Financing renovation works on private monuments – letters of credit and bank guarantees in the service of monuments. Outline of issues

According to the law, the owner of a monument must take care of it properly. His duties include carrying out necessary repairs to the monument, including covering their costs (Articles 5 and 28 of the Act of 23rd July 2003 on the Protection of Monuments and the Guardianship of Monuments). This article will analyze the possibility of securing necessary funds for renovation in the event that a monument is sold by the local government to a private investor. Typically, the guarantor of a bilateral agreement is an independent third party. In commercial transactions, a bank is often used as a guarantor (as an independent institution). There are two particularly noteworthy options used by banks in this context: letters of credit and bank guarantees. These are solutions which have been tested and relied upon in trade. So why not make use of proven methods from trade and apply them to the protection of monuments? Although this would require the introduction of specific solutions via legal provisions, it is worth considering such changes, as they could protect monuments from destruction.