A woman fell on the stairs of the building where she lives and suffered leg fractures. An emergency medical team was called and took the injured woman to hospital. As a result of the incident, the woman suffered serious damage to her health.

The injured person’s representative, Zbigniew Zawada, owner of Biuro Ronin, contacted the property manager, Towarzystwo Budownictwa Społecznego w Bolesławcu, regarding compensation. In his view, the stairs were improperly constructed and do not meet the applicable standards.

The injured woman’s representative also claims that the property manager (TBS w Bolesławcu), where the accident occurred, responded evasively to the correspondence sent to it (the claim), stating that a response would be provided after legally required authorisation was presented. This conduct surprises the injured woman’s representative, especially since TBS had recognised his authorisation in various matters for many years.

According to Zbigniew Zawada, even if the manager disputes the authorisation, it should respond in writing directly to the injured person. As the representative claims, the property manager’s conduct appears to show that it is avoiding focusing on the accident and its consequences.

Zbigniew Zawada on the accident:

On 16 July 2025, at around 3:30 p.m. in Bolesławiec, at the entrance to the stairwell at Opitza 4, a resident of the building, while entering the stairwell, tripped on stone stairs that had been improperly constructed and did not comply with the Polish standard. Her left leg twisted, and she fell onto the left side of her body.

At the time of the accident, family members were walking with the woman as witnesses. After the fall, her husband and son carried the claimant into the flat (they live on the ground floor) and called an ambulance. The ambulance crew took the injured woman from the flat to the hospital in Bolesławiec.

The injured woman suffered serious bodily injuries. The consequences included: complete inability to work for at least two months, the need for care from other people for one month, permanent damage to health, permanent partial dysfunction of the left leg, limping, moving around on crutches, and loss of part of her income due to sick leave,

What are the allegations?

  1. The poor technical condition of the stairs, preventing safe movement
  2. The manager’s years-long tolerance of the fact that the stairs on the access route at the entrance to the stairwell of the tenement building at Opitza 4 in Bolesławiec were constructed in breach of the Polish standard.

The Regulation of the Minister of Infrastructure of 12 April 2002 on the technical conditions to be met by buildings and their location (Journal of Laws No. 75, item 690):

  • the height of two of the stairs, the first and the last, is below the level required by the standard, i.e. they are lower than 15 cm.
  • the first stair has a significant defect causing the foot to slip.

In Poland, the height of stair railings is strictly regulated by the relevant building regulations. The standard safe height of a balustrade should be between 90 and 110 cm, measured from the surface of the steps to the upper edge of the handrail. This standard provides optimal protection against falls for most users. The stair railings at Opitza 4 are less than 90 cm high.

What does the property manager say?

We asked the property manager, Towarzystwo Budownictwa Społecznego w Bolesławcu, for comment on the matter.

Here is the response we received from the TBS secretariat:

In response to the “journalistic inquiry” of 26 August 2025, Towarzystwo Budownictwa Społecznego w Bolesławcu sp. z o.o. kindly informs that correspondence concerning individual matters is conducted with persons who present legally valid authorisation to represent the person on whose behalf the correspondence is conducted. In the situation described by you, the person presenting herself as a representative neither showed nor attached to the letter a document confirming the authorisation. Therefore, Towarzystwo Budownictwa Społecznego w Bolesławcu sp. z o.o. informed her of the need to submit the authorisation document, and after it is presented, the information will be provided to the representative.