Czech rental agency commission: pay or recover in 2026?

The advert says “commission: one month’s rent + VAT,” even though the landlord appears to have hired the agency. Do not decide from custom or the advert label. The useful questions are who contracted for brokerage, which document makes you the payer, what event earns the commission, and what happens to money sent before the lease is concluded.

Start at the point you have reached

• Only an advert or viewing: no market convention alone makes you a debtor; obtain the proposed brokerage and reservation terms.
• Asked to reserve before seeing the lease: require the final lease draft, landlord approval route, exact refund events and payment destination.
• Signed online or away from the office: preserve how and when the service contract was concluded and check the separate consumer withdrawal rules.
• Paid and the landlord chose someone else: identify who promised exclusivity, whether the landlord was bound and which clause governs that failure.
• Paid and the final lease changed: compare the unit, rent, services, term, deposit, occupants and material clauses with what was reserved.
• Lease signed, tenancy later failed: determine whether commission was already earned; handle later lease breach, handover and deposit claims separately.
• Agency refuses a refund: classify the contract and payment, make a documented demand, then choose negotiation, consumer ADR or court review.

Who pays: follow the contract, not the custom

A landlord may hire an agency and pay it. An applicant may separately hire an agent to find a home and agree to pay. In some transactions the agency has arrangements on both sides. “The tenant normally pays” does not identify your legal obligation. Ask for the exact document and clause under which the agency says you owe it.

The Brokerage Act requires the agency to tell its client about the amount or calculation of commission agreed with a third party for the same property. That disclosure matters when the agency is being paid on both sides and helps you understand whom it represents and what service you are buying.

Verify the exact business, company number and an active bound “Real estate brokerage” trade in the public Trade Licensing Register. MMR confirms that a business without that active trade cannot perform real-estate brokerage. Registration does not prove the person contacting you works for the genuine firm; confirm the employee, listing and payment account through an independently found company channel.

The written agreement needs three core numbers

A brokerage agreement must be written. It must identify the property or right to be used, the rent or other consideration—or how it will be calculated—and the commission or calculation method. If these required elements are missing, the Act gives the applicant the right to raise invalidity; do not rely on a vague invoice or payment instruction as a substitute for reviewing the agreement.

• Apartment address and enough detail to identify the actual unit and accessories.
• Base rent and whether the advertised figure excludes services and energy.
• Commission base, rate or fixed amount, VAT treatment, and final payable total.
• Included work: viewing, verification, negotiation, documents, handover, or another stated service.
• The event that earns commission, payment date, recipient, and invoice or receipt.

When may the agency demand commission?

The default statutory rule is that commission is payable no earlier than the day the real-estate contract—the lease here—is concluded. An earlier payment date is possible only if the brokerage agreement expressly warns that payment is not tied to concluding the lease or satisfying its condition. Even then, it cannot be due before the agency has procured the opportunity to conclude it.

If a consumer is asked only for an advance on commission, the Act caps that advance at two-thirds of the agreed commission. Do not let an invoice call the full commission an “advance” and end the analysis. Read the maturity clause, the statutory warning, and what the agency has actually procured.

A reservation fee is not automatically commission

The same transfer may be described as a reservation fee, an advance on commission, security, a contractual payment, or an amount later credited to rent or the deposit. The label does not decide ownership of the money. Trace the amount through every document and ask where it goes when the lease is signed.

A brokerage agreement cannot require a consumer applicant to conclude the lease or a future lease. That protection does not automatically answer whether every reservation payment must be returned after any withdrawal: the wording, legal character, services performed, withdrawal rights, and reason the deal failed still matter. Do not accept “non-refundable in every case” without review.

Insist on one payment map showing the holder and final destination. Does the reservation become commission, reduce first rent, transfer to the landlord as deposit, remain in a client account, or return? Who may release or set it off? A clause between you and the agency cannot by itself prove that the landlord reserved the apartment or accepted the proposed lease.

What should the agency provide before you commit?

For an applicant acquiring the right to use the home, the Act requires a recent extract from the public register no older than three working days when the brokerage agreement is concluded. If the agency fails to provide it, the Act gives the applicant a 14-day withdrawal route. Independently compare the owner and unit in the public Czech cadastre.

The agency must also disclose concrete defects and restrictions visible from public registers and those it knew or should professionally have known. Failure to provide required information on time can create a statutory right to withdraw from the brokerage agreement. Preserve exactly what was delivered and when.

Calculate the real move-in cost

If the lease never happens, build a failure map

• Landlord chose someone else or withdrew: identify the reservation promise and the agency’s authority to make it.
• Agency supplied false or incomplete information: preserve the advert, documents, messages, and missing statutory disclosures.
• Apartment or terms changed: compare the reserved unit, rent, services, term, and final draft line by line.
• You chose not to proceed: identify the exact reason, cancellation or withdrawal route, services already performed, and agreed consequence.
• Lease was signed but later ended: commission already earned is not automatically refundable because the tenancy later failed.

State the amount, payment date, contractual label, failure event, clause relied upon, and requested refund in writing. Set a reasonable response date and attach only the evidence needed. For a material disputed amount, consumer withdrawal, or conflicting documents, have a Czech lawyer or consumer adviser review the full set before accepting a deduction or signing a settlement.

If the agency or owner already refuses to return the money, use the rental-reservation refund and demand guide to trace the holder, classify the failed event and calculate the claim.

If you signed online, by phone or away from the office

A consumer service agreement concluded at a distance or away from business premises can carry a separate 14-day withdrawal right under the Civil Code. It is not a universal cancellation button for every office-signed reservation. If the consumer expressly requested performance during the withdrawal period, a proportionate price for work actually supplied may be due. Once the service is fully performed, the right can be lost only under the required express consent, request and information conditions.

Check the contracting channel, timestamp, withdrawal information, model form, express request to begin, acknowledgement of consequences and what was actually performed. The ČOI service-withdrawal guidance explains these conditions and the extension that may apply when required information was omitted. Do not confuse this route with the Brokerage Act’s separate 14-day withdrawal for failure to provide the recent register extract.

Escalate the payment—not the whole story

• Send a chronological demand identifying the contract, payment, holder, failed event, legal route and exact amount requested.
• Attach the advert, complete signed documents, payment proof, lease drafts and decisive messages—not unrelated identity or banking material.
• Ask for the invoice, accounting of the payment, evidence of the claimed earned event and the clause relied upon.
• Keep the landlord, agency and any separate recipient as separate addressees unless the documents establish shared responsibility.

If you are a consumer and direct resolution fails, the ČOI ADR process may help seek settlement with the agency. You must show that you first asserted the claim against the business and generally file within one year of that first assertion. ADR seeks agreement; it does not issue a binding judgment. A regulatory complaint and a demand for repayment are also different acts.

Warning signs before payment

• The agency refuses to provide the complete brokerage and reservation terms before payment.
• The property, owner, agency, invoice, and bank-account names do not form one explainable chain.
• The full fee is called an advance despite the consumer two-thirds limit.
• The fee is due early but the agreement lacks the required warning and earned-event definition.
• VAT, included services, dual commission, or refund events remain “to be agreed later.”
• Urgency replaces verification of the apartment, authority, final lease, or payment recipient.

If identity, ownership, authority, or the account itself is suspicious, stop the legal fee analysis and use the Czech rental scam and reservation-payment checklist. A valid commission clause cannot make a fake listing real.

Before signing the lease

Commission is only one entry cost. Check the landlord, unit, full monthly total, deposit, duration, exit, repairs, access, energy, and handover in the Czech lease agreement checklist before allowing a reservation deadline to choose the contract for you.