Free legal help for tenants in Czechia

Free help with a housing problem in Czechia comes from three kinds of places. The housing contact points at the town halls advise anyone. Non-profits advise on leases and landlords, several of them only for foreigners. And if you need a lawyer and your income is low, the Czech Bar Association arranges one, paid for by the state. Everyone on this page is a public body or a non-profit, and we checked each on its own website on 28 October 2026.

Who should you contact for your problem?

What to do and in what order is in problems with your landlord. The rights you're asking about are in your rights as a tenant.

Where can anyone get free advice?

Housing contact points (kontaktní místa pro bydlení). Set up by a law in force since 1 January 2026, they now run at every municipal office with extended powers (obec s rozšířenou působností), and in Prague at the district offices of Praha 1 to Praha 22.¹² By law they advise anyone who asks: they look at your housing situation, suggest what to do next and help you find or keep a home.¹ Prague City Hall lists leases among the subjects, and tells you to go if you're at risk of losing your home or can't pay the rent or the service charges.² Advice is given in person, usually up to 60 minutes, and you can ask for a one-off anonymous consultation. The ministry's guidance says foreigners are advised too.³ Each town hall publishes its own hours.

Citizens' advice bureaux (občanské poradny). Free, independent and discreet, with housing among their subjects, at 98 places in Czechia. Some advise only by appointment, and the finder on their website lists the ones in Prague.⁴

The Czech tenants' association (Sdružení nájemníků ČR). A non-profit whose basic consultations are free. It checks leases, notices and settlements of the service charges, and advises on rent rises, deposits and defects. Consultations are usually booked and last 20 to 30 minutes, in person, by phone or by e-mail, though the e-mail service doesn't review contracts. Its main office is in Prague 1, with centres in other cities. Paid registration adds priority dates and written answers.⁵

Prague's district clinics. Several Prague districts run a free legal clinic, usually only for their own residents and in short sessions: Praha 9 and Praha 13, for example, ask for permanent residence in the district.⁶ Prague City Hall's clinic, staffed by Charles University law students, is for people living in Prague and states no such rule. It gives 15 minutes of free advice in term time, booked on 800 100 000, and doesn't draft documents.⁷

People in Need (Člověk v tísni). Its Prague branch gives free one-off advice on housing, debts and benefits to people in a hard social situation, on Mondays and Wednesdays without an appointment, for up to an hour. It doesn't draft legal documents.⁸

Where can foreigners get free help?

Don't expect anyone to take your case to court: ICP says it doesn't help with court cases, and InBáze doesn't act for clients under a power of attorney.⁹¹² Bookings fill up: InBáze warns the wait can be longer than a week.¹²

How do you get a lawyer for little or nothing?

A short consultation through the Czech Bar Association. If your household's average monthly income over the last six months is no more than three times the living minimum, the Bar names a lawyer for a consultation of at least 30 minutes, up to 120 minutes a calendar year. You pay a 100 Kč fee, which some people don't pay, such as people getting the state social assistance benefit with a living component, and the state pays the lawyer.¹⁵ The living minimum for one person is 5,500 Kč a month since 1 October 2026.¹⁶

You apply on a Czech form to the Bar's branch in Brno, by post, through a data box or by e-mail with a qualified electronic signature. The Bar writes to you with the lawyer's details, and you contact them. It's advice only, with no representation or drafting, and the form's question about the languages you speak isn't a promise of a lawyer who speaks yours.¹⁷

A lawyer for a whole case. If your income and assets justify it, the Bar can name a lawyer for free. You usually have to show that two lawyers turned you down first, and the application costs nothing.¹⁵¹⁷

In court. A court can let you off the fees, in part as a rule and in full only exceptionally, and appoint you a representative, a lawyer if your case needs one.¹⁸ In a discrimination case, if the Public Defender of Rights finds discrimination and advises you to go to court, it can arrange a lawyer who works for free.¹⁹

Which authorities can step in?

The Public Defender of Rights (veřejný ochránce práv) handles discrimination, in housing too, and helps its victims. It doesn't decide ordinary disputes with a landlord.²⁰¹⁹ You can complain online at portal.ochrance.cz, by e-mail to podatelna@ochrance.cz, by post to Údolní 39, 602 00 Brno, or in person in Brno, and it answers within 30 days. Its information line is 542 542 888 on weekdays.²¹

The police take calls on 158, free and around the clock, and text messages too. You can report a crime at any police station, which must accept it; ask to be told the outcome, and the police must tell you within 30 days.²²

The building office (stavební úřad) can order an owner to repair or secure a building that's a danger to health or safety. Anyone can report a defect, though no one has a right to an inspection: ask to be told within 30 days what the office did with your report. In Prague it's the building office of your district.²³

The trade licensing office (živnostenský úřad) checks how an estate agent holds clients' money in escrow (úschova).²⁴ The Czech Trade Inspection Authority (ČOI) helps you and a business you paid for goods or a service, such as an estate agency, reach an agreement out of court, for free, in Czech, Slovak or English, if you apply within a year of first complaining to the business. It can't decide the dispute, and leases aren't covered.²⁵ The Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ) helps only if you have your own contract with an energy supplier. It doesn't deal with how a building's costs are split between flats.²⁶

Sources

1. Housing Support Act (Act 175/2025 Coll.), §10(1)(e), §11 and §12(1). ↩ ↩²

2. Prague City Hall, housing contact points for people in housing need, 2 September 2026. ↩ ↩²

3. Ministry for Regional Development, advice given by a housing contact point, 14 November 2025. ↩

4. Asociace občanských poraden, home page, about us and find a bureau. ↩

5. Sdružení nájemníků ČR, home page, contacts and registration. ↩

6. Praha 9, free legal clinic; Praha 13, legal help centre. ↩

7. Prague City Hall, student legal clinic. ↩

8. Člověk v tísni, social work in Prague. ↩

9. Integrační centrum Praha, legal advice and interpreting. ↩ ↩²

10. Centra na podporu integrace cizinců, services for clients. ↩

11. Poradna pro integraci, legal advice. ↩

12. InBáze, social counselling. ↩ ↩² ↩³

13. Centrum pro integraci cizinců, social counselling and who it's for. ↩

14. Organizace pro pomoc uprchlíkům, legal help and social help. ↩

15. Advocacy Act (Act 85/1996 Coll.), §18a, §18c and §23. ↩ ↩²

16. Living and Subsistence Minimum Act (Act 110/2006 Coll.), §2, as amended by Act 152/2025 Coll. ↩

17. Czech Bar Association, guide to having a lawyer named, 13 October 2025, linked from legal help. ↩ ↩²

18. Civil Procedure Code (Act 99/1963 Coll.), §30 and §138. ↩

19. Public Defender of Rights, leaflet on equal treatment, January 2026. ↩ ↩²

20. Public Defender of Rights Act (Act 349/1999 Coll.), §1a(1)(f) and §21d; Public Defender of Rights, discrimination and leaflet on the ombudsman, July 2025. ↩

21. Public Defender of Rights, how to complain and contacts. ↩

22. Police of the Czech Republic, emergency line 158 and reporting a crime. ↩

23. Building Act (Act 283/2021 Coll.), §295; Ministry for Regional Development, building inspection methodology, October 2025; Prague City Hall, the new Building Act. ↩

24. Ministry for Regional Development, who checks estate agents. ↩

25. Czech Trade Inspection Authority, out-of-court dispute resolution and its questions and answers. ↩

26. Energy Regulatory Office, a problem with your supplier. ↩