Who pays rental repairs in Czechia in 2026?

A broken tap, lock, boiler, radiator or window can generate an invoice before anyone identifies the legal category. In 2026, many search results still repeat the old CZK 1,000 and CZK 100/m² figures—or incorrectly apply CZK 1,500 to every repair. Use the current regulation in the correct order, preserve an itemised record and agree who orders the work before an avoidable payment dispute begins.

Route the problem before calling a contractor

• Active leak, gas smell, sparks, fire or no safe heating: protect people, limit further damage, notify immediately and preserve the emergency record.
• Landlord-owned item stops working through age or a hidden defect: document the cause before accepting a minor-repair label.
• Routine cleaning, checking or upkeep: identify the exact act; do not confuse a service visit with repair or complete replacement.
• Tenant, child, visitor, pet or tenant-owned appliance caused the event: analyse damage responsibility separately from the regulatory limits.
• Common riser, facade, roof, central heating or another building element: notify the landlord even if an SVJ or building manager must organise the work.
• Landlord says “order it and I will repay you”: agree scope, budget, invoice recipient, warranty and reimbursement date in writing first where time allows.

Start with five questions, not the invoice total

• Is this routine maintenance normally performed while using the apartment?
• Is the item expressly listed as a minor repair in section 4 of Government Regulation 308/2015?
• If not listed, does one repair stay within the CZK 1,500 price test?
• Has the calendar-year total of minor repairs already crossed the floor-area cap?
• Did a tenant, household member, visitor or animal cause damage beyond ordinary wear?

Also confirm that the repaired equipment belongs to the landlord and forms part of the apartment. A tenant’s own appliance is not converted into a landlord obligation merely because it is used in the home. A service supplied through the building may follow a different contract and notification route.

Bucket 1: routine maintenance has no per-repair price test

The regulation defines routine maintenance as cleaning and upkeep normally done while using the apartment. Examples include painting, plaster touch-ups, wallpapering, cleaning floors and wall coverings, clearing waste pipes up to the vertical stack, keeping apartment equipment functional, and prescribed checks or cleaning of certain appliances and safety devices.

“Painting is always the tenant’s bill” is still too broad. Cause, timing, condition at handover, ordinary wear and an underlying leak or construction defect matter. Cleaning mold caused by ordinary use is not the same as repairing a roof, thermal bridge or failed heating system. At the end of the lease, use the move-out painting and deposit evidence guide.

Bucket 2: item-listed minor repairs are classified by the item

Section 4 contains a detailed list. These repairs do not become price-based merely because the invoice exceeds CZK 1,500; the annual cap still applies. Read the exact current list rather than relying on a portal summary. It includes, among other things:

• Parts of floors and floor coverings, thresholds and strips.
• Individual door and window parts, fittings, handles, locks and certain internal blinds or shutters.
• Terminal electrical equipment such as switches, sockets, circuit breakers, bells and listed control units.
• Certain gas and water shut-off fittings, excluding the apartment’s main shut-offs, plus siphons and grease traps.
• Specified apartment meters, smoke or fire detectors and room-temperature controls.
• Taps, showers, sinks, toilets, flush mechanisms, ovens, cookers, kitchen units and fitted cupboards.
• Specified local stoves, boilers, flues, valves and thermostats—but not radiators or central-heating distribution pipes.

Read the verb as carefully as the object. Section 4 expressly permits complete replacement for some things, such as locks, specified valves and siphons. For the group containing taps, sinks, toilets, water heaters, cookers, kitchen units and boilers, it lists repairs and replacement of small components—not automatic replacement of every complete item at any price. An unlisted complete replacement must be tested under Section 5 rather than smuggled into the item list.

The list also contains technical exceptions. Record the exact object, failed part, diagnosis and intervention. “Heating repair” is not precise enough to decide whether the issue is a local boiler control, a radiator, the building distribution system, full boiler replacement or tenant-caused breakage.

Bucket 3: other repairs use the CZK 1,500 test

If the repair is not in the item list, it is a minor repair by price only where the cost of one repair does not exceed CZK 1,500. Several repairs to the same object that are related and follow one another in time are added together. Splitting one intervention into several invoices does not create several limits.

• Ask for labour and material for the repair to be identified together.
• Link repeat visits and follow-up parts where they concern the same connected fault.
• Keep diagnosis separate from an unrelated repair on another object.
• Do not include transport in the CZK 1,500 test; the regulation says transport is paid by the tenant.
• If the connected repair exceeds CZK 1,500 and is not item-listed, do not invent a split where the tenant pays the first CZK 1,500.

Bucket 4: calculate the annual cap from the regulatory floor area

From 2026, the calendar-year cap is CZK 150 multiplied by the apartment’s regulatory floor area. It includes the apartment and spaces used exclusively with it, even outside the apartment. Cellars that are not rooms, balconies, loggias and terraces count at one half of their area. Use this defined area, not automatically the marketing area from a listing.

The wording does not say to reimburse all earlier minor repairs after the cap is reached. Track invoices chronologically and do not silently use a pro-rata formula for the repair that crosses the line. If allocation of the crossing invoice is disputed, preserve the figures and get advice on the actual facts.

Bucket 5: landlord repairs and tenant-caused damage remain separate

Civil Code section 2257 places the general duty to keep the apartment and building fit for use on the landlord, while the tenant performs and pays routine maintenance and minor repairs. A non-listed repair over the price limit, further repair after the annual cap, structural or building-system defect, main shut-off, central-heating radiator or distribution-pipe repair will ordinarily point away from the minor-repair category. Classification still depends on the actual work and cause.

