Zum Inhalt springen

Letting a flat in Czechia, a guide for landlords

The Civil Code protects tenants, so a Czech lease is mostly about what the law already says. Here's what you can agree and what you can't, how the rent is taxed, and what changes when you let to a foreigner or for short stays.

Published 14 minute read

This article hasn't been translated into your language yet, so you're reading the English original.

Contents

Letting a flat in Czechia means signing a lease under the Civil Code, and the Code protects the tenant. A clause that cuts the tenant's rights under the Code doesn't count, even if they signed it.1 So most of your choices are about the rent, the term, the deposit and the tenant. This guide takes them in order, then the tax, and then letting to a foreigner and letting for short stays. It isn't legal or tax advice: if your situation is unusual, ask a lawyer or a tax adviser.

Before you let

  • The energy certificate. The same duties apply as when you sell. Ask the owners' association for the building's energy certificate (PENB), state the class in your ads, show the certificate to the tenant before signing and hand it over at signing.2
  • The building's administrator. Tell the administrator the name and address of the person you let the flat to, and how many people will live there. Tell them again when it changes.3
  • Your mortgage and your insurance. Read your loan contract for any rule on letting, and check that your home insurance covers a let flat.
  • The rent. Start with what similar flats nearby ask. The price check gives you a free estimate of the rent and the asking price, with the range and the flats behind it:
Try itPrice check: pick a place on the map, then describe the home.
Open the price check

Immobilie
Aufteilung
m²

Eine typische Größe für diese Aufteilung. Ändere sie auf deine.

0 ist das Erdgeschoss.

Karte. Klick, um die Immobilie zu platzieren; die ähnlichen Immobilien sind nummeriert.

Such eine Adresse oder klick auf die Karte, um die Immobilie zu platzieren.

Such eine Adresse oder klick auf die Karte, um die Immobilie zu platzieren.

Here's how asking rents for two-room flats in Prague have moved:

Find and check a tenant

You choose your tenant, but you can't turn someone away for a reason the law calls discrimination. Housing offered to the public falls under the Antidiscrimination Act.4 The protected grounds are race, ethnic origin, nationality (národnost), sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, belief and world view.5

What landlords usually check:

  • Identity. An ID card or a passport, and for a foreigner, the residence permit.
  • Income. Payslips, an employment contract or tax returns, set against the rent and the charges.
  • References. A previous landlord who'll confirm the rent was paid and the flat returned in order.
  • The insolvency register. It's public, and anyone can search it for a person's name.6

Keep only the documents you need, and only for as long as you need them. In the last three months of a lease with a known end date, your current tenant must let prospective tenants view the flat, with you both present, after you've given notice of the visit.7

Write the lease

A lease must be in writing. If it isn't, the tenant can still rely on it, and you can't claim it's invalid.8 The lease template fills in a Czech lease for you. The Czech lease, clause by clause explains each clause from the tenant's side, which is how a court will read it.

ClauseWhat the law allows
TermFixed or indefinite. If the lease names no end date, it's indefinite.9
RentPaid monthly in advance, by the 5th of the month unless you agree a later day.10
DepositUp to three months' rent, together with any penalties.11
Annual increaseYou can agree one, for example by inflation.12
HouseholdThe tenant may take anyone into the household and must tell you. You can make new members who aren't close family subject to your written consent.13
PetsAllowed if they don't cause the other residents a disproportionate nuisance.14
RepairsYou keep the flat fit to live in. The tenant pays for routine maintenance and small repairs.15

A clause that gives the tenant a plainly unreasonable duty doesn't count.16 The deposit is returned when the lease ends, after you've deducted what the tenant owes you from the lease. It carries interest at least at the statutory rate.11

Fixed term or indefinite?

A fixed-term lease ends on its date. Watch out for the renewal rule: if the tenant stays at least three months after that date and you don't ask them in writing to leave, the lease renews for the same term, and for at most two years.17 An indefinite lease can last for years, and you can end it only for one of the reasons below. Many landlords start with a year and renew.

