More and more people are using professional property management, most often in large cities

Non-paying tenants have long been a widely discussed issue, attracting the attention of both the general public and professionals. Although the Civil Code governing the relationship between landlord and tenant was amended again relatively recently, Czech law tends to favour the tenant whenever any breach occurs.

So, even if you have signed an almost watertight lease agreement, it can still take several months to remove a non-paying tenant from the flat, with very little prospect of ever recovering your money. It is therefore only logical to ask how such situations can be avoided. However, real estate brokers offer few recommendations on the matter and largely agree on just one. “Renting out a property must be viewed as a business. And every business carries a certain degree of risk. If a property owner starts letting their property, they must accept that they may let someone into their building who is not entirely reliable. And if they want to avoid that, I have one, perhaps rather banal, piece of advice: be cautious,” says David Novotný, owner and managing director of the independent real estate company Bohemian Estates International.

The well-known saying Trust, but verify! applies here. However, this requires a certain degree of involvement, and it should be noted that the process of finding a tenant has long ceased to be a matter of one or two days. Rental listings can attract dozens of applicants, all of whom need to be vetted. This may also be one reason why people are increasingly turning to real estate companies offering professional property management. “As the number of prospective tenants rises, we are also seeing greater interest from property owners in property management, especially in larger cities. People make extensive use of our services, for example in Brno, where our guaranteed rent service is also very popular. This is probably the only way to guarantee an owner complete regularity in receiving rent,” explains Novotný.

The guaranteed rent service is neither complicated nor misleading. It works on the basis of a pre-agreed commission from the rent, which the property owner pays the real estate company in return for receiving rent every month. Under all circumstances. “It is important to realise that a loss of rental income does not occur only when you encounter a non-paying tenant. You may also find yourself in a situation where the tenant simply moves out and the property remains vacant. With guaranteed rent, however, the property owner need not concern themselves with any such scenario. We guarantee the rent in every case,” concludes David Novotný of Bohemian Estates International.