The limits do not protect a tenant from responsibility for damage they caused. A cracked sink from an impact, unauthorised alteration or ignored leak can create a separate damage claim even if the corresponding repair is expensive. Conversely, age, ordinary wear or an underlying landlord defect is not converted into tenant-caused damage by calling it “minor.” If the landlord says the resulting project requires you to leave, switch to the renovation and temporary-vacancy guide before agreeing dates or costs.

Before ordering work, build a six-line repair record

• Defect, object, location, discovery date and current safety risk.
• Dated photographs, video, meter or temperature readings and previous reports.
• Likely category: maintenance, item list, price test, landlord defect or caused damage.
• Itemised estimate separating labour, material, transport and unrelated work.
• Calendar-year minor-repair total before this invoice and the floor-area calculation.
• Who authorises, orders, receives the invoice, pays first and owns any warranty claim.

Send the record to the landlord before commissioning non-urgent work. Ask for a written answer and reasonable access plan. Do not let the contractor’s need for a quick payer become an accidental agreement about final legal responsibility.

Notice is what unlocks the tenant’s remedies

Sections 2264–2266 distinguish urgent and other housing defects. A defect that must be removed without delay is reported immediately; another defect that obstructs ordinary living is reported without undue delay. The tenant must take reasonable steps within their ability to prevent additional loss. Use a written notice even after a phone call: identify the defect, impact, first discovery, safety measures, evidence, access windows and the response requested.

The landlord must remove a notified landlord-responsibility defect within a reasonable time. If it is not removed properly and without undue delay, Section 2265 can support the tenant arranging the work and claiming justified costs, or a rent reduction where the defect is substantial. Late notice can destroy the cost claim and, after self-repair, the discount claim. Do not simply deduct a contractor invoice from the next rent without a documented legal basis and calculation.

For an unremedied defect not caused by the tenant, Section 2266 allows termination without notice only after an additional deadline and only where the defect or landlord’s delay amounts to a gross breach. “The landlord did not answer today” is not a universal immediate exit. Record the additional deadline, severity, living impact and alternative steps, and obtain Czech advice before ending the lease or withholding money.

Access and the invoice are separate decisions

A landlord may need the owner, building manager, insurer or specialist contractor to diagnose the cause. The tenant should offer necessary access on documented reasonable dates; an emergency can justify entry without advance notice where delay threatens damage. Access does not admit that the tenant pays, and paying the first invoice does not necessarily decide final responsibility.

• Name who selects and instructs the contractor and who may approve extra work.
• State whose name and address appear on the invoice and who receives the warranty.
• Separate diagnosis, repair, complete replacement, transport and damage to other property.
• If the tenant advances a landlord cost, state the approved ceiling, bank details and reimbursement date.
• If an SVJ or manager is involved, keep the landlord copied; the tenant should not be left to guess which owner-side body carries the task.

For an emergency, prevent damage first and preserve the chain

If water, gas, electricity, fire or another immediate danger is involved, protect people, contact the relevant emergency service or utility and take reasonable steps to prevent further damage. Notify the landlord immediately. Record why waiting was unsafe, whom you called, the state before intervention, the work performed and every invoice or replaced part.

Emergency necessity does not automatically decide who ultimately pays. It explains why action could not wait. For an active leak or flood, use the water-damage, evidence and insurance guide. Follow the full defect reporting and landlord-remedy guide for serious mold, heating or habitability problems. For an infestation, use the bedbug identification, building-treatment and cost guide instead of treating pest control as an ordinary minor repair.

Challenge a repair charge with classification and evidence

Do not answer only “that is the landlord’s job.” Ask for the invoice, exact item, work description, ownership, date, cause, transport split, repair-category basis, annual ledger and floor area. State which element you accept and which you dispute. Preserve the handover report and earlier defect notifications.

A contract can give the tenant better terms, but do not assume a label that shifts every repair to the tenant overrides protective apartment-lease rules. Have a clause that materially expands liability reviewed. At move-out, the deposit is security, not permission to deduct an unexplained repair estimate; use the deposit deduction and written-demand checklist.

Ten fast examples

• Blocked sink before the vertical stack: typically routine maintenance, unless a deeper defect or unusual cause changes the facts.
• Repair of a tap or flush mechanism: item-listed; complete replacement of the whole item requires separate classification.
• Door handle or apartment lock: item-listed; still count the repair toward the annual cap.
• Repair to a radiator or central-heating pipe: expressly excluded from the listed local-heating category.
• Unlisted repair costing CZK 1,400: price-based minor repair if the connected total stays within the threshold.
• Same fault billed CZK 900 then CZK 800: add related, sequential repairs; do not treat them as two separate limits.
• CZK 1,400 repair plus CZK 400 transport: transport is outside the price test and the regulation places it on the tenant.
• Another minor repair after the annual total has exceeded the cap: it is no longer a minor repair under section 6.
• Window leak caused by facade or installation failure: diagnose the building defect rather than assuming a handle-and-fitting repair.
• Damage caused by an unauthorised change: analyse the separate damage obligation, not only the minor-repair limits.

Seven myths to avoid

• “Everything under CZK 1,500 is the tenant’s.” Start with the legal category, ownership and cause.
• “Everything over CZK 1,500 is the landlord’s.” Item-listed repairs use the list, not the price test.
• “The tenant pays the first CZK 1,500 of a larger repair.” The regulation defines the category; it does not create that deductible.
• “Transport counts toward the limits.” It is excluded and separately assigned to the tenant.
• “The annual cap covers painting and all maintenance.” Section 6 counts minor repairs, not routine maintenance.
• “The listing’s square metres are enough.” Use the regulation’s floor-area definition.
• “The 2025 limits still apply.” CZK 1,500 and CZK 150/m² have applied since 1 January 2026.