The Ministry of Finance (MoF) remains in dispute with the residents of two apartment buildings in the Krkonoše region of Harrachov that belong to the state. So far, none of the tenants has agreed to several-fold rent increases, as the ministry is demanding. This is according to a statement made by Gabriela Krušinová from the Ministry of Finance. The apartments are mostly occupied by people with low incomes – seniors, disabled pensioners or single mothers who do not like the state’s approach and continue to pay rent at the original rate. Earlier, some of them told journalists that they would not be able to pay three to five times higher rents.
The two apartment blocks in a local area called Klondajk were built about 30 years ago. Residents originally paid rent to the city. The state acquired the two buildings last year following a court ruling in a years-long dispute with the city over the settlement of liabilities after the privatisation of Crystalex in the 1990s. Earlier, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement that it had acted in accordance with the State Property Act in raising the rent. According to the ministry, the significant increase is due to the fact that residents in both buildings were paying regulated rents that had not been increasing adequately for a long time. However, the tenants refuse to pay the new prices. One of them told the Czech News Agency that for her and her husband, a senior citizen, the state’s demand means an increase from nearly CZK 3,000 to almost CZK 15,500. The senior living in another apartment would have to pay CZK 21,000 instead of CZK 7,000.
The ministry is recovering the increased rent retroactively from when the houses are repossessed, i.e. from November 2021. The MoF insists on the higher payments and will only forgive tenants for rent arrears incurred up to the end of last October if they request it. “We can confirm that so far none of the apartment users have agreed to the requested rent increase or applied for debt forgiveness,” Krusinova said.
While the ministry has declared in the past that none of the tenants are in danger of eviction, it is registering the unpaid rent and will sell it as a debt together with the two apartment buildings. It does not want to continue to own the houses. “The Ministry of Finance is currently preparing to announce a tender for the sale of these apartment buildings,” Krušinová confirmed.
Source: CTK
