A practical guide for owners of buy-to-let flats, owners’ associations (SVJ) and commercial landlords: what management should include, how to check a company in the public registers and what to ask before you sign. The guide is published by Bohemian Estates, which offers property management and guaranteed rent itself, so every criterion here applies to us too.
Published 09/10/26, 9:00 am · Bohemian Estates editorial team
In the Czech Republic, “property management” (správa nemovitostí) covers three services that have little in common apart from the name. The owner of a single flat needs someone who finds a reliable tenant and makes sure the rent arrives. The board of an owners’ association (SVJ) needs bookkeeping, service charge statements and technical management of the whole building. The owner of an office building or a warehouse deals with building systems, supplier contracts and the service levels promised to business tenants. A company that does one of these well may know little about the others.
| Type of management | For whom | Main tasks | First question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat management or guaranteed rent | Owners of one or several buy-to-let flats | Tenants, rent, contracts, service charges, minor repairs and handovers | Who carries the risk if the tenant does not pay or the flat stands empty? |
| Building management for an SVJ | An owners’ association and its board | Accounts, owners’ contributions, service charge statements, inspections, suppliers and owners’ meetings | Is the association’s money in its own bank account, and what exactly does the fee include? |
| Commercial property and facility management | Owners of offices, retail units or warehouses | Building operation, cleaning and security, business leases and reporting | What response times are guaranteed, and who is liable for subcontractors? |
Ask for experience and references with the same type of property as yours. The chapters below cover all three situations. Letting a flat gets the most space, because that is where most owners make their decision and where offers differ the most.
Letting a flat is not a one-off task. It means setting the rent, advertising, viewings, screening applicants, the lease, a handover report, transferring utilities, checking payments, the annual service charge statement, dealing with the owners’ association, minor repairs and emergencies, and the whole cycle again every time a tenant moves out. When everything runs smoothly, it takes a few hours a month. When a tenant stops paying or a washing machine hose bursts at night, it takes days.
A manager usually pays for itself when:
It may not pay off if you live nearby, have the time, a long-standing reliable tenant and a flat in good technical condition. You would then be paying mainly for peace of mind you already have. Decide by how many hours a year letting really takes you, what that time is worth to you and how large a gap in rent you can absorb.
Most of the paperwork is in Czech: leases, utility contracts, meter readings, letters from the owners’ association and, if it ever comes to that, court documents. A manager who works in your language and can act for you under a power of attorney saves trips and misunderstandings. Keep the power of attorney limited to what the manager actually needs, and make sure you receive copies of everything signed in your name.
Offers for letting a flat fall into two models. They differ in who carries the risk, and that drives the price, the contract and how much control over the letting you keep.
With classic management you remain the landlord. You sign the lease, or the manager signs it in your name under a power of attorney. The manager finds the tenant, prepares the documents, checks payments and handles the running of the flat. The fee is usually a percentage of the rent collected, sometimes a fixed monthly amount.
If the flat stands empty or the tenant does not pay, the money is missing from your account. When the fee is a share of the rent collected, the manager loses income too, which gives them a reason to act quickly. Ask exactly what happens when a payment is late: when the first reminder goes out, when they recommend giving notice, who instructs a lawyer and who pays the court costs. Ask also how they make sure the tenant does not sublet the flat without your consent, for example to tourists. Under § 2276 of the Czech Civil Code, subletting without the required consent is presumed to be a particularly serious breach of the tenant’s obligations.
With guaranteed rent, the company becomes your tenant. It rents the flat from you for an agreed amount and sublets it to the people who live there. UK readers may know the model as rent-to-rent or a guaranteed rent scheme. Because the company does not live in the flat itself, it needs your consent to sublet (§ 2275 of the Civil Code), and that consent is usually written into the contract. A sublease ends together with the lease (§ 2277), so when your contract with the company ends, the sublease ends too.
You receive the agreed amount whether or not the subtenant has paid, to the extent the contract guarantees it. Before signing, ask three questions:
The word “guarantee” on its own says nothing. Separate three different risks and get it in writing from when, how much and with what exceptions each one is covered:
Ask also about the start of the contract, before the first subtenant is found, about periods when repairs you ordered are under way, and about how the market rent the guarantee is based on is set. If the rent is adjusted to the market during the contract, it should be clear who proposes a change and how you can respond to it.
A good choice of tenant saves more money than any guarantee. Ask what exactly the manager checks: identity, income or an employer’s confirmation, references from previous landlords, records in debtor registers and the insolvency register, and possibly a criminal record certificate that the applicant provides.
Screening has to comply with data protection rules (GDPR). The manager should process only the information needed for the decision and tell applicants what is checked and why. Some debtor registers can only be searched with the consent of the person concerned. With classic management, agree in advance whether you or the manager has the final say on the tenant.
