Who pays for repairs to my flat? The landlord, or I?

16 April 2026 Practical Tips Brno Expat Centre

Things break. Appliances give up. Pipes decide they’ve had enough. And whenever something goes wrong in your rented flat, the same question surfaces: is this on me, or on my landlord?

Understanding tenant repair costs in Czech Republic is one of the first things renters need to get right. The good news is that Czech law is actually quite clear on this — and it’s on your side more than you might expect.

150 CZK
per sq m · per year
(annual limit)

1 500 CZK
max per single
minor repair

≠ transport
travel costs always
paid by tenant

💡	If you take nothing else from this article — remember the yearly limit. For an 80 sq m flat, that’s 12,000 CZK/year. Once you hit it, your landlord takes over.

All minor repairs are your responsibility as a tenant — but only up to a point, literally. The law sets a yearly limit of 150 CZK per square metre of your flat. Your repair costs add up throughout the year, and once you cross that line, your landlord takes over.

Minor repairs means anything that doesn’t touch the structure of the building — no brickwork, no pipes inside the walls, no electrical wiring behind the plaster. Everything on the surface is yours to deal with.

So yes, you pay for the light bulbs. However, if you’ve bought a lot of bulbs that year, or had to repaint the kitchen on top of that, and your combined costs exceeded CZK 150 times your flat’s square metres, your landlord pays for the next one.

The same goes for the plumber you call about the sink, the electrician for the washing machine, or a paint job that can’t wait. Nevertheless, you only ever pay up to that yearly limit. For example, in an 80 sq m apartment, you should never pay more than 12,000 CZK a year for these kinds of repairs.

There’s also a cap on any single repair: 1,500 CZK. If one job costs more than that, the excess is your landlord’s problem — even if you haven’t hit your annual limit yet. And one more thing: transport costs (getting the tradesperson to your door) are always yours to cover, and they don’t count toward the annual limit.

The limit covers repairs caused by normal use and ordinary wear and tear — not, for instance, a flood from the flat upstairs. And if you break something on purpose, you pay in full, and that cost doesn’t count toward the limit either.

Three things worth doing from day one

First of all, keep every receipt and invoice. If a dispute ever comes up, these are your evidence.
Second, always tell your landlord before you call a tradesperson yourself. If you don’t, they can argue the repair was unnecessary — that they would have fixed it for less, or known someone who’d do it for free. Give them the chance to act first, and document it when they don’t.
Finally, read your contract and any attached terms carefully. Some landlords attach general terms and conditions that contain clauses stricter than the law allows. As a rule, any such clause is unenforceable — but it helps to know your rights before a dispute arises rather than during one.

What if your contract says something different?

Your contract might set different conditions for repair costs. However, that doesn’t automatically mean those conditions actually apply. It comes down to one key question — and a growing legal grey area worth knowing about.

Does the contract work in your favour, or the landlord’s?

Czech law recognises that tenants are usually the weaker party at the negotiating table, and therefore builds in some protection. Landlords and tenants can agree on different repair cost terms — but only if those terms are better for you than the standard rules.

For example: your landlord agrees to a limit of 100 CZK/sq m/year, which is less than the law requires from you. The law is fine with that — it’s in your favour.

On the other hand, if your landlord tries to slip in 300 CZK/sq m/year, the law steps in. As a result, you’d still only ever owe up to 150 CZK/sq m/year, no matter what the contract says.

⚠️

Do the new 2026 limits apply to your existing contract? It depends on how your contract is written. If it simply refers to the government regulation without specifying amounts, the new limits apply automatically. If it spells out specific figures, those figures are assessed the same way as above — anything less favourable to you than 150 CZK/sq m/year is unenforceable, and the legal limit applies instead. If in doubt, check with a housing advisor.

A word on general terms and conditions

Some landlords — particularly larger property companies — attach general terms and conditions (known in Czech as VOP) to their lease contracts. These documents sometimes contain clauses that would impose higher costs or fewer protections on tenants than the law allows.

