whether heating and water advances sit inside it
Zaliczki for heating and water	Advances that the building settles later	Inside the payment to the building or as a separate line	Amount, settlement period, who pays the difference
Electricity, gas	Supply to the flat, by meter	Under a contract in your name or through the landlord	Whose name the contract is in, where the meter is
Waste collection	The city’s charge per household	Often inside the payment to the building	Which line it sits in
Internet, TV	A separate contract with a provider	To the provider	Whether the flat is connected and in whose name

According to the city (page updated 11 August 2026), waste in Warsaw is charged per household. After the temporary reduction (60 zł) ended on 31 March 2026, the rate for a multi-unit building has been 85 zł a month again from 1 April 2026. If waste is not sorted, the rate is doubled. Which of you pays it is up to the lease.

The law calls the charges for supplying energy, gas and water to the flat, and for taking away sewage, waste and liquid waste, “charges independent of the owner” (opłaty niezależne od właściciela, art. 2 sec. 1 pt 8 of the Tenant Protection Act, ustawa o ochronie praw lokatorów). Besides the czynsz, a landlord may charge a tenant only those charges (art. 9 sec. 5), and only if you have no direct contract with the supplier (art. 9 sec. 6). Heating from a shared source in the building is normally treated the same way (estimate). This does not mean that czynsz administracyjny cannot be shown as a separate line: the czynsz administracyjny that the landlord passes on to the tenant is, in practice, part of the payment for using the flat (czynsz or opłaty za używanie lokalu) and is stated in the lease (estimate).

What is czynsz administracyjny?

It is the flat owner’s monthly contribution to running the building. In an owners’ association the owner pays advances towards the costs of management: repairs and maintenance, common energy and water, the lift, insurance, taxes, cleaning and the manager’s fee (art. 13 sec. 1 and art. 14 of the Housing Ownership Act, ustawa o własności lokali). By law it is due by the 10th of each month (art. 15 sec. 1). In a housing cooperative the owner pays charges under the cooperative’s statute, also by the 10th or later if the statute says so (art. 4 sec. 6² of the Housing Cooperatives Act). A renovation fund (fundusz remontowy), if there is one, usually sits in the same contribution (estimate).

The building is paid by the owner of the flat. The sum reaches you inside your overall payment: in a lease it appears as a separate line or as part of one total that the landlord names (estimate). What matters to you is that the lease states the total and the breakdown. When it looks at a rent increase, the Tenant Protection Act starts from the idea that the czynsz covers the costs of maintaining the flat (koszty utrzymania lokalu): the owner’s expenses for building maintenance, management, common areas, the lift, insurance and property tax (art. 2 sec. 1 pt 8a and art. 8a sec. 4a). How the landlord has set this out in your lease can be seen only in the lease.

In some buildings the same contribution includes the advances for heating and water, in others they are a separate line (estimate). Ask the landlord for the latest notice of charges from the owners’ association or cooperative: it shows what the contribution is made of. On the owner’s request a cooperative must provide the calculation of the charges (art. 4 sec. 6⁴).

In a cooperative, people who actually use the flat are jointly liable with the owner for these charges, but only for the period they live there (art. 4 sec. 6 and 6¹). A practical conclusion (an estimate based on the text): pay to the account named in the lease, keep the confirmations and ask whether the landlord has any arrears with the building.

What are zaliczki and the annual settlement?

A zaliczka is an advance. The building estimates the costs in advance, collects a monthly payment and then compares it with what actually happened. For an owners’ association the settlement period is the calendar year (art. 29 sec. 1a of the Housing Ownership Act). In a cooperative the difference between costs and income for the building carries over to the next year (art. 6 sec. 1 of the Housing Cooperatives Act).

Heating and hot water from a shared source follow separate rules. The owner or manager of the building chooses a method and writes it into the settlement rules (regulamin rozliczeń, art. 45a sec. 9 and 10 of the Energy Law, Prawo energetyczne). They must provide information on the settlement free of charge to all users of flats at least once a year (art. 45c sec. 1). Under the regulation of the Minister of Climate and Environment of 7 December 2021, an individual heating statement must include, among other things, the balance with the amount of overpayment or shortfall, the monthly advances for the next season and information on how to lodge a complaint and settle a dispute (§ 9). Heating is settled after the settlement period ends, more often after the season (estimate).

