New laws to the Civil Code, the Trade Licensing Act, laws from the city of Prague and the implementation of the newly announced digital tax are all taking aim at issues concerning the short-term rental market, often referring to the largest platform Airbnb. The information was given by Jan Vobořil from the non-profit Iuridicum Remedium, after a panel discussion on the issues Thursday.
Many residence of Prague have criticized the short-term rental business, many have earned a small fortune, but the popular criticism seems to be on the side of noisy tourists, clickety suitcase wheels early in the morning, and outsized use of shared building costs.
The first challenge may come from Pirat Party Chairman Jakub Michal. He is drafting a bill which would effectively allow the SVJ of the building to ban short-term rentals. SVJ is the acronym for the building maintenance clubs each apartment owner is a part of. There are back-to-back Seinfeld episodes explaining how these associations work: Season 7 episodes 14/15. Mr. Michal goes on to explain that even if he gets the votes, he is not sure it would be upheld by the Supreme Court.
Petr Dolinek (CSSD) has another plan through the Trade Licensing Act. His plan is to adjust the law so that the Service Providers need to make the rental information public. Currently there is no way for the government to force the Providers to make the information public.
There are several other attempts to limit these services including a draft bill from the city of Prague to limit the amount of time, or maximum number of days a unit can be rented. Implementation of the recently passed Digital Tax will also provide an opportunity for the government to make the services less attractive. Currently there is already a daily tax that renters must submit, and file to the foreign police; the tax is on tap to double.
Stay tuned, the battle has only begun.
