76% of Poles have had problems with their renovation team. Here are 4 things to check before signing a fit-out contract in Warsaw – your recipe.
August 2026 brought figures that are hard to ignore. According to the report “Poles’ Experiences with Tradespeople. 2026 Edition” (UCE RESEARCH and the Fachurra.pl platform, a sample of 1,013 people), 76.1% of clients encountered at least one serious problem while working with a contractor on the finishing of their apartment. Fewer than a quarter – 23.9% – got through the whole process without any problems.
We don’t want to scare anyone. We won’t be telling you who to watch out for or who to avoid. Instead, in this article we will show you what actually makes a renovation run smoothly and what you should look out for before you start working with a fit-out company – because although the report talks about problems, what it really does is describe precisely what is missing from the market. And once you know what is missing, you also know what we, as professionals, should be giving our clients so that they have a positive experience of working with us. So let’s go through the most common flashpoints from the study and show what a job looks like when each of them is simply eliminated from the outset. Here is your ready-made recipe for a successful renovation in 4 steps:
What the data says – four areas where things most often go wrong
The report breaks the problems down into specific categories. They are worth knowing, because together they form a ready-made list of questions to ask any contractor before you sign a contract:
- Workmanship that needed correcting – 22.9%. The most common problem in the entire study. Almost one in four clients had to call someone in to put right the original team’s work.
- Significant delays – 22.7%. Almost as common. A renovation that was meant to take two months drags on for half a year.
- Costs higher than agreed – 19.8%. Almost one in five clients paid more than originally agreed. On top of that, 14.1% were charged fees that had not been agreed in advance.
- The contractor failed to turn up without warning – 15.9%. Surprisingly common – more common than work not carried out as agreed (11.8%) or work left unfinished (11.1%).
Then there are the rarer but more serious cases: refusal to issue an invoice (7.5%), lack of the claimed qualifications (7.3%) and taking a deposit without doing the work (7.1%). Rarer, yes – but across the whole market that still means hundreds of thousands of people.
It is also worth adding the wider financial context, as it explains why price predictability has become so important today. According to UCE RESEARCH data, the cost of specialist construction work – including finishing work – rose by 6.5% year on year in June 2026, while material prices, which went up by roughly a third in 2021–2022, remain high. In this climate, every “surprise” in the cost estimate hurts twice as much.
That this is not a problem highlighted by just one study is also clear from public data: for years, renovation and construction services have been among the most common subjects on which municipal and district consumer ombudsmen give advice – more than ten thousand consultations a year in this category alone.
Now let’s turn the list around: here is the recipe for a successful renovation in 4 steps
Each of the points above has its cause – and its solution. This is what a renovation looks like when these four areas are sorted out before anyone picks up a tool.
A price that is the price (not a starting point for renegotiation halfway through)
The most common financial surprise – a bill higher than agreed – usually stems from nobody specifying exactly what the price covers at the outset. We do the opposite. The price of labour is written into the contract and does not change – unless you change the scope of work. Materials are settled separately on the basis of purchase invoices, so you see the real cost, with no surprise mark-ups added along the way. You know where you stand before the team even sets foot on site.
A licensed site manager on every project – not just “on paper”
The report shows that 7.3% of clients ended up with someone who lacked the qualifications they claimed. With us, supervision is not just a claim. Every project is run by a licensed civil engineer who acts as site manager and coordinator. They are responsible for quality, the progress of the work and ongoing contact with you. For you, this means one thing: someone with real expertise and real accountability makes sure the job is done right the first time – rather than being put right by yet another team.
Communication that doesn’t break off halfway
A contractor disappearing without warning is one of the most common complaints in the study. For us, communication is part of the service, not an add-on. You know what is happening on site – you receive regular progress updates and an answer to every question. When we manage a fit-out remotely, for example for clients living abroad, communication is even more structured, as the whole process relies on ongoing contact by email and phone.
Accountability that doesn’t end with the final invoice
We give a 2-year guarantee on finishing work and provide an after-care service for any defects. We invoice every project – without that, there can be no question of a trustworthy working relationship. It’s a simple test worth applying to any contractor: if someone avoids a contract and an invoice, they are avoiding responsibility too.
What this means for you
The statistics in the report sound worrying, but they have one practical value: they show you exactly what to ask. Before you entrust anyone with your apartment, check four things – whether the price is written into the contract, whether supervision is carried out by someone who is licensed, what communication looks like during the work, and whether there is a guarantee and an invoice. These are the four questions that separate a renovation full of problems from one that simply goes well.
At Fitako, we have built our work around the answers to exactly these questions – not because the market can be difficult, but because that is simply how good work is done. We specialise in turnkey interior finishing and new-build apartment handover inspections in Warsaw and the surrounding area.
If your apartment handover date is approaching, or you are planning to have your apartment finished and would like to talk specifics, write to us at biuro@fitako.pl. The quote is free and the conversation comes with no obligation. We’d be happy to show you what a process looks like in which you know where you stand from day one.
Data taken from the report “Poles’ Experiences with Tradespeople. 2026 Edition, Part I” (UCE RESEARCH and Fachurra.pl, a sample of 1,013 people) and from UCE RESEARCH data on the cost of renovation and construction work, June 2026.
