Parcel · Poland, domestic parcel lockers and courier
InPost (Polska) claim deadlines, liability and evidence
InPost pays no more than the ordinary value of the lost or damaged goods on a courier parcel, and no more than twice the service fee for delay against a guaranteed delivery time. A complaint can be filed up to 12 months after posting, but concealed damage must be reported within 7 days of accepting the parcel or the claim expires.
Tightest deadline
At the moment of acceptance
Standard cap
Ordinary value of the goods; delay capped at 2x the fee
Liability regime
Mixed
InPost has two deadlines that do very different things, and confusing them is how claims die. The 12-month window in 15.3 is the outer limit for lodging a complaint at all. The 7-day window in 13.7 is the one that actually kills claims: accepting a parcel without noting a reservation extinguishes the claim for improper performance outright, and the only way back in is to find concealed damage and report it within 7 days of acceptance, with proof that it arose between hand-over and delivery. The generous-looking 12 months is irrelevant once that 7-day window has closed.
Claim windows
The regulamin covers a postal service (Usługa pocztowa, under Prawo pocztowe) and a transport service (Usługa przewozowa, under Prawo przewozowe) in one document. Section 14.1 sets the postal compensation itself; for the transport service it defers wholesale to Prawo przewozowe. Section numbering here follows the regulamin in force from 24 July 2025, which was rewritten in plain language and renumbered throughout.
Visible damage or shortage
At the moment of acceptance
Counted from delivery.
Reservations about the state of the parcel are described by the recipient at the moment of acceptance; section 13.7 then extinguishes the claim where a parcel is accepted without one.
Concealed damage or shortage (courier parcel)
7 days
Counted from acceptance of the parcel.
Section 13.7. The claimant must also prove the damage arose between InPost taking the parcel and delivering it. An electronic damage protocol is offered at inpost.pl/protokol.
Concealed damage or shortage (goods shipment)
7 days
Counted from acceptance of the goods shipment.
Within 7 days the recipient must demand that the condition be established, and prove the damage arose in carriage. The claim is preserved where damage was recorded before acceptance, where the omission was InPost’s fault, or on intent or gross negligence. The clause number for the goods shipment was not re-located in the 24 July 2025 rewrite and is deliberately not cited.
Lodging the complaint itself
12 months
Counted from the day of posting.
Section 15.3. This is the outer limit for filing, not a substitute for the 7-day notice above.
InPost replies to the complaint Carrier commitment
30 days
Counted from receipt of the complaint.
Section 18.1. The rule that a missed deadline means the complaint counts as upheld is no longer in the regulamin; any surviving basis for it is statutory rather than contractual, so it is not asserted here. Section 19.1 also pauses this clock: an incomplete complaint gets 14 days to be supplemented and that time does not count, and a complaint left unsupplemented is closed unexamined.
Appeal against a rejected complaint
14 days
Counted from delivery of the response.
Section 22.1. InPost then answers an appeal within 30 days (23.1).
Insured versus uninsured
No additional cover
Section 14.1(1): for loss, shortage or damage of a courier parcel that is not correspondence, no more than the ordinary value (zwykla wartosc) of the lost or damaged goods. There is no weight cap, which makes InPost materially more generous than the per-kilogram regimes elsewhere in this dataset, but it also means a claim is only worth what the contents can be evidenced to be worth.
With cover bought
The definition of Usługa pocztowa in section 1 expressly excludes shipments with a declared value within the meaning of Prawo pocztowe, so there is no declared-value tier on the postal service. What the 24 July 2025 regulamin does add is Dodatkowa ochrona, a paid add-on: section 14.1(4) pays loss of a parcel carrying it up to the amount in the additional-protection table.
Delay and late delivery
Section 14.1(3): no more than twice the fee for the main service, and only against a guaranteed delivery time. Section 13.5 separately treats delivery, or notice of an attempted delivery, later than 30 days from posting as non-performance rather than lateness.
