Utility settlement: the four-month clock for tenants

Advances collected for services have to be settled in writing within four months of the period ending. Miss it and the daily penalty runs on its own.

Deadline: 4 months after the period ends

Settlement delivered to the tenant. The money follows within another four months.

Open the rent-yield calculator

What gets settled

The rules cover the services connected with the use of the flat, whether the lease sets advances or a flat fee. Rent itself is never part of the settlement.

Heating, hot water, water and sewerage, waste, the lift, common-area electricity, cleaning and chimney sweeping.
The lease has to say which services are charged and how they are allocated. Without an agreement the statutory allocation applies.
Services agreed as a flat monthly fee are not settled, but the fee cannot cover heating and hot water metered per unit.

Two four-month deadlines

The settlement period runs for at most twelve months. Both deadlines that follow it are counted in months, not working days.

The written settlement must be delivered to the tenant no later than four months after the settlement period ends.
An overpayment or an underpayment is settled within four months of the settlement being delivered, unless the lease agrees another period.
Breaching either deadline carries a penalty of 50 CZK for each day of delay, unless the lease sets a different amount.

What the tenant may ask for

The settlement is a statement, and the tenant is entitled to check what it was built from.

The settlement shows the cost per service, the allocation method, the advances paid and the resulting balance.
On request you have to let the tenant inspect the underlying invoices and readings, and take copies.
Objections are raised within 30 days of delivery, and you have 30 days to deal with them.

When the lease ends mid-period

A tenancy that ends in March still gets a settlement, and it interacts with the deposit.

The settlement covers the months the tenant actually used, with readings taken at handover.
The deposit can cover an underpayment, but only once the settlement exists, not as an estimate at handover.
Handover readings and the settlement belong with the lease documents, because that is what an objection is answered from.

Common questions

I am past four months. What now?

Deliver the settlement immediately. The penalty of 50 CZK a day runs from the day after the deadline and does not wait for the tenant to claim it, so the cost of the delay grows on its own until the settlement is delivered.

Can I settle on estimated figures?

No. The settlement is built from the costs the suppliers actually billed for the period. If a supplier invoices late, your settlement is late too, and the penalty falls on you rather than on them.

Can I keep the deposit until the settlement is ready?

You can retain the part that reasonably covers an expected underpayment and you have to release the rest. Keeping the whole deposit for months because the settlement is not ready is not defensible.

See what the unit returns after costs

Services pass through, but the work does not. The rent-yield calculator shows what the unit returns once running costs are in the picture.