A Czech land registry statement has a headline and then section A, B, B1, C, D, E, F.

The headline shows the district, city, land registry territory, number of the land registry statement and title.

A. Contains details about the owners and/or co-owners and other rights. It identifies clearly the owners, shares on the common and other areas, as well as legal relationships.

Practical use: You can see if you are dealing with the correct owner or if there are multiple parties involved. In the above example, it is a company – CzechSky, SRO.

B. Contains details about the properties connected with the owners in section A. Here we can find:

Land plots (parcel nbr., m2, type of land, zoning of the land (building/agricultural/forest…)

Buildings (part of the town, building nbr., zoning of the building (family/rental/cottage…), parcel nbr.,

Flats (building nbr., flat nbr., location of the flat, zoning of the flat (residential or commercial), share of the common areas, share of the land)

In this section you will find a note if there are any changes in process in the Czech Land Registry. This will be indicated by a P which stands for Plomba (in Czech) or seal (in English)

Practical use: Using this, make sure that you are dealing with the correct piece of property. Also, by getting a copy of this issued before signing a purchase contract, you can check that there is not another sale already in process on the property. The above example gives four individual units – three flats and one garage.

B1. Contains rights to other properties connected with section B

Practical use: This could contain your right of access through another piece of land to access your property. (In the example, there is nothing listed.)

C. Contains any limitations on the ownership, whether pre-purchase rights, burdens, executions, liens associated with mortgages or loans, etc.

BEWARE: Some burdens do not have to be in the Czech land registry statement and still could be valid. Also, based on decisions of the Supreme Court, the fact that a burden is deleted in the Czech Land Registry does not mean that it does not exist.

Practical use: Find out if the seller has a mortgage, loans or other burdens on the property. These can indicate how motivated the seller might be, or they can mean a difficult sale process since liens have to be lifted before the property can be transferred. In the example, there is a mortgage listed for 5,525,000 CZK (which would have been the value when the liens were registered), and there are liens registered on units 2 and 3. If you find out that there is a lien or burden and the owner promises to delete this lien or burden during the purchase process, be sure to ask him to show you not only that it was deleted at the Czech Land Registry, but also that the right for a lien has been actually ended or cancelled.

D. Other entries – notes, records or other procedures.

E. Contains title deeds and other docs.

Practical use: This section can show how the person obtained the property and when. How the seller obtained a property should be checked by your legal team in that they should get a copy of the purchase contract, inheritance rights, etc. In the example, the property was obtained by a purchase contract on 14.05.2007. Also, there is a statement from the owner regarding definition of the flats from 11.12.2008.

F. Agricultural lands in section B, specified based on parcel nbr., code BPEJ and m2. BPEJ shows the quality of land and therefore its economic potential.

(This section on Czech land registry statements is an appendix of our book ‘Czech Point: Keys to Lucrative Property Investment: How to Buy, Manage and Sell Rental Real Estate in Czech Republic‘. Be informed and purchase the entire book from Amazon, Google Play, iTunes or directly as a pdf download.)