Czech utility transfer after buying: meters and contracts

The cadastre shows you as owner and the keys are changing hands, but electricity and gas still belong to the seller’s contracts. The owners’ association invoices water and heat, while internet follows another provider. A line saying “utilities transferred” does not coordinate these systems. Build one handover record and a separate confirmed action for every account.

First separate what is actually being transferred

• Individual electricity and gas: normally separate supplier contracts for named customers and identified supply points.
• Water, central heat and common electricity in an apartment building: commonly services managed and reconciled through the SVJ or building manager, not supplier contracts transferred to the buyer.
• Internet, television, alarm or charging service: independent contracts that may require termination, a new installation or provider consent.
• Solar generation, feed-in, energy-community participation or a special tariff: separate rights, technical settings and contracts; do not assume the purchase agreement moves them automatically.
• Insurance: the seller’s policy and the buyer’s required cover follow their own contracts and risk date, not the meter process.

Write one row per service: account holder, provider, identifier, meter, closing evidence, requested date, submission owner and confirmation. This prevents the broker’s generic “everything is arranged” from hiding an unassigned task.

Put cooperation into the sale timeline before handover

The purchase contract or closing schedule should say when physical handover occurs, who supplies recent invoices and forms, who records readings, which party submits each request and how a consumption gap is settled. Link it to price release and possession without pretending the cadastral office transfers operating contracts. Use the purchase-contract, escrow and registration guide to keep those milestones consistent.

• Obtain the latest bill early for EAN/EIC, meter and correct supplier route—not to audit the seller’s private lifestyle.
• Check whether a tenant, not the seller, is the current named customer.
• Agree access to every meter, including locked cabinets, cellars and remotely read devices.
• Ask the provider which ownership or occupancy evidence and signatures it requires.
• Do not make the buyer sign an unknown energy product as a condition of receiving keys.

At handover, make the readings independently usable

Record the property, parties, exact possession date and time, commodity, meter serial number, every displayed register, unit and reading. For dual-tariff electricity, capture both registers. Photograph the whole meter so its identifier, reading and condition are legible; include the surrounding installation where it helps identify the location. Both parties sign and immediately receive the same copy.

• Electricity: meter number, high/low tariff or all registers, kWh and seals or visible damage.
• Gas: meter number, m³ reading, decimal placement and visible seal.
• Water: separate hot and cold meters, serial numbers, m³ and room or riser location.
• Heat allocators or building readings where locally used, clearly distinguished from direct supplier meters.
• Any inaccessible, unreadable, replaced or remotely read meter noted rather than guessed.

Four dates may differ

• Cadastral legal effect: determines ownership under the property transaction.
• Physical handover: possession, keys and the best practical meter-reading moment.
• Seller contract end: agreed with or notified to the supplier under the outgoing contract.
• Buyer contract start: the effective supply date stated in the new contract.

ERÚ warns that the protocol date and supplier-contract end normally need not match. Put the new contract’s desired start date in writing and confirm the date actually accepted. If the buyer receives keys on Monday but their contract starts Thursday, the parties need evidence and a written allocation for the intervening consumption.

Seller and buyer each need proof of completion

• Seller: agree termination or use the applicable route after loss of ownership or use, submit the final reading, give a future address and keep the final bill.
• Buyer: conclude the new contract, verify supply point and start date, submit the same opening reading, set advances and retain acceptance.
• Both: send or ensure the reading reaches the supplier or distributor within the ERÚ-recommended five working days.
• Broker or lawyer: may coordinate only the assigned task; both customers should still obtain confirmations in their own names.

Do not share online-account passwords or let someone impersonate the named customer. A power of attorney should name the provider, supply point and permitted actions; it should not quietly authorise an unrelated supplier switch or long fixed contract.

Transfer of customer and change of supplier are different

The buyer can usually establish continuity with the existing supplier and compare products afterward, or arrange a different supplier with enough lead time. ERÚ states that a standard supplier change takes at least ten working days. Read the proposed price, fixed or indefinite term, automatic renewal, advance, standing charge, termination and any intermediary authority before signing.

The seller’s fixed-term contract does not automatically become the buyer’s bargain or penalty. The seller must resolve their own end right and consequences with the supplier; the buyer must know exactly which new contract they accept. Continuity is not consent to an undisclosed product.

Avoid a supply point with no customer

Coordinate both contracts early enough that the point does not sit between customers while energy continues to be used. Continued consumption without the correct contractual arrangement can become unauthorised consumption. ERÚ notes a narrow supplier-change rule: consumption for fewer than ten working days without a registered balancing-responsible supplier is not treated as unauthorised and is billed by the future supplier. Do not assume every customer-transfer gap falls within that rule. If dates stop matching, contact the supplier immediately and preserve its instructions instead of backdating forms.

If the seller or previous customer does not cooperate

Do not invent a signature. Ask the supplier for its non-cooperation route and exact evidence. Depending on the provider and facts, it may request the buyer’s identity, purchase or handover document, current title evidence, meter photograph and a declaration. Verify ownership in the public Czech cadastral viewer, but submit only the personal data the provider legitimately requires.

SVJ services need a different handover

For an apartment, notify the SVJ or manager of the ownership change, contact and payment details, number of occupants where relevant, handover readings and the date from which advances should be prescribed. Obtain the new advance schedule and bank account independently rather than continuing a standing order to details copied from the seller.

Agree how the seller and buyer will divide a later annual service statement. The SVJ’s statutory accounting period and customer records may not split automatically on the handover day. Preserve advances and readings from both sides. A debt confirmation and the risk of qualifying building-management debts are separate purchase-due-diligence questions covered by the Czech apartment buying checklist.

Buying an occupied or rented property changes the question

Do not transfer a supply point away from a tenant merely because title changed. Establish who is the current contractual customer, whether the tenancy continues, which services the landlord supplies and what the sale documents say about deposits, advances and annual reconciliation. Ownership transfer does not itself terminate the tenant’s energy contract or lease.

Audit the first month and the final bill

• Seller checks the final billing period, closing reading, advances, refund or balance and payment account.
• Buyer checks that the identical reading opens the new account and that the accepted start date is correct.
• Buyer compares new advances with expected use rather than inheriting an unexplained amount.
• Both preserve the protocol, photographs, submissions, confirmations and invoices until every balance is settled.

ERÚ says the outgoing supplier must issue a final bill within 15 days after receiving consumption data from the distributor; in practice it often arrives roughly one to two months after supply ends. If the final and opening readings diverge, dispute the data promptly and use the signed evidence to settle any consumption between parties.

Common purchase-handover failures

• Only total readings are written down, without meter serial numbers, units or photos.
• The protocol says “transferred” but no supplier accepted either request.
• The broker holds the only copy of forms and neither customer has confirmation.
• Water and heat are sent to an energy supplier although they are SVJ services.
• The buyer changes supplier immediately and creates a timing gap or signs a poor fixed product.
• A separately rented unit, photovoltaic contract, charging point or internet line is silently assumed to follow ownership.
• The buyer waits for cadastral registration before doing any preparation, although physical handover is imminent.

Keep the completed utility ledger beside the post-purchase Czech property-tax calendar so operational and statutory closing tasks each have an owner, date and proof.