Raise the rent

There are three ways to raise the rent, and the lease decides which ones you have:

  • An annual increase in the lease. You can agree that the rent rises every year, for example by the consumer price index.12 This is the simplest route, and the 20% cap below then doesn't apply.
  • A proposal up to the local rent. If the lease has no increase clause and doesn't rule increases out, you can propose in writing a rent up to the comparable rent usual in the area. The increase, with any others in the last three years, can't exceed 20%, and you can't propose it within 12 months of the last one. If the tenant agrees, they pay from the third month after your proposal reached them. If they don't agree in writing within two months, you have three more months to ask a court to set the rent.18 A government regulation sets how to show the comparable rent.19 The rent increase check works through the rules.
  • After improvements. If you make works that lastingly improve the flat or the building, or save energy or water, you can agree an increase of up to 10% of the costs a year. If the tenants of two-thirds of the flats agree, it binds them all. Without agreement, you can propose 3.5% of the costs a year.20

End a lease

Notice must be in writing and must reach the tenant. The notice period runs from the first day of the month after it arrives. As the landlord, you must tell the tenant that they can object and ask a court to review the notice, or the notice is invalid.21

ReasonWhich leasesNotice
The tenant grossly breaches the leaseFixed and indefinite3 months22
The tenant is convicted of an intentional crime against you, your household, other residents or property in the buildingFixed and indefinite3 months22
The flat must be vacated in the public interestFixed and indefinite3 months22
Another reason just as seriousFixed and indefinite3 months22
You need the flat for yourself, or for a spouse leaving the home in a divorceIndefinite only3 months23
You need it for a relative in the direct line, a sibling, or such a relative of your spouseIndefinite only3 months23
The tenant breaches the lease particularly seriously, such as 3 months' rent and charges unpaidFixed and indefiniteNone, after you've asked them to put it right24

State the reason in the notice.25 If you give notice because you need the flat yourself and don't use it for that within a month of the tenant leaving, you must let it to them again or pay their damages.26 The tenant has two months from receiving the notice to ask a court to review it.27 The end of lease check works out the dates.

When the lease ends, the tenant hands back the flat as they received it, apart from normal wear. If they don't hand it back, you're owed the agreed rent until they do.28 Since 1 January 2026, a court can order a former tenant who hasn't left to clear the flat without a hearing. You must first have asked them in writing to leave, at least 14 days before going to court, and no order can be issued while a court is reviewing the notice. The order gives them 15 days to leave or to object, and if they object, the case goes to a hearing.29

Tax on rent

Rent from letting a flat you own privately is income from letting (příjmy z nájmu).30 You pay tax on the rent minus your expenses, and you choose how to count the expenses:31

Actual expensesFlat-rate expenses
What you deductWhat you spent and can prove: depreciation, repairs, loan interest, property tax, insurance, the agent's fee30% of the rent, up to 600,000 Kč a year (2026)
RecordsRecords of income and expensesRecords of income only
DepreciationYes, the flat without its land, over 30 yearsNo: the flat rate covers everything

The flat rate covers all your expenses, so you can't add depreciation or interest on top. Once you've filed for a year, you can't go back and change the choice for it.31 With actual expenses, a flat is written off over 30 years: 1.4% of its price in the first year and 3.4% in each later year. The land under it can't be depreciated.32

The rate is 15%, and 23% on the part of your yearly income above 36 times the average wage: 1,762,812 Kč for 2026.33 If the flat is your joint marital property (společné jmění manželů), the rent is taxed with one of you.34 No social or health insurance is due on rent from an ordinary lease. Short stays are different: see below.35

File a tax return if your income subject to tax for the year, before expenses, is more than 50,000 Kč (2026). If you're an employee, you don't have to file only because of the rent when your income outside your job is 20,000 Kč or less (2026).36 The return is due 3 months after the year ends, 4 if you file online and 6 through a tax adviser.37 If you live abroad, rent from a Czech flat is still taxed in Czechia.38 Taxes for foreigners covers residence, and rental yields in Czechia shows what the tax does to your return.

