An unprecedented auction. They lose their apartment because of the 2,000 złoty debt they owed.

The apartment inherited from her mother by 65-year-old Romana Pawlińska-Chmara from Niemodlin near Opole was auctioned off in October 2018. Romana claims she settled the debt that was the basis for the auction two months earlier. She paid it off in installments and has receipts .

"I receive a thank you for the payment and the information: please pay the next installments to a different account number; it's all in the documents. As of August 18, 2018, we're in the clear ," he says.

"The bailiff knew about the debt repayment"

The creditor who put a 74-square-meter apartment in Niemodlin up for auction is a doctor from Katowice. She mortgaged the apartment to Ms. Romana for PLN 1,953.50. When she repaid the debt, the creditor failed to notify the bailiff in Opole.

"A bailiff is not allowed to verify such payments; the bailiff is bound by the creditor's request . Only a court can verify these payments," explains Przemysław Małecki of the National Council of Bailiffs.

" The bailiff knew about my debt repayment ; I told him so verbally. Unfortunately, I wasn't forward-thinking enough to say I'd be sending you a letter soon, because according to the law, the creditor who receives the money must report it to the bailiff, " says Romana Pawlińska-Chmara.

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"If the creditor has already received the funds and yet continues to file applications for further stages of enforcement against the property, we can assume they were deliberately misleading the bailiff . If there were proof that the debt was actually repaid, the bailiff should have reported the crime to law enforcement. However, we don't have proof because the court hasn't yet ruled on the matter and hasn't verified whether the payments were made, " adds Przemysław Małecki of the National Council of Bailiffs.

"Intervention" attempted to contact the creditor at her company. An employee answered the phone and instructed us to send an email. We insisted on speaking with the creditor, but no one from the creditor contacted us.

Law enforcement agencies are helpless

For seven years, Ms. Romana has been trying to prove in court and prosecutors' offices that the debt that was the basis for the auction of her apartment had been repaid. She admits that the apartment was burdened with other debts incurred by her mother, but those enforcement proceedings were dismissed, and she repaid the debts in agreed-upon installments. The enforcement, initiated for less than two thousand zlotys, resulted in the auction and the loss of her family home.

"It's no pleasure for me to have to explain something I didn't commit. I was terrified, and I still am, by how it all unfolded, and by the letters and responses that kept coming in, all completely unrelated to the case," comments Henryk Chmara, Mrs. Romana's husband.

"Intervention" managed to meet Ms. Romana's creditor on her way to work, but she refused to answer our questions. Ms. Romana filed a criminal complaint. This proved fruitless.

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" She explains that she never thanked anyone (for paying off the debt installment - ed.), that she doesn't know her bank account numbers at this time, and that she hasn't submitted any letter to the bailiff requesting an auction. Her attorney did this, and he acts through the creditor; an attorney can't do it alone," says Ms. Romana.

- Both the prosecutor's office in the Opole region and the prosecutor's office in Katowice did not really want to take up the case, or they thought it was a trivial situation in which we actually had a debtor who had some debt, and everything was done in accordance with the majesty of the law - comments Paweł Mehl, the injured party's lawyer.

The apartment was auctioned off. Mrs. Romana can't come to terms with the fact that she paid the same debt twice . All the cases in the prosecutor's office have been dismissed .

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- It is true that we have confirmation of payments made to the creditor's number and this should already close the case, and in no case did anyone bother to confront the accusations with reality - notes Paweł Mehl, the injured party's lawyer.

"My nerves are frayed, and my health is in ruins. I grew up in this apartment, spent entire years there, and my heart is in these rooms," says Mrs. Ramona.

Video material available on the "Intervention" program website .