How to get your deposit back in Czechia

Your landlord must return your deposit (kauce, or jistota in the law) when the lease ends, with interest from the day you paid it, less only what you owe from the lease. The law sets no number of days to wait: the money is due when the lease ends. If it doesn't come, send a written demand, and if that fails, ask a court for a payment order, which can cost from 400 Kč in fees.

How much can a deposit be?

The deposit and any contractual penalties your lease sets can't add up to more than three times the monthly rent.¹ The cap counts the rent, not the advances for service charges, which the law treats separately from rent.² It has been three months' rent since February 2017, and penalties have counted inside it since July 2020.³

Move-in costs checks a deposit against the cap before you pay. Pay it by bank transfer, or get a signed receipt, so you can prove what you paid and when.

When is the deposit due back?

When the lease ends. The Civil Code says your landlord returns it "at the end of the lease" and sets no number of days.⁴ An appeal court in Prague treated the claim as falling due when the lease ended.⁵ The old Civil Code, in force until 2013, gave landlords a month; the current one doesn't.⁶

If the flat was sold while you lived there, the new owner took over your lease, and the landlord when the lease ends is the one who returns the deposit, even if someone else collected it.⁷

The service charges are settled later, often months after you leave. Some leases let the landlord keep part of the deposit until that settlement comes. We found no court ruling on whether such a clause holds. Without one, a shortfall that isn't known yet is an uncertain claim, and an uncertain claim can't be set off.⁸

What can your landlord keep?

Only what you owe from the lease, and only a claim that's certain and that they can show.⁴⁸ You hand the flat back in the state you took it in, apart from normal wear from normal use and defects that are your landlord's to fix.⁹

The flat counts as handed back when your landlord has the keys and nothing else stops them using it.⁹ A handover record, signed by both of you, with meter readings and dated photos of each room, is your best evidence of the state you left it in. If your landlord keeps part for a repair, the repair check shows whether the repair was yours to pay for at all.

How does the interest work?

The law gives you interest on the deposit from the day you paid it, "at least at the statutory rate".⁴ No regulation sets that rate, and courts and lawyers disagree about what it means:

• The usual rate on bank loans. The Municipal Court in Prague, an appeal court, applied the Civil Code's rule for interest that isn't set elsewhere: the usual rate banks charge for loans. It took the Czech National Bank's figures on loans to households at the time the lease was signed, as that rule says.⁵¹⁰
• At least the interest for late payment. The same court read "at least at the statutory rate" as a floor: a tenant is owed at least the statutory interest, which it put at over 8 % when the deposit was paid. That matches the interest for late payment (úrok z prodlení).⁵
• Which loans. Lawyers writing in 2026 say courts mostly take unsecured consumer loans as the nearest product, and argue that the law should point to savings rates instead. Others have argued for a risk-free rate.¹¹
• No interest at all. Lawyers say a lease clause that rules interest out has no effect, because it cuts a tenant's rights, and a district court has held the same for a sublease.¹² Whether a lower rate can be agreed is still open.¹¹
• No final word. In that Prague case, the Supreme Court threw out the landlord's appeal without looking at the interest: each claim, the deposit and a service-charge refund, was 50,000 Kč or less, too small to appeal. The Constitutional Court turned down his challenge to the rule twice, first as too early and then as too late. We found no other Supreme Court ruling on the rate.¹³

How do you ask for it?

1. Hand over properly. Fill in the handover record with your landlord on the day, and keep a copy with the photos.
2. Give your account in writing. Put your bank account, IBAN included if you're leaving Czechia, in the handover record or a short letter.
3. Wait for the end of the lease. The deposit is due then, with interest.
4. Send a demand if it doesn't come. Write to your landlord, name the amount, the interest and a date to pay by. Send it at least seven days before you go to court: without it you get no costs back even if you win, except in exceptional cases.¹⁴ End of lease dates the deposit and prints the request in Czech.

