The Cost of Maintaining a Fire Station Transferred to the Volunteer Fire Department by the Local Municipality on a Loan Basis

Abstract

Cel: The aim of the article is to answer the question whether the municipality or the volunteer fire department bears the normal maintenance costs of the property transferred by the municipality to the volunteer fire department through a lending agreement for the fire station. The purpose formulated in such a manner assumes that the building transferred to the volunteer fire department is the property of the municipality. This is the situation in most municipalities in Poland. Volunteer fire departments owning a fire station are a rarity in Poland. Related to the main problem are specific problems, such as the situation of TSO properties in Poland, the cost of maintaining lending real estate, the cost of maintaining volunteer fire departments, and taxation of volunteer fire departments’ properties. Projekt i metody: The study uses traditional scientific methods within the legal science such as the dogmatic-legal method, the hermeneutic method, and the argumentative method. Wyniki: The municipality bears the usual costs of maintaining the properties transferred to the TSO by the municipality through a free lending agreement for the needs of a fire station. This is due to the article 713 of the Civil Code, which is relatively binding and can be excluded from application through contractual arrangements between the municipality and the TSO. In such a case, ordinary maintenance costs in the form of expenses and expenditures necessary to maintain a fire station in a condition as it was before the conclusion of the agreement, i.e. mainly the costs of maintenance, minor repairs and renovations, the costs related to the use of the premises will be borne by the municipality. Concluding an agreement for lending the fire station by the municipality and TSO also removes the obligation to pay the real estate tax (fire station) by the volunteer fire department. The results of the article allow to sort out the relationship between municipalities and volunteer fire departments in Poland in the area of concluding agreements on lending fire stations, which in many municipalities have remained neglected and improperly formed for many years, as indicated, among others, in the report of the Supreme Chamber of Control in 2019 on the financing of volunteer fire departments. Wnioski: Postulate de lege ferenda can be made, that in order to avoid interpretation disputes related to the interpretation of article 713 of the Civil Code, it would be reasonable to amend the provisions of the Act on Volunteer Fire Departments. It would be worth including a provision that when a municipality lends property to a TSO for a fire station, all maintenance costs, including ordinary costs, are borne by the municipality and article 713 of the Civil Code does not apply in this case. Słowa kluczowe: volunteer fire department, fire protection, municipal government, public finance, maintenance costs of the fire station, lending of the fire station