Prague/Strasbourg, France, July 11 (CTK) – The European Court of Human Rights rejected the appeal of the Czech state against the verdict ordering the state to pay compensation to three house owners who claim that the country violated their rights by rent regulation, Seznam.cz news server reported on Tuesday.
The Czech Justice Ministry and the Czech Civic Association of Housing Owners (OSMD) confirmed the information.
The verdict, issued in February 2017, took effect on July 3, the OSMD said.
The Strasbourg judges decided that they would not deal with the objections formulated by the Czech Justice Ministry in the appeal.
Five months ago, the European Court ruled that the Czech Republic must pay 2.19 million crowns to the three complainants to cover the difference between the market rent and the regulated rent from the period before the rent deregulation.
The European Court followed up the verdict from July 2014 in which it ruled that the rights of Czech landlords had been violated.
Jan Capsky, an owner of a Prague apartment house who is one of the three successful complainants, is to get the highest compensation of 1.3 million crowns. Capsky said he would immediately invest the money in the house since the electrics and other things need repairs.
Justice Ministry spokesman Jakub Riman told CTK that Capsky and the two other complainants would receive the compensation from the ministry by the set deadline, probably within three months.
Capsky’s lawyer Dita Krapkova said the Strasbourg verdict might help more dissatisfied house owners, including those who already received compensation which was low.
However, Riman said Czech courts would assess each case separately.
The OSMD said yesterday Czech courts ignored the decision of the Constitutional Court for several years and it looks like they are trying to ignore the conclusion of the European court. Czech courts set markedly lower compensation than the European court recognised, the OSMD added.
The rent regulation was introduced in the Czech Republic in 1991. The deregulation process was launched in 2007, it applied to 700,000 households and was completed in 2012.
About 5,000 Czech owners of flats and apartment houses filed a complaint in Strasbourg in 2005. They claimed that not even their minimum profit for the real estate maintenance was guaranteed due to the rent regulation. They put their total damage at almost 50 billion crowns.
The European court selected four model cases but one of the complainants died and others withdrew their complaint. The OSMD thus submitted new cases to illustrate the typical situations.
