Proceedings for the compulsory portion are sometimes contentious. This in turn means that the parties to the proceedings for the compulsory portion often become entangled in a multi-year court dispute. When the estate also includes real estate, for the purposes of determining the so-called substrate of the compulsory portion, i.e. the active estate (assets minus liabilities), it becomes necessary to estimate the inherited real estate.
The document constituting the basis for determining the value of the real estate belonging to the estate is a valuation report. The valuation report of the inherited real estate determines its value according to the state at the time of opening the estate and according to prices at the time of determining the compulsory portion (in practice, at the time of issuing a ruling by the Court in the case for the compulsory portion). This document is prepared by an expert property valuer appointed to the case by the Court examining the case for the compulsory portion.
When a valuation report is prepared during the course of the case for the compulsory portion, it is generally valid for 12 months from its preparation. This period results from Article 156 sec. 3 of the Real Estate Management Act (hereinafter referred to as the „real estate management act”), which states: „The valuation report may be used for the purpose for which it was prepared for a period of 12 months from the date of its preparation.” This provision also indicates that the report may also become outdated before the expiry of this period in the event of significant changes in the factors described in art. 154 of the real estate management act. These include, among others: the purpose of the valuation, the type and location of the property, its intended use in the local plan, the condition of the property and available data on prices, income and features of similar properties (art. 154 sec. 1 of the real estate management act), or the actual manner of use of the property in the absence of a local plan and a decision on the conditions of development and land development (art. 154 sec. 3 of the real estate management act). A significant factor influencing the validity of the valuation report may also be a change in the legal conditions related to the property. The update is performed by the expert property valuer who prepared the valuation report and in accordance with art. 156 sec. 4 of the Land and Mortgage Register may also confirm the validity of the previous valuation report by placing an appropriate clause in the previous valuation report and attaching to the valuation report an analysis confirming that since the date of its preparation there have been no changes in the legal conditions or significant changes in the factors referred to in art. 154. Land and Mortgage Register. After confirming its validity, the valuation report may be used for the purpose for which it was prepared for the next 12 months, counting from the date of expiry of the previous report, unless there are changes in the legal conditions or significant changes in the factors referred to in art. 154. In court practice, however, the most common case affecting the validity of a valuation report will be the expiry of 12 months from the date of its preparation. Therefore, if during a long-term case for compulsory share, 12 months have passed since the last valuation of the property belonging to the estate, it is worth ensuring before closing the hearing that the Court orders an update of the valuation of this property, in particular if the inherited property is located in the area of the largest urban agglomerations in Poland, where in recent years there has been a dynamic increase in transaction prices of secondary properties – at the level of several to a dozen or so percent per year per 1 square meter. Each time, an increase in the value of the property belonging to the estate will have an impact on the increase in the active value of the estate, and consequently an increase in the amount of the claim for compulsory share pursued before the court. It is therefore worth ensuring that no more than 12 months have passed between the moment of the Court’s ruling and the moment of the last valuation of the inherited property, so that the court decision ending the proceedings in the case, specifying the amount of the compulsory share to be paid to the person entitled to the compulsory share, presents nominally the most advantageous amount of repayment for the compulsory share.