The new legal institution of the eviction order, recently adopted by the government, ought to substantially speed up the process of retaking possession of houses and apartments to be vacated at the end of the lease.
The government approved and submitted to the house of deputies a bill for the amendment of Act No. 99/1963 Coll. (the Code of Civil Justice) which introduces the new concept of an eviction order. In certain cases, this new institution ought to substantially expedite the process for evicting tenants of apartments or houses at the end of the lease – in the form of a court-issued order which requires the tenant to vacate the rental property within 15 days from the date of service of the order (and pay the costs of proceedings), or else to file protest within the same time period. If the tenant against which the action has been brought does not file protest, the eviction order becomes enforceable and may serve as legal title for execution proceedings.
Before the court will issue such an eviction order, the claimant (i.e., the landlord) must provide evidence that the lease has ended; that the tenant has been called upon in writing to vacate the house or apartment at least 14 days before the claim was brought in court; and that the statutory time period during which the defendant could have filed a petition for judicial review of whether the termination of the lease was legitimate has lapsed (or that the court has yet to hand down a final decision on such petition – whereas tenants are entitled to file such a petition for a court review within two months from the day on which they were given notice of the termination of their lease).
As with payment summons or electronic payment summons, however, if the defendant does file timely protest, the court will open regular proceedings by scheduling a court date, and in such a case, no speeding-up of the eviction process will occur.
As a point of interest, we note that the explanatory memorandum for the amendment bill claims an average duration of almost one year for current proceedings in eviction cases (and in fact of 400-450 days for properties in Prague, Central Bohemia, and Brno). It stands to reason to expect that the eviction order may help bring down these numbers substantially, at least in selected cases.
Having undergone first reading in the house of deputies, the bill has now been referred to the parliamentary committees for discussions; if it passes into law, it will come into force on 1 July 2025.
Source:
Bill for an amendment to several laws in connection with the passage of the Housing Support Act, parliamentary press 730/0