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PROPERTY LAW
• As part of the re-codification of Czech private law, on
1 January 2014 the New Civil Code entered into force,
introducing numerous changes and new legal institutes to
the Czech law, in particular with respect to legal relationships
regarding real property.
Types of ownership
• Czech law differentiates between the following types of
ownership: sole ownership, co-ownership and matrimonial
co-ownership.
Ownership
• Owner generally entitled to freely dispose of things in his
ownership.
• Ownership may be acquired under a purchase agreement,
contract of donation or another agreement, inheritance,
decision of a state authority, or by virtue of other
circumstances stipulated by law, such as usucaption
(acquisitive prescription).
• Transfer of ownership (and the creation of other rights in rem)
regarding real property generally to be entered in the Land
Registry; registration constitutes ownership (if the law does
not state otherwise, e.g., regarding usucaption); therefore,
ownership to real property may only be transferred on the
basis of a legal title (e.g., a purchase agreement) followed by
registration in the Land Registry.
• The environmental context:
–– under the applicable laws on protection of the
environment, a party causing ecological damage (such as
contamination of land) can be held liable;
–– if the polluter is not known, the owner of the
contaminated real property may be under certain
circumstances held liable for the contamination as a
subsidiary.
Co-ownership
• All co-owners incur rights and obligations jointly and severally
from legal acts relating to the joint property.
• Decisions of co-owners regarding the management of the
co-owned property by either a simple or qualified majority of
votes, calculated on the basis of the sizes of their respective
stakes.
Accessory co-ownership
• Special type of co-ownership.
• A thing is in accessory co-ownership if it is jointly co-owned
by owners of separately owned things that create a locally
and purposely defined complex and serves to a joint purpose,
whereas these separate things cannot easily be used without
the jointly co-owned thing (e.g., a road in an industrial
area with more sites co-owned by the particular owners of
the sites).
• the co-ownership interest in the jointly co-owned thing
cannot be transferred without the transfer of ownership to the
separate thing.
Rights affecting ownership
Right of construction
• The right in rem to have a construction on a plot.
• Establishment based on an agreement and registration in the
Land Registry.
• Temporary nature as the main feature of the right of
construction, can be established for up to 99 years, but can be
extended later.
• Transferable, and may also be encumbered in favour of third
parties.
Easements (servitudes, real easements)
• Two types of easements in the New Civil Code:
–– servitudes affect the owner in the way that it must suffer
something or refrain from doing something in favour of
a person (personal servitudes) or every owner of a plot
(land servitudes), e.g.:
–– right of way;
–– right to place utility infrastructure
–– the owner (investor) may encumber his plot with a
servitude established in favour of another of his plots
whereas this enables the owner (investor) to regulate
legal relations regarding the plots (right to place utility
infrastructure, right of way, etc.) prior to selling particular
plots to individuals;
–– real easements impose a duty to the owner of a plot to
give something or to act in favour of another.
• Both types of easements are acquired upon registration in the
Land Registry.
Mortgage
• Real property may be pledged in favour of the financing bank
already when negotiating the loan documentation (future
mortgage).
• Mortgage is acquired upon registration in the Land Registry.
Pre-emptive right
• Might be stipulated as a right in rem upon registration in the
Land Registry.
• Owner of real property burdened with a pre-emtive right
obliged to make an offer to the entitled person, if he intends to
transfer the ownership of the real property to a third party.
Prohibition of transfer or encumbrance (e.g. mortgage) of
real property
• Effective towards third parties only as a right in rem registered
in the Land Registry.
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Investors Guide to Europe 2015