TENANT FIRST AID

Do you have a problem with your rental housing?

The Tenants’ Association (Sdružení nájemníků, SON) provides free legal aid. You can contact them by phone, at several advice centres to arrange a personal appointment or by email at info@son.cz if you need need help to deal with rental contracts, housing benefits, home repairs and more.

Czech consumers’ rights media group dTest now offers a tenants’ legal helpline — you can reach them via the phone on +420 299 149 009 or use their example lease agreements and letters to lessors.

Iuridicum Remedium also offers free advice to seniors.

It is important to know about the possibility of getting housing benefits. It should not be a stigmatising issue in any way: for many households, it is the only way of dealing with the consequences of the housing crisis in the current system. If your housing costs exceed 30% of your net income (35% in Prague), you are entitled to a housing allowance – see the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs website for a summary. You can also find out how to claim housing benefits in this advice.

If you have an urgent problem, you can also contact us and we will try to help you: ahoj@iniciativanajemniku.cz. 

The most common issues for tenants are rising rents and dealing with repairs in the flat.

For rising rents, the most common question is whether there are any legal limits on rent increases. Unfortunately, this is not the case with fixed-term contracts – after the end of the term, the landlord can increase it pretty much at will. (It is different with the now rare open-ended contracts, where growth is limited to a 20% increase once every three years.)

When it comes to repairs in the apartment, we recommend contacting the aforementioned SON. However, a basic overview of the landlord and tenant’s responsibility for repairs and maintenance is provided by the relatively short Government Regulation 308/2015. It is available online.