The manager is handling your property, so you should be able to see what is happening to it. Expect a regular statement of payments, an annual summary of income and costs for your tax return, copies of contracts and handover reports, and condition reports with photos. Ask for a sample report before you sign. It tells you more about how the company works than any brochure.
Take a flat with a market rent of CZK 20,000 a month and two different years. In the weaker year the flat stands empty for one month and the tenant fails to pay for another. In the better year all twelve months are paid. We compare three models: classic management at 10% of the rent collected, a non-payment guarantee at 11% with nothing paid for the empty month, and a full guarantee at 17%.
| Model | Weaker year | Better year |
|---|---|---|
| Classic management, 10% of rent collected | 180,000 | 216,000 |
| Non-payment guarantee, 11%, nothing for the empty month | 195,800 | 213,600 |
| Full guarantee, 17% | 199,200 | 199,200 |
The full guarantee comes out CZK 19,200 ahead of classic management in the weaker year and CZK 16,800 behind in the better year. It works much like insurance: you pay for a steady income. It suits owners who are repaying a mortgage, cannot risk a gap in income or own a flat in an area where tenants take longer to find. Owners who can absorb fluctuations usually do better over time with classic management or a narrower guarantee. The 11% and 17% rates match the Yield and Comfort variants in our price list; the 10% rate is illustrative.
For each item, get it in writing whether it is included, charged extra or left to you.
You can find most of the important facts free of charge in a few minutes in the Czech public registers. All you need is the company’s exact name or its company ID number (IČO), which it must show on its website and in the contract. The registers are mostly in Czech, but company names, ID numbers and dates are easy to read.
ARES confirms that the company exists, where it is registered and since when. The public register shows who owns and runs it and how often the management has changed. Look at the Collection of Deeds (Sbírka listin) as well: companies are required to file their financial statements there. They show whether the company makes a profit and how much equity it has. Missing statements for several years are a warning sign, especially with guaranteed rent, because the company owes you money every month.
Check the company’s trade licences in the Trade Licensing Register. Property management itself is a “free” trade with no qualification requirement, listed as “Nákup, prodej, správa a údržba nemovitostí” (purchase, sale, management and maintenance of real estate). A company that finds tenants or buyers for you under a real estate brokerage contract needs the regulated trade “Realitní zprostředkování” (real estate brokerage), which requires proof of professional qualification.
A real estate broker must be insured throughout its activity with a limit of at least CZK 1,750,000 per insured event and CZK 3,500,000 for all events in one year (§ 7 of Act No. 39/2020 Coll.). The law sets no amount for management alone. Ask for the insurer’s confirmation and check the limit, the excess and whether the policy also covers mistakes in managing someone else’s property, such as an incorrect service charge statement or a missed deadline.
Enter the company ID and the directors’ names in the Insolvency Register. Ongoing insolvency proceedings against the company or the people running it are a reason to look elsewhere, all the more so with guaranteed rent.
With online reviews, look at how many there are, how recent they are and how the company responds to criticism. Tell owners’ reviews apart from tenants’: tenants may complain about strict rent collection, owners about slow communication, and each says something different. Many reviews posted within a short time may point to a campaign. You will learn the most from two or three current clients with a similar property. A company that stands behind its work will put you in touch.
Ask whether the rent goes straight to you or to the manager’s account, and when you will receive it. If it passes through the manager, a separate client account with clear records for each flat is safer. Every month you should get a statement showing what the tenant paid, what the manager deducted and why. With guaranteed rent, the company pays you and carries the risk of the subtenants’ payments, so its financial health matters all the more.
The deposit and any contractual penalties together may not exceed three times the monthly rent, excluding service charge advances (§ 2254 of the Civil Code). When the lease ends, the deposit is returned to the tenant, and the landlord may set off any debts arising from the lease. Agree who receives the deposit, which account it is held in, who returns it and how interest is dealt with. With guaranteed rent, the subtenant’s deposit is usually held by the company, so ask what happens to it when your contract ends.
Services such as water, heating, the lift or cleaning of common areas are paid by the tenant as monthly advances. Under Act No. 67/2013 Coll., they must be settled in a statement no later than four months after the end of the billing period, and any overpayment or underpayment must be settled no later than four months after the statement is delivered. In a building with an owners’ association, the owner receives the association’s statement and passes the costs on to the tenant. Ask who does this, how quickly, and whether the manager also handles the energy supply contracts.
Classic flat management in the Czech Republic is usually charged at roughly 10–20% of the rent, sometimes as a fixed monthly fee. With guaranteed rent, the fee is deducted from the market rent and rises with the scope of the guarantee. Compare offers on the same basis:
The cheapest offer often looks different once all fees and the real scope of work are included.