Send letters by registered post with a delivery note (doporučeně s dodejkou), or to a data box (datová schránka), and keep a copy. If your landlord has a list of deductions, ask for it in writing with the amounts and the evidence.

What if your landlord still doesn't pay?

You can claim it in court. For money, the usual route is a payment order (platební rozkaz): the court can issue it without a hearing, and your landlord then has 15 days to pay or to object. If they object, the order falls away and the court holds a hearing. It can't be issued if your landlord's whereabouts are unknown or the order would have to be served abroad.¹⁵

An electronic payment order is filed on the Ministry of Justice's online form, signed electronically. Since July 2024 there's no upper limit on the amount.¹⁵ Its fee is lower than for an ordinary claim:¹⁶

For a claim of 45,000 Kč, that's 2,250 Kč as an ordinary claim or 1,800 Kč as an electronic payment order. The fee is paid when you file, and a court that doesn't receive it stops the case after giving you time to pay.¹⁶ If you win in full, the court orders your landlord to pay your costs, the fee among them.¹⁷

• Which court: the district court (okresní soud) for where your landlord lives, or where a company has its seat.¹⁸
• Small claims: a judgment on a claim of up to 10,000 Kč can't usually be appealed.¹⁹
• If you can't afford it: a court can let you off the fee, in part as a rule and in full only exceptionally, and can appoint you a representative.²⁰
• Time limit: three years, which for a deposit runs from the end of the lease.²¹

Before you file, free advice is worth having: free legal help lists who gives it, and problems with your landlord walks through the steps in order.

Sources

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

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

3. Act 460/2016 Coll., art. I point 27, in force from 28 February 2017; Act 163/2020 Coll., art. I, in force from 1 July 2020. ↩

4. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2254(2). ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Municipal Court in Prague, judgment of 24 May 2022, 16 Co 107/2022-198, paragraphs 12 and 17. ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Lucie Čabanová, Právní úprava tzv. jistoty (dříve kauce) v nájemních vztazích a práv a povinností s ní souvisejících dle nového občanského zákoníku, epravo.cz, 5 March 2015, quoting §686a of the old Civil Code (Act 40/1964 Coll.). ↩

7. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2221(1); Supreme Court, 26 Cdo 652/2013, 29 May 2013, under the old Civil Code. ↩

8. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §1987(2). ↩ ↩²

9. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2292, §2293 and §2295. ↩ ↩²

10. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §1802. ↩

11. Christian Grym and Adam Karmin, Problematické otázky úročení jistoty, epravo.cz, 14 August 2026; Leoš Kudlík, K výši a úročení jistoty nájmu, iurium.cz, 14 April 2019. ↩ ↩²

12. Štěpánka Frimlová and Jakub Komzala, Úročení jistoty (kauce), kterou skládá podnájemce nájemci, II. díl, epravo.cz, 13 May 2026; Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §2235. ↩

13. Supreme Court, 26 Cdo 2891/2022, 22 November 2022; Constitutional Court, IV. ÚS 2254/22, 13 September 2022, and II. ÚS 282/23, 7 March 2023. ↩

14. Civil Procedure Code (Act 99/1963 Coll.), §142a. ↩

15. Civil Procedure Code (Act 99/1963 Coll.), §172, §174 and §174a; Act 180/2024 Coll., removing the limit; Ministry of Justice, ePodatelna. ↩ ↩²

16. Court Fees Act (Act 549/1991 Coll.), §4, §9 and tariff items 1 and 2. ↩ ↩²

17. Civil Procedure Code (Act 99/1963 Coll.), §142. ↩

18. Civil Procedure Code (Act 99/1963 Coll.), §84 and §85. ↩

19. Civil Procedure Code (Act 99/1963 Coll.), §202(2). ↩

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

21. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §619(1) and §629(1). ↩

22. Supreme Court, 5 Tdo 149/2018, 27 February 2018. ↩

23. Civil Code (Act 89/2012 Coll.), §1982(1) and §2251(1). ↩