A made-up example to show the arithmetic, not a tariff: a heating advance of 150 zł a month adds up to 1,800 zł over a year, and the building then charges 2,300 zł to the flat. That is a shortfall of 500 zł. If it charges 1,500 zł, that is an overpayment of 300 zł.

Why can a bill arrive after winter?

• An advance is a forecast. The building sets the advance from the previous season and expected prices. If the winter is colder or heat is dearer, the real cost comes out above the advance.
• Tariffs change. Electricity and heat are priced by tariff. For electricity, the regulator URE approved the 2026 tariffs on 17 December 2025: the average energy price for households is 495.16 zł per MWh net, about 1% below the “frozen” price of 2025, while distribution fees went up by 9.36% on average. These prices exclude VAT and excise. A household electricity tariff has little to do with the winter heating settlement of the building; what matters there is the heat price of the building’s supplier (an estimate). For your own bill, check with your supplier.
• The period is not yours. The settlement covers the whole building for the whole period, and you may have lived there for only part of it. How the difference is split by months of residence should be written in the lease.
• Meters were not read. If the user of a flat does not give access to the meters, the costs can be charged by a formula based on floor area or volume (art. 45a sec. 11a of the Energy Law).
• The settlement came late. The deadline is set by the settlement rules and the building’s decisions; a top-up can arrive several months after the season, sometimes after you have moved out (estimate).

What should I ask the landlord before signing?

1. How much the flat costs per month in total and how that is written in the lease: czynsz najmu, czynsz administracyjny, advances, separate media.
2. What czynsz administracyjny includes: a renovation fund, the entry phone, cleaning, parking, heating and water advances.
3. How the heating and water advance was calculated and for what period.
4. A copy of the latest settlement from the owners’ association, cooperative or heat supplier: whether there was a top-up or a refund and how much.
5. Who pays a shortfall and who gets an overpayment for your period, including a settlement that arrives after you have left.
6. In whose name the electricity, gas and internet contracts are and whether they can be moved to you (art. 9 sec. 6).
7. How the landlord raises payments and what the lease says about it (see the section on increases below).
8. What goes into the handover protocol (protokół): meter readings and numbers, photos.
9. Whether the landlord has arrears with the building (estimate).
10. Which type of lease it is: an ordinary najem, najem okazjonalny or najem instytucjonalny, because that decides which of the rules in this article apply.

Get the answers in writing and put them into the lease: a verbal agreement works badly when the settlement arrives six months later.

When should I move the meters into my name?

Write the readings into the protokół on the day you get the keys: the Act provides for a protocol on the technical condition before the flat is handed over (art. 6c; for a private flat the parties may agree otherwise, art. 6f), and meter readings are written into it in practice (estimate). Photograph the meters with their numbers. After that there are two options.

The contracts stay with the landlord. The landlord pays the supplier and passes the cost on to you as a fixed sum, as advances or by meter. In an ordinary najem the Act allows this as long as you have no direct contract (art. 9 sec. 6), and by the sense of art. 9 sec. 2 you pay no more than the landlord needs to cover the cost of the supplies to the flat. For gas, electricity and heat, art. 45a sec. 4 of the Energy Law speaks of charges that only cover the costs of the supplies to the building, and information on those costs is given free of charge (sec. 4a); our reading of both provisions is an estimate.

The contracts are in your name. This is most common for electricity, gas and internet. The supplier usually asks for the lease and a meter reading (estimate, so check with the supplier you choose). Move them in the first days so that bills come to you from day one. Water and heating in a multi-unit building usually run through the owners’ association or cooperative, and you normally have no direct contract (estimate).

When you leave, take the readings again, photograph the meters and close the contracts in your name. Settle in advance how the difference that arrives later will be calculated.

Can the landlord raise the czynsz or the zaliczki?

This section is for an ordinary najem; with najem okazjonalny and najem instytucjonalny art. 8a and 9 do not apply (art. 19e, 19j), and a rise follows art. 685¹ of the Civil Code (notice at the latest one month ahead, to the end of a calendar month) and the lease. In an ordinary najem it depends on which line is being raised.

