Rental repairs and utilities: who pays and how to check a bill

Who pays depends on the fault’s cause, the agreement and the legal regime. Not every dripping tap is the landlord’s responsibility, and not every bill arriving during your stay is your debt. Establish what failed, who owns it, when the problem arose and what charges the contract provides for.

Minor repairs are not always the landlord’s bill

Under Civil Code §687(2), tenants pay use-related minor repairs and routine maintenance unless the lease says otherwise. Regulation 87/1995 lists minor repairs, including certain work on taps, sockets and locks. Its €6.64 threshold applies to repairs outside that list, not all repairs. Connected repairs to the same item are counted together.

Regulation §7 excludes minor work needed before the tenancy or resulting from repairs that the landlord must cover. Replacing a tap component and repairing a concealed pipe are different tasks. Electrical faults require professional diagnosis: legal classification does not make DIY work safe. Check the statutory list and contract before agreeing costs.

Appliances, mould and emergencies

For listed appliances, a technician’s diagnosis and service history matter: age-related failure differs from misuse. Agree whether to repair or replace and who books the technician. For mould, document the location, humidity, leak evidence and correspondence. Construction, ventilation and use can each contribute, so responsibility cannot be assigned automatically.

For a leak, shut off water if safe; for a gas smell or dangerous electrics, avoid creating sparks and call emergency assistance.
Notify the landlord promptly and contact the správca if shared systems are affected. Keep photos, notification times and technicