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If you're coming to live and work in the Czech Republic, you'll need to spend ample time arranging a flat (apartment) to rent in the area where you'll be staying.

You'll need several months to do it right, and without a firm knowledge of the process, and local assistance, it's likely to become a black hole for both your wallet and your enthusiasm.

A problem with their living arrangements is the most common reason forcing foreigners to return home early, discouraged and disappointed.

Your Czech visa issues aside, renting a flat in the Czech Republic is likely to be the most intensely frustrating, confusing and expensive process you will go through during your stay. It may indeed prove to be more complicated than even your visa application process!

Just a few examples of why renting is such a nightmare here include:

The Czech rental market has little or no regulation. Flats may come to you in any condition whatsoever, with amenities like stoves, refrigerators and even toilets not working or nonexistent. Whether it's clean, painted or even livable is completely up to the person renting to you, and you have no recourse in case of disputes.

A shortage of decent and available housing in the Czech Republic, both in Prague and everywhere else, means that it will take a great deal of time, searching and compromising to find a flat that fits your needs. And the rental agencies that have sprung up to take advantage of the situation are unscrupulous at best.

With agency fees costing up to 2 months' rent, and move-in costs typically being 3 months' rent in advance, you can easily end up paying 25 000 CZK or more to simply move into your flat, in cash, and that money will not be returned to you if you discover that the flat's condition is not as promised.

Due to strict rent control laws and the black market system that has developed to go around them, it is very unlikely that you will be renting from the owner of the property that you will live in. Instead, a common arrangement is to be subleasing your flat from another tenant, who may also be subleasing from someone else, etc. Of course, you won't know the arrangement - until someone higher up on the food chain arrives to throw you out!

You will need to understand the process, and to get local assistance, or you will be ripped off and possibly even find yourself stranded without a place to live.

Prices for flats vary considerably, even in the same neighborhoods. In smaller towns, you can pay anywhere from 5000 CZK to 10 000 CZK for a decent flat, which sounds wonderfully cheap, but recall that the average local salary for teachers here is only 7 500 CZK per month.

In Prague, you will easily pay three times those amounts or more, with some areas (in the center, for example) demanding more than much better flats in Tokyo, London or New York! Again, the price is set by the person renting the flat and is not regulated by anything other than what they imagine you will pay.

Czech rental contracts are extremely slow, expensive and difficult to enforce for both sides, taking upwards of three years to resolve in court. This means that you are on your own if you have any problems with your landlord or someone else who claims to be your landlord.

Is There Any Good News?

Sorry, but there's really not a lot of good news to report on this topic. All you can do to protect yourself, is to be as informed as possible about how the system works so that you can avoid becoming a victim of it.

Strict rent control laws and a large housing shortage have turned the Czech rental business into a black market wilderness.

The companies you will be dealing with when renting are interested in their own bottom line, period - not your comfort or security - and have such a monopoly that there is no need for them to even attempt to make a fair deal with you.

Additionally, as a foreigner, in some areas you will be constantly under the threat of your apartment being burgalarized, and will need to establish comprehensive theft insurance from a reputable foreign insurance company (such as Allianz, etc.) from the moment you move in.

Absolutely nothing about the rental process is easy, encouraging, fun or even fair. Anyone who tells you otherwise, or insists that you as a foreigner can enforce a Czech rental contract, is dangerously misleading you, and I'll bet has a rental company to recommend.

Your only option is to take the required time, which can be 2 to 3 months and sometimes longer, to find a decent flat to rent from someone you feel that you can trust - be it an owner, agency, subleaser - or all three at once (which is typical).

Sometimes your employer can help to arrange your housing for you, and it sure pays to ask. But many times you'll simply be left on your own, or indeed you may choose to do it yourself in order to have some choice in the matter of where you will live.


Request Your Free Report Today:

Our 6-page report on How to Rent Your Flat (Apartment) in the Czech Republic, is one of the most requested single report in my entire series.

Included is information explaining rent control, and the black market system that has sprung up around it, so that you won't be caught unaware and made a victim of it.

Other pages discuss the key facts you need to know about:

• How to find the flat you need for a price you can afford



• How to avoid being ripped off and made a victim by the system



• Typical prices you will pay for rent and utilities



• The types of flats available to you as a foreigner



• Flat terms and how to read and/or place your own want ads



• Getting insurance and protecting your flat from theft

Renting a flat in the Czech Republic is not easy, and our guide doesn't pretend that it is. Instead, it is designed to make you an informed and astute renter that can't be easily taken advantage of.

Use it to save a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of energy while looking for the flat you need, so you can settle in and get on with the real reasons why you're here.