Whether such terms are legally valid at all in residential leases is genuinely contested. There is a strong legal argument — supported by recent statements from the Ministries of Justice and Regional Development — that many so-called sublease contracts used by property companies should actually be treated as standard leases, meaning the same tenant protections apply. If that’s the case, any clause in the general terms that contradicts those protections would be void.

In practice, this is still a developing area. However, if your contract came with a thick set of attached terms and conditions, and some of those terms ask you to pay more than the law allows, it’s worth getting advice. The legal ground beneath those clauses may be shakier than your landlord thinks.

A real-life example

To illustrate how both limits work together in practice, consider the following scenario:

📋 Case study — 65 sq m flat, Brno

🏠	A tenant rents a 65 sq m flat. Their annual repair limit is 9,750 CZK (65 × 150). Each single repair is also capped at 1,500 CZK.
1	A kitchen tap starts dripping. The landlord says it’s the tenant’s problem. The tenant calls a plumber — invoice: 1,200 CZK. This is under the 1,500 CZK single-repair cap, so the tenant pays in full. Running total: 1,200 CZK.
2	Two months later, a socket in the living room stops working. An electrician charges 1,800 CZK. However, that exceeds the 1,500 CZK single-repair cap — so the tenant pays only 1,500 CZK and the landlord covers the remaining 300 CZK. Running total: 2,700 CZK.
3	In autumn, the bathroom extractor fan breaks. Repair costs 1,400 CZK — under the single-repair cap, so the tenant pays in full. Running total: 4,100 CZK.
4	Near year end, the boiler thermostat fails. The repair bill is exactly 1,500 CZK — right at the cap. The tenant’s running total reaches 5,600 CZK, still well under the 9,750 CZK annual limit, so the tenant pays. Running total: 5,600 CZK.
5	Then the landlord presents a wall repainting invoice for 6,000 CZK, pointing out that the tenant still has 4,150 CZK of remaining allowance in their annual limit. He argues the tenant should pay that much of the bill. Is he right?

The landlord’s logic sounds plausible — the tenant has spent 5,600 CZK so far, and the annual limit is 9,750 CZK, so there’s 4,150 CZK of remaining allowance. However, he’s forgetting about the second rule.

The 6,000 CZK repainting job is a single repair that far exceeds the 1,500 CZK per-repair cap. As a result, the tenant’s share of that bill is limited to 1,500 CZK — regardless of what’s left in the annual pot. The landlord must cover the other 4,500 CZK.

Dripping tap (plumber)	1,200 CZK
Broken socket — capped at 1,500 CZK (invoice: 1,800)	1,500 CZK
Extractor fan repair	1,400 CZK
Boiler thermostat	1,500 CZK
Wall repaint — capped at 1,500 CZK (invoice: 6,000)	1,500 CZK
Total tenant pays	7,100 CZK
Annual limit (65 sq m × 150)	9,750 CZK
Single-repair cap	1,500 CZK per repair

Result: Both limits apply independently. Even with annual allowance still available, the per-repair cap meant the landlord had to cover 4,500 CZK of the repainting bill. The tenant’s total for the year: 7,100 CZK — under the annual limit, but each individual repair kept in check by the 1,500 CZK cap.

The law behind it

The regulation that governs all of this is Government Regulation No. 308/2015 Coll. — updated in January 2026 for the first time in a decade. It covers both reactive repairs (when something breaks) and routine maintenance, like appliance revisions and window adjustments. As a general rule, you’re only responsible for damage you caused yourself. Additionally, you’re only liable for what actually qualifies as a “minor repair” under Czech law.

Importantly, the current limits are as follows:

Single minor repair cap	1,500 CZK
Annual limit per sq m	150 CZK/sq m
Transport costs	Always tenant’s — not counted toward limit
Future adjustments	Indexed to inflation

In summary, the annual limit covers all minor repairs combined — whether they appear on the official list or are simply assessed based on their cost.

Written in cooperation with Marek Viktor, from relp.cz, a real-estate consulting platform. Feel free to browse the website and contact Marek if you’re still unsure about your flat’s repair costs.

Picture courtesy of Canva.