Agree an amount up to which the manager may order repairs without your approval, and what counts as an emergency to be dealt with immediately. Ask for an invoice for every repair, ideally with photos before and after. For more expensive work, ask for several quotes.
Read the notice period, the grounds for termination and the penalties for ending early. The contract should list what the manager hands over at the end: keys, contracts, reports, meter readings, an overview of payments and deposits and the tenants’ contact details. With guaranteed rent, remember that the sublease ends with the lease. Agree in advance whether the subtenant may stay and sign a lease directly with you.
Rental income from Czech property is taxed under § 9 of the Czech Income Taxes Act. You can deduct actual expenses, including the manager’s fee, or a flat-rate 30% of income, up to CZK 600,000. The flat rate covers all expenses, including the manager’s fee, which cannot then be deducted on top. With a high fee and other costs, actual expenses may therefore work out better. Owners who live abroad normally file a Czech tax return for this income. Under most double tax treaties the Czech Republic may tax rental income from Czech property, and your country of residence then exempts it or gives a credit, depending on the treaty and its own rules. Check your situation with a tax adviser, ideally in both countries.
An SVJ (společenství vlastníků jednotek) is the owners’ association of a Czech building divided into units, similar in role to a residents’ management company. Under § 1190 of the Civil Code, the association is the body responsible for managing the building once it has been formed. A manager works for the SVJ as a supplier, but the elected board remains responsible for decisions and oversight. Choose a manager you can actually supervise.
What building management involves is set out in Government Regulation No. 366/2013 Coll. In practice, offers differ mainly in what the flat fee covers and what is charged separately.
The price is usually quoted per unit per month. Ask what falls outside the flat fee: hourly rates, meetings outside working hours, debt recovery, supervision of a major renovation or representation in court.
A building needs regular inspections of the electrical installation and lightning protection, gas appliances, chimneys and flues, lifts, fire safety equipment including extinguishers, and meters. The intervals depend on the type of equipment and the regulations. Ask to see them in one table with the dates of the last and next inspection and a link to each report. A missed inspection can affect an insurance claim as well as the safety of the people in the building.
The SVJ should have its own bank account. The manager may prepare payments, but the board should approve them, for example with a second signature. The association’s money should never sit in a pooled account of the manager together with other clients’ funds.
The SVJ is entered in the public register. Check that the board members listed there are up to date and that the financial statements have been filed. A good manager keeps track of these duties and prepares the documents.
The decision to change the manager is taken by the body named in the association’s articles. Before giving notice, check the notice period and plan the handover so that it does not fall in the middle of the annual statement. The handover report should list the accounts, the register of units and owners, the payment schedule, supplier contracts, inspection reports, building plans, keys and access to bank accounts and systems.
If none of the owners wants to sit on the board, the SVJ can elect a professional, even a company, which then appoints a person to represent it in the role. Clarify the fee, liability insurance and conflicts of interest: if the professional chair is also the building manager, they are supervising themselves. The owners should then have other checks in place, such as an audit committee or a regular audit.
For offices, retail units and warehouses the terms used are property management and facility management. The tenants are businesses, and leases of premises used for business are governed by separate provisions of the Civil Code (§ 2302 et seq.). Act No. 67/2013 Coll. on service charges applies to buildings with flats. In a purely commercial building, the allocation of service costs is therefore governed mainly by the contract, which makes its wording all the more important.
When choosing a provider, go through:
Bohemian Estates does not offer commercial facility management. This chapter therefore sets out general criteria, not a description of our service.
Approach two or three companies and ask for a written offer based on the same information: address, size and furnishing of the flat, expected rent and the services you want. Then copy the answers into one table. Only side by side can you see which offer is really cheaper and which simply calculates differently.
| Criterion | Company 1 | Company 2 | Company 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model (classic management or guarantee) and scope of the guarantee | |||
| Fee, its basis and VAT | |||
| One-off and other fees | |||
| Where the money goes and when you receive it | |||
| Repair limit without approval | |||
| Notice period and penalties | |||
| Registers, insurance and references | |||
| Languages, and contract and reports in your language |
Empty cells are an answer too: anything a company cannot confirm in writing should not count in your decision.
Write the answers into the table from the previous chapter. Specific written answers can be compared; vague ones cannot.
A single sign does not necessarily mean a bad company, but it should lead to further questions. Several signs at once are a reason to keep looking.
The same criteria apply to us. Here are facts you can check:
Check us the same way as anyone else: in ARES, in the public register and in the reviews.
We will work out what we can guarantee for your flat in each variant. Feel free to ask us all twelve questions from this guide.
Short answers on choosing a property manager in the Czech Republic.
Photos: Pavel Danilyuk, Max Vakhtbovych and Diego F. Parra (Pexels).