Evidence required
- Proof of posting (potwierdzenie nadania)
- A copy of the damage protocol, or a statement of the shortage or damage made by the person accepting the parcel at the moment of acceptance
- A statement of concealed shortage or damage filed within the 7-day window, with the circumstances or evidence showing the conditions for compensation are met
- The packaging of the damaged parcel, if InPost asks for it
- A statement by the sender waiving the right to pursue claims, where the recipient is claiming
- Documents evidencing improper performance of the delivery, for inspection
Exclusions
- Items derived from crime
- Money, securities and other payment instruments
- Valuables such as jewellery, works of art, antiques and collectable coins
- Weapons requiring a permit or registration, and ammunition other than blank ammunition up to 6 mm
- Chemically and biologically active items, and explosive, flammable, oxidising, corrosive, sensitising, carcinogenic or mutagenic substances
- Narcotics, psychotropic substances and new psychoactive substances
- Cannabis and cannabis products, other than fibre hemp below 0.20% THC
- Perishable goods, and goods needing special transport conditions including anything emitting odour or liquid
- Live or dead animals and plants, human remains, organs, tissues and secretions
- Tobacco products including cigarettes and e-cigarettes and their parts
Filing the claim
- Who files
- The sender or the recipient. Where the recipient claims, the sender must supply a written waiver of its own right to pursue the claim (16.2(2)).
- How to file
- In writing or orally on the record at any InPost branch, or electronically to the Complaints Department. Electronic filings attach copies; InPost may then demand the originals and returns them on request.
- Processing time
- A complaint can be registered once the parcel has been delivered (for lateness or damage), or once 30 days have passed since the planned delivery date (for loss). InPost answers within 30 days (18.1) and pays after upholding the complaint (14.3).
What quietly kills InPost PL claims
Accepting the parcel without writing a reservation extinguishes the claim. The 12-month filing window is not a second chance: once the parcel is signed for clean, only concealed damage reported within 7 days keeps a claim alive.
The 7-day concealed-damage rule carries a burden of proof that the damage arose in transit. Unlike the German 7-day rule, which only shifts a presumption, section 13.7 makes proof a condition of the claim surviving at all.
Delay compensation is capped at twice the fee and only bites against a guaranteed delivery time, so ordinary lateness on a standard locker parcel is worth nothing.
The postal catalogue excludes declared-value shipments entirely, so there is no way to buy up the ceiling on the postal service the way Poczta Polska allows.
FAQ
How long do I have to claim from InPost in Poland?
A complaint can be lodged up to 12 months from the day of posting under section 15.3. But that only matters if the claim still exists: accepting the parcel without a reservation extinguishes it, and concealed damage has to be reported within 7 days of acceptance under section 13.7.
How much does InPost pay for a lost or damaged parcel?
Section 14.1(1) sets compensation at no more than the ordinary value of the lost or damaged goods for a courier parcel that is not correspondence. There is no per-kilogram cap, so the settlement is limited by what you can evidence the contents were worth rather than by the weight of the parcel.
What does InPost pay for a late parcel?
No more than twice the fee for the service, under section 14.1(3), and only where the delivery was late against a guaranteed delivery time. Standard locker delivery does not carry one.
Sources
- InPost Sp. z o.o., Regulamin swiadczenia uslug pocztowych i przewozowych, in force from 24 July 2025 (sections 13.5, 13.7, 14.1, 14.3, 15.3, 16.2, 18.1, 19.1, 22.1 and 23.1)
- InPost damage protocol form
Verified 1 September 2026. This page summarises publicly published conditions for reference. A negotiated carrier contract, a rate-card annex or a service-specific annex can override any of it. Always check the deadline in your own agreement before relying on a figure here. Spotted a figure that has changed? Tell us and we will correct it.
Compare with other Polish carriers
Never miss a InPost PL deadline again.
Dispatchly watches every parcel against InPost PL's windows, flags the ones about to expire, and files with the evidence they actually ask for. Flat monthly fee, and you keep 100% of what you recover.