Subletting and flatmates in a Czech rental

Sharing a flat in Czechia can mean three different things in law: you all sign the lease as joint tenants, the others live in your household, or you sublet them a room (podnájem). Each comes with its own rules on what your landlord must know or agree to. This page sets them out, then what a subtenant should check and how a sublet works as your address for the foreign police. It isn't legal advice: free legal help lists who can look at your own case.

Who can live with you without asking?

Anyone. You can take into your household whoever you like, but tell your landlord without undue delay when the number of people living in the flat goes up. If you haven't told them within two months, the law presumes you've seriously broken your duty. Tell them when the number goes down, too.¹

A lease can require your landlord's consent before someone new joins your household, but not for a close person or another case that deserves special consideration, and consent for anyone else must be in writing.¹ Close persons include relatives in the direct line, brothers and sisters, a spouse and a registered partner, and people who live together permanently are presumed to be close persons.² Your landlord can also insist that only as many people live in the flat as suits its size, so that everyone can live there in usual comfort and hygiene.¹

When a tenant dies, a member of the household who lived in the flat can take over the lease: when the landlord sells or dies explains who and for how long.

Flatmates: on the lease, in your household, or subtenants?

Joint tenants. When several people sign a lease, each becomes a joint tenant, and so does someone who joins the lease later with everyone's agreement. You have the same rights and duties, and the rules on partnerships apply to you in a suitable way.³ Check whether your lease makes each of you answer for the whole rent, and when one of you moves out, agree in writing with your landlord and the others what happens to the lease and the deposit.

When can you sublet without asking?

When you live in the flat yourself and sublet part of it, such as a room. The rules on your household apply to it in a suitable way, so tell your landlord when your subtenant moves in.⁵ Because the Civil Code's rules on leases of a home protect the tenant, a clause that takes this right away is disregarded.⁷

You answer to your landlord for what your subtenant does in the flat, just as if you'd done it yourself.⁸

When do you need your landlord's consent, and how do you ask?

If you don't live in the flat yourself, you can sublet it, or any part of it, only with your landlord's consent. Both your request and the consent must be in writing. If your landlord doesn't answer within a month, consent counts as given, unless your lease bans subletting.⁶

• Say who and for how long: name the subtenant, the part of the flat and the dates, and keep a copy of your request with proof it was delivered.
• Keep the answer: a written consent, or proof that a month passed with no reply.
• Without a right to sublet, the sublet is a gross breach of your duties, and your landlord can give you three months' notice for it.⁹ Notice and eviction explains that notice and your right to ask a court to review it.

The lease template includes a clause on subletting that keeps to these rules.

What should a subtenant check?

• The main lease: ask to see it. Your sublet ends with it at the latest, so its end date and notice periods are yours too.⁴
• The landlord's consent, if your tenant doesn't live in the flat. Without it, your landlord can end your tenant's lease, and your sublet with it.⁹⁴
• A written sublease (podnájemní smlouva), with the rent, the deposit and the dates. You'll need it as proof of accommodation, too.
• When the lease ends, your tenant must tell you, with the facts that matter, such as the day it ends and any notice period and when it started.⁴

The Civil Code has no rules of its own for a sublease of a flat, so how far its protections for tenants also cover a subtenant is left to the courts. A number of district courts have applied them to subleases, for example to interest on the deposit.¹⁰

Can a sublet be your address for the foreign police?

Yes. For a residence permit, the Foreigners Act accepts as proof of accommodation a document showing your right to use the flat, or a written confirmation from the owner or from a lawful user of the flat (oprávněný uživatel), such as the tenant, with their signature officially verified.¹¹ The Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists a sublease among the documents that count, with no need to verify its signatures.¹² It's worth adding the main lease to a sublease, so it shows the tenant may let the flat to you. Proof of accommodation works out which document you need and who signs it.

If you sublet to a foreigner for payment, you're an accommodation provider (ubytovatel) in law: a sublease counts as accommodation, and a provider reports a foreign guest or tenant to the police within three working days of them moving in, unless you're close persons.¹³ Register your address explains both reports: yours as the provider, and your subtenant's own.

Sources

1. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2272 and §2273. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §22. ↩

3. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2270 and §2271. ↩ ↩²

4. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2277 and §2278. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2274. ↩ ↩²

6. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2275. ↩ ↩²

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

8. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2216. ↩

9. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2276 and §2288. ↩ ↩²

10. Štěpánka Frimlová and Jakub Komzala, "Úročení jistoty (kauce), kterou skládá podnájemce nájemci, II. díl", epravo.cz, 13 May 2026. ↩

11. Foreigners Act (Act 326/1999 Coll.), §31. ↩

12. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Doklad o zajištění ubytování". ↩

13. Foreigners Act (Act 326/1999 Coll.), §99, §100 and §102. ↩