Mr Jiří Lemberka answers the readers' questions

• We are a married couple, but separated, yet not divorced. Can one of us use a mortgage to purchase a flat?

• I am about to purchase a flat. Which party is liable to pay the tax on real estate transfer? The seller is a disabled person and alleges that it is me who is to pay the tax.

• We would like to have our balcony glassed in. Our neighbour has said that for that we would need the approval from all other owners within the house. Is it true?

• I live in a privately owned flat. It has been recently voted that the repairs funds will be used to replace old windows with new plastic ones. I had mine installed last year. Will the owners’ association refund any costs for the installation of windows undertaken last year?

• I am renting a flat. The neighbour upstairs regularly inundates my flat with water. Am I entitled to compensation for damage incurred or is it up to the owner of the flat?

• What can I do about a neighbour in a tenement house who tends to breach my rights by placing his own old washing machines, TV sets and furniture in front of the entrance to my basement? In his free time, when he is not busy moving furniture and other items to block the entrance to my basement cubicle, he parks his car in my allocated spot. What can I do about it?

• My seventy year old mother wishes to sell her large privately owned flat and acquire a smaller one. I would like to help her in this matter but have very little idea myself as to what is necessary to conduct the relevant matters and how it all happens. Moreover, my mother has difficulties walking and any dealings with authorities are very demanding for her. Can I legally act on her behalf? What can you recommend – should I turn to a real-estate agency?

• Do persons living in a registered partnership arrangement enjoy the same rights as husband and wife in terms of inheritance of a cooperative flat in the case of death of one of the partners?

• Two years ago I bought a relatively old family house, the sewage connection of which partly – over a distance of 10 metres – leads through my neighbour's plot. I would like to have a user right established with regard to this sewage connection (the right of maintenance and repairs), but my neighbour is demanding 50,000 Kč, a sum which, in my view, is unreasonable – I have offered to pay him 10,000 Kč.
  The former owner of the house had the sewage connection built about 8 years ago with the written consent of the neighbour's father, but at the time the plot had already been transferred into the ownership of the son (the current owner) through a deed of gift. I have no documentation regarding the sewage connection's building permit, nor do I know whether such documentation actually exists. Is 50.000 Kč a reasonable amount to ask?
  Is my neighbour actually allowed to dig out the sewage connection or plug it up with impunity if no user right is established?

• I intend to buy a flat for personal ownership but the problem is that the owner is an old lady and everything is being arranged by her daughter. She claims that it is necessary to have a court’s consent for the delegation of powers granted by her mother, in order to obtain the acceptance of the land registry office. Is this true?
  
  Furthermore, it has come to light that the daughter has a Criminal Register record. Is it necessary that she first ask for it to be removed or will it not affect the delegation of powers?

• Is it necessary to have an expert opinion in the paying of a sales tax? Is it necessary to draw up an official notice or is it sufficient to use a buyer’s appraisal that was used for loan purposes? Does the price stated in the contract of purchase suffice alone in the calculation of the tax?

• I have a flat in a cooperative ownership. I want to marry and do not know how the flat would stand as regards proprietary relationships in the future. Within a year the flat should be transferred into personal property status. Will it then automatically be transferred into the common property of the married couple? How would things stand in the event of a possible divorce? Would I have to go halves on the flat, even though I was the member of the cooperative prior to the marriage?

• I have inherited a flat into my ownership and I am considering selling it. The ownership list, in Section C, states there is an easement for a flat in a built-in unit established pursuant to Section 28d of Act No. 42/1992 Coll. What exactly is meant by this easement?

• I want to buy a flat but the ownership list states the obligation to ensure a fire emergency route and a PRE (the Prague electricity utility) transformer station. Could you please explain to me what this precisely means and what possible limitations this can bring?

• I, my partner and our friends want to jointly buy a recreational cottage. What is the situation regarding possible future marketability and in what manner should everything be arranged and secured in legal terms? Is it really risky?

• How should I proceed when within the period of matrimony I want to buy a real estate as my personal property in such a manner that it is not included in the joint property of the married couple?

• My wife and I have begun building a family house near Prague. At present, it is in the shell construction phase and we have decided to sell it. In what way is it possible to correctly sell an uncompleted house construction without an operation permit?

• My wife and I are selling a large cooperative flat. We would like to move to a smaller and newer flat so that we do not have to take care of our dwelling so much when we are old. We do not have any financial resources; all our finance is bound up in this real estate. How should we proceed during the purchase so that we do not have to live in a sublet flat or in a hotel in the period between the sale and the subsequent purchase?

• A neighbour passed away in our apartment building. We have the flats in our ownership. How long does it take to complete inheritance proceedings? Who will pay the charges the deceased paid monthly?

• What is the situation with the payment of real estate tax when the contract of purchase was delivered to the land registry last year but was only registered this year? Do I have to pay the tax for a period in which I was not yet the owner of a record?

• I have an ideal share of one third in a family house with three flats. I am therefore utilising one flat. The remaining two thirds of the property are owned by my brother and sister, so they utilise the other two flats. Can I sell my ownership share along with its right of use without their consent?

• I have been residing abroad for a long period, but I would like to buy a flat in the Czech Republic as an investment. It does not matter if this flat suits my taste, as long as it will be easy to in future let it out. Is it possible to make the necessary arrangements from a far distance? I am still a Czech citizen.

• I would like to let out my cooperative flat. Do I need permission from the housing association or any other forms of permission?

• My uncle would like to bequeath a property to me. He is childless and I am his sole relative. As this concerns a relative, will I have to pay death duty?

• My wife and I took a former municipal flat into private ownership. We would now like to sell it and buy a smaller but newer flat. Can we at all sell this flat if it has only been in our personal ownership for a short period of time?

• I have a flat in Prague 4 and I would like to sell it. Which taxes and charges relate to me?

• I am 59 years of age and I would like to acquire a mortgage loan. What possibilities do I have?

• We would like to buy a new flat on the basis of a mortgage and, at the beginning, rent it out. What would be our taxation and other financial obligations regarding this?

• We would like to sell land plots which are suitable for the construction of family houses, but the land is in part designated as an agricultural land resource as part of the so-called Agricultural Land Stock (Zemědělský půdní fond - ZPF). Could you explain to us how the process of extracting this land from the ZPF works? Would it be possible to resolve this matter through your real estate agency?

• We have chosen a family house at your agency with the intention of buying it. Is it possible to have half of it written over to our son who is still a minor?'

• I would like to sell my cooperative flat. Should my wife also sign the relevant agreements?