The proposals

According to (ANB), the legislative changes to lease conditions presented on Monday by representatives of the Ministry of Regional Development (MMR) and the Ministry of Justice are not balanced. According to the latter, the proposal should serve to straighten out the relationship between landlords and tenants in flats and houses.

In particular, it should not be possible to enter into a lease for a term of less than three years more than twice in a row, in addition, the landlord would be able to increase the rent by 3.5 percent after renovation, and the process of evicting debtors would be interrupted and resolved in an abbreviated court procedure. According to the association, the proposal disadvantages landlords and will have no real impact on the issue of eviction of defaulters.

ANB’s thinking

ANB, the Association of Rental Housing stated in a press release: ‘The current provision will cause more difficulties when terminating a lease due to unpaid rent. Eviction of non-payers is very complicated, expensive for both parties, and, above all, very time-consuming. Consequently, it leads to the fact that, mainly, short-term leases are concluded due to landlords’ concerns about the difficult eviction of non-payers. The possible amendment to the Civil Code would change the repeated issuing of contracts for one or two years. According to their proposal, it would be possible for a new contract to be concluded between tenant and landlord for a duration of less than three years on no more than two consecutive occasions. However, according to the ANB, this restriction will mainly affect families in a crisis situation, and in general, socially weaker tenants.

“In the case of the second extension, where the contract should be for at least three years, the landlord will carefully examine whether the current tenant is potentially risky, including his previous behavior. If he is risky, an extension will not be offered,’ the association said. In addition, according to the association, landlords currently circumvent the impossibility of terminating contracts for a longer period with annual fixed-term contracts. Last November, the ANB drew up a proposal according to which it would be possible to terminate open-ended contracts without giving any reasons, whereby the tenant would then have a twelve-month notice period to find new accommodation.

MMR’s position

According to the MMR, the court should decide on the eviction of the property in a summary proceeding where the tenant will have to vacate the flat or house within 15 days of the delivery of the order and pay the costs of the proceeding or appeal the ruling. In this regard, the ANB argues that this will not speed up the process with non-payers. Referring to data from the Ministry of Justice, the association stated that 40 percent of similar proposals to issue an order for payment lead to an actual reduction in court proceedings. According to the association, a special administrative body or an arbitration court should decide on the eviction.

Turning to the renovation factor, the MMR argues that the increase in rents linked to house reconstruction could motivate flat and house owners to reduce the energy consumption of their homes. The ANB therefore does not consider the proposal to be of any practical use, since according to the current wording of the law, the landlord can increase the rent once a year, but by a maximum of 10 percent, following renovation. Now, the draft MMR is in the preparatory stage and the authorities will continue to discuss it, ANB spokesman Tomáš Carba said that the association can officially comment on the proposal until 22 October.

Source: https://www.ceskenoviny.cz/

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