How much cash do I need to move in?

To move into a rented flat in Czechia you usually pay, before you get the keys, the first month's rent with the advances for services, a deposit, and an agency's fee if an agency found you the flat. The deposit alone can be up to three months' rent, so the cash on the day is often several times what you'll pay each month after. The calculator adds it up for a flat, checks the deposit against the legal limit and shows what comes back when you move out.

How to use the calculator

Start from a listing or by hand. A rental on Bytky opens the calculator with its rent, charges and deposit filled in. Where the listing doesn't state a deposit, the calculator assumes one and says so: ask the landlord.

By hand, fill in two parts:

1. Each month. The rent for the flat itself, and the charges: the advances for the building's services, plus any utilities the landlord bills you for.
2. On the day. The deposit (the buttons set it in months of rent), the agency's fee if there is one, and what moving and setting up will cost you. Leave the last one at nothing if you'd rather not count it.

Reading the result

"What you need" leads with two figures:

• Cash on the day is everything you pay before you move in: the deposit, the first month's rent and charges, the agency fee and the move.
• Then each month is the rent and the charges you'll pay from the second month on.

Under them, each part is listed with its amount. A line below says how much of the cash comes back when the lease ends: the deposit, with interest, less anything you owe. If the deposit is over the legal limit, the calculator says by how much.

A worked example

A flat lets for 20,000 Kč a month, with 4,000 Kč of advances for services. The landlord asks for two months' rent as a deposit, and the flat came through an agency that asks 20,000 Kč for its service.

• The deposit. Two months' rent: 40,000 Kč. The limit is three months' rent, 60,000 Kč, so it's within the law. The charges don't count towards the limit.
• The first month. 24,000 Kč of rent and advances, paid in advance.
• The agency fee. 20,000 Kč.

That's 84,000 Kč on the day, and 24,000 Kč a month after. Of the 84,000 Kč, the 40,000 Kč deposit comes back when you move out, with interest, unless you owe the landlord something. If the landlord had asked for 70,000 Kč, the calculator would flag the 10,000 Kč above the limit: that part isn't owed.

What a flat costs each month depends a lot on where it is. This is the median rent with the charges for two-room flats in Prague, with the middle half of asking rents as a band:

The rules behind it

The deposit. The Civil Code lets a landlord ask for a deposit (kauce) that, together with any contractual penalties for breaching the lease, is at most three times the monthly rent.¹ When the lease ends, the landlord returns it with interest, at least at the statutory rate, and may set off what you owe from the lease, such as unpaid rent or the cost of damage beyond normal wear.²

The rent and the advances. The rent is paid in advance for each month. The advances for services are paid with it and settled once a year against the building's real costs, so you get a refund or pay the difference.³ The service charges tool checks a settlement and the deadlines it has to meet.

The agency fee. A landlord may ask for the rent, the advances for services and the deposit. An agency fee is separate: it's owed only if you agreed to the agency's services, and the agreement is between you and the agency.

Mistakes people make

• Paying a deposit above the limit. Anything over three months' rent, penalties included, isn't owed. Point the landlord to §2254 of the Civil Code.
• Moving in without a handover record. A record of the flat's state and the meter readings, signed on the day, is what gets the deposit back at the end. The handover record prints one in Czech with a translation.
• Forgetting the energy contracts. If the electricity or gas is in your name, the supplier may ask for its own deposit, and the first advance comes due soon after.
• Reading the advances as the final cost. They're settled once a year. A cold winter or a low advance can mean an extra bill.
• Leaving no buffer. Moving costs more than the van: a bed, a fridge if the flat has none, curtains, a router.

What to do next

Check what rent your salary affords with salary to rent, and read what renting in Prague costs and how a Czech lease works. When the time comes to move out, end of lease works out the notice and when the deposit is due back.

Sources

1. Civil Code (89/2012 Coll.) §2254(1). ↩

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

3. Civil Code (89/2012 Coll.) §2251 and Act 67/2013 Coll. on services connected with the use of flats. ↩