• Czynsz and other charges apart from the owner-independent ones. A rise is made by a written notice of at least 3 months, ending at the end of a month (art. 8a sec. 1 to 3), and it cannot be repeated more often than every 6 months, counted from the day the previous rise took effect (art. 9 sec. 1b). You have 2 months to refuse in writing (the lease then ends when the notice period ends) or, if the rise is above the 3% threshold, to challenge it in court (art. 8a sec. 5). If the yearly sum goes above 3% of the replacement value of the flat, the landlord must give the reason and the calculation within 14 days of a written request, or the rise is invalid (sec. 4). More in our article on rent increases.
• Owner-independent charges (energy, gas, water, waste). The art. 8a procedure does not apply to them (art. 8a sec. 8). The landlord must show you in writing the list of charges and the reason for the rise, and you pay only what the landlord needs to cover the cost of those supplies (art. 9 sec. 2).

Whether a rise in your zaliczka counts as the first or the second kind depends on how the line is named and what it covers under the lease. If you are not sure, ask a lawyer.

What if the settlement looks wrong?

1. Ask for the calculation in writing: readings, advances charged, cost, balance. For heating from a shared source such data are mandatory (§ 9 of the regulation, art. 45c sec. 1 of the Energy Law).
2. Compare the readings with your own protokół and the photos from move-in.
3. In an ordinary najem, if the landlord raised the media payments, the landlord must give a written calculation and the reason (art. 9 sec. 2).
4. Put your objection in writing and attach the photos and the calculation.
5. If you and the landlord cannot agree on the figures, it becomes a dispute about money and the deposit: art. 6 sec. 4 governs the deposit in an ordinary najem (art. 19a sec. 5 in najem okazjonalny) and our article on the rental deposit covers it. We do not give opinions on such disputes, so talk to a lawyer.

How do we help?

allproperty finds flats for tenants. We take your brief (budget, district, rooms, move-in date) and show flats online, in detail on video: we check what you would ask, speak to the landlord directly and translate orally (this is not a sworn translation). Before you sign, we explain in your language what the payment in the lease is made of: czynsz, czynsz administracyjny, advances and media, and help you put the questions from the list above to the landlord. If we take you through to the keys, the meter readings are written into the protokół at handover. On internet: at the viewing we ask the landlord whether the flat is connected and in whose name the contract is. If there is no internet, we help you prepare the application to an operator in advance, so that the connection is timed for your move-in date. The operator names the connection date.

We do not give legal advice or opinions on deposit and settlement disputes, and the settlement is calculated by the building, not by us. What else it costs to keep a flat each month is covered in our article on the cost of running a flat.

The fee is 70% of one month’s rent (czynsz najmu), paid once after the umowa najmu is signed, invoiced as a faktura bez VAT. The base is the czynsz najmu line only: czynsz administracyjny, advances and utilities, which this article is about, are not part of it. Example: with a czynsz najmu of 3,500 zł the fee is 2,450 zł. What the search covers is set out in the agency agreement. Our agents speak Ukrainian, Russian, English, Polish, German, Italian, Spanish and Turkish.

We explain what your payment is made of before you sign: send a request with your move-in date, budget and number of rooms. 70% of one month’s rent (czynsz najmu, without czynsz administracyjny and utilities) after the umowa najmu is signed, faktura bez VAT. Phone: +48 666 866 468.

Sources

Checked on 7 October 2026.

• Tenant Protection Act (ustawa o ochronie praw lokatorów), consolidated text Dz.U. 2023 item 725: art. 2 sec. 1 pt 8 and 8a, art. 6 sec. 4, art. 6c, art. 6f, art. 8a, art. 9 sec. 1b, 2, 5 and 6, art. 19a sec. 4 and 5, art. 19e, art. 19j.
• Civil Code (Kodeks cywilny), consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 795: art. 685¹.
• Housing Ownership Act (ustawa o własności lokali), consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 232: art. 13, 14, 15 sec. 1, art. 29 sec. 1a.
• Housing Cooperatives Act (ustawa o spółdzielniach mieszkaniowych), consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 889: art. 4 sec. 1 to 2, 4, 6 to 6⁴, art. 6 sec. 1.
• Energy Law (Prawo energetyczne), consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 43: art. 45a sec. 2, 4, 4a, 9 to 11a, art. 45c.
• Regulation of the Minister of Climate and Environment of 7 December 2021, Dz.U. 2021 item 2273: § 9.
• URE, announcement of the 2026 electricity sales and distribution tariffs, 17 December 2025.
• City of Warsaw, waste charges, page updated 11 August 2026: 85 zł per household in a multi-unit building from 1 April 2026, after the temporary reduction to 60 zł.
• The MPWiK water and sewage tariff changes by period, so take the current rate from mpwik.com.pl and do not rely on figures in older articles.

Cover image: AI-generated illustration.