Letting to a foreigner

If you let a flat for rent, the Foreigners Act treats you as an accommodation provider (ubytovatel), because a lease counts as accommodation.39 When your tenant isn't a Czech citizen, you have three duties:

  • Report the tenant to the police within 3 working days of their moving in, using the registration form the tenant fills in and signs with you, or the police's online form.40
  • Keep a house book (domovní kniha) with their details, from move-in to move-out. The signed forms count as one. Keep it for 6 years.41
  • Confirm their accommodation in writing if they ask, with their name, the address and how long they live there.42

A provider who doesn't report can be fined up to 50,000 Kč (2026).43 Your tenant usually also needs a confirmation of accommodation for a residence permit. The proof of accommodation page fills one in, in Czech, for you to sign. Registering your address explains the tenant's side.

Manage it yourself, or hire help

Managing a flat yourself means collecting the rent, settling the charges once a year, arranging repairs, and handling the handover at each end of the lease. The handover record helps there. If you'd rather not, there are two kinds of help:

  • An agent to find a tenant. Real estate brokerage covers leases too, so the agent's contract must be in writing and name the flat, the rent and the commission.44
  • A manager to run the flat. Managing property for others is a trade of its own, so ask to see the trade licence.45

Help from a professional

Get help letting your home

Bytky is choosing a few agents who find tenants, and managers who look after a let home for you. Leave your details and we'll write to you when one is ready.

We don't pass your details to anyone without asking you first, naming who it is.

Letting for short stays

The tenant's protection in the Civil Code doesn't apply to a flat let for a holiday or another clearly short-term purpose.46 Short stays bring other rules instead:

  • It's a business, not a lease. The tax office treats stays booked through online platforms as accommodation services, not as a lease. That income is taxed as business income, not as rent.47 As business income, it also makes you self-employed for social and health insurance.48 With a trade licence for accommodation services, the flat rate is 60% of the income, up to 1,200,000 Kč a year. Without the licence you need, it's 40%, up to 800,000 Kč (2026).49 You register with the tax office within 15 days of starting.47
  • A trade licence. Accommodation in flats and houses is a trade of its own (ubytovací služby), unlike an ordinary lease, which isn't a trade.50 Getting a trade licence explains how.
  • VAT. If your turnover passes 2,000,000 Kč in a calendar year, you become a VAT payer from the next year, or from the day after it passes 2,536,500 Kč (2026). Even below that, a foreign platform's commission makes you an identified person: you register and pay VAT on the commission.51
  • The stay fee. Where the town has introduced it by ordinance, you collect a stay fee (poplatek z pobytu) from guests for paid stays of up to 60 days in a row. It's up to 50 Kč (2026) for each day begun, not counting the day of arrival, at the rate the town sets. Notify the town office (ohlášení) unless its ordinance waives this. You keep a register of guests for 6 years.52
  • Foreign guests. You report them to the police within 3 working days, as for a foreign tenant.40
  • Property tax. The tax office says a flat offered for short stays is used for business, which carries a higher property tax rate.47

A national register of guests, eTurista, has been planned for years. As of 28 October 2026, no law requiring it is in force.53

If you're thinking about selling instead, selling a flat in Czechia covers the steps, and when the sale is tax-free.

How much deposit can a landlord ask for in Czechia?

Up to three months' rent, together with any penalties the lease sets. You return it when the lease ends, minus what the tenant owes you from the lease, with interest at least at the statutory rate.

Can I end a lease to sell the flat?

No. A sale isn't a reason to end a lease: the lease passes to the buyer. You can end it only for a reason the law names.

How often can I raise the rent?

As the lease says, if it has an annual increase clause. Without one, you can propose an increase up to the local comparable rent, at most 20% over three years and not within 12 months of the last one.

How is rent taxed in Czechia?

As income from letting. Deduct your actual expenses, or 30% of the rent up to 600,000 Kč a year (2026). The rate is 15%, and 23% above the higher threshold. For an ordinary lease, no social or health insurance is due on it.

Do I have to register my foreign tenant?

Yes. As a landlord you count as an accommodation provider. Report the tenant to the police within 3 working days of moving in, and confirm their accommodation in writing if they ask.

Is short-term letting legal in Czechia?

Yes, but it's treated as accommodation services, not a lease. That usually means a trade licence, business income tax and, where the town has one, a stay fee. Check your building's rules too.

Sources

  1. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2235(1). ↩

  2. Energy Management Act (Act 406/2000 Coll.), §7a(2)(f) and §7a(3). ↩

  3. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §1177. ↩

  4. Antidiscrimination Act (Act 198/2009 Coll.), §1(1)(j). ↩

  5. Antidiscrimination Act (Act 198/2009 Coll.), §2(3). ↩

  6. Insolvency Act (Act 182/2006 Coll.), §419(3); the register is at isir.justice.cz. ↩

  7. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2233(1). ↩

  8. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2237. ↩

  9. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2204(1). ↩

  10. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2251(1). ↩

  11. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2254. ↩ ↩2

  12. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2248 and §2249(1). ↩ ↩2

  13. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2272(1) and (2). ↩

  14. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2258. ↩

  15. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2257. ↩

  16. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2239(1). ↩

  17. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2285. ↩

  18. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2249(1) and (3). ↩

  19. Government Regulation 453/2013 Coll., on comparable rent, §3. ↩

  20. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2250. ↩

  21. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2286. ↩

  22. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2288(1). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  23. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2288(2). ↩ ↩2

  24. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2291. ↩

  25. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2288(3). ↩

  26. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2289. ↩

  27. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2290. ↩

  28. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2292, §2293 and §2295. ↩

  29. Civil Procedure Code (Act 99/1963 Coll.), §175a and §174(2), added by Act 176/2025 Coll., Article I(5), in force from 1 January 2026. ↩

  30. Income Tax Act (Act 586/1992 Coll.), §9(1)(a). ↩

  31. Income Tax Act (Act 586/1992 Coll.), §9(4) to (6), as in force in 2026. ↩ ↩2

  32. Income Tax Act (Act 586/1992 Coll.), §26(2), §30(1) and §31(1)(a), and annex 1, group 5. ↩

  33. Income Tax Act (Act 586/1992 Coll.), §16, and Government Regulation 365/2025 Coll.: an average wage of 48,967 Kč for 2026. ↩

  34. Income Tax Act (Act 586/1992 Coll.), §9(2). ↩

  35. Pension Insurance Act (Act 155/1995 Coll.), §9(3)(f). ↩

  36. Income Tax Act (Act 586/1992 Coll.), §38g(1) and (2). ↩

  37. Tax Code (Act 280/2009 Coll.), §136(1) and (2). ↩

  38. Income Tax Act (Act 586/1992 Coll.), §22(1)(e). ↩

  39. Foreigners Act (Act 326/1999 Coll.), §99. ↩

  40. Foreigners Act (Act 326/1999 Coll.), §100(c), §102 and §103(b). ↩ ↩2

  41. Foreigners Act (Act 326/1999 Coll.), §100(f) and §101. ↩

  42. Foreigners Act (Act 326/1999 Coll.), §100(e). ↩

  43. Foreigners Act (Act 326/1999 Coll.), §156(2) and (5)(a), and §157(4) and (8)(b). ↩

  44. Real Estate Brokerage Act (Act 39/2020 Coll.), §2(d), §9 and §10. ↩

  45. Government Regulation 278/2008 Coll., on the content of trades, annex 4, field 58. ↩

  46. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2235(2). ↩

  47. General Financial Directorate, information on the tax duties of providers of accommodation services, from 1 January 2023, ref. 10352/23/7100-30118-012884, parts 3 and 5. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  48. Pension Insurance Act (Act 155/1995 Coll.), §9(3)(b) and (f). ↩

  49. Income Tax Act (Act 586/1992 Coll.), §7(7)(b) and (d), as in force in 2026. ↩

  50. Trade Licensing Act (Act 455/1991 Coll.), §3(3)(ah), and Government Regulation 278/2008 Coll., annex 4, field 55. ↩

  51. VAT Act (Act 235/2004 Coll.), §6(1), §6(2)(b) and §6h, as in force in 2026. ↩

  52. Local Fees Act (Act 565/1990 Coll.), §1(b), §3a, §3c, §3d, §3f, §3g, §14(1) and §14a(1). ↩

  53. Act 159/1999 Coll., on business in tourism, whose latest version in force dates from 1 March 2021, and no other act in force on 28 October 2026, sets a duty to register guests in eTurista. ↩

Keep reading

Related articles

All articles

See what rent your flat could ask before you let it.

A free estimate of its rent and asking price, from similar homes listed nearby.

Get a free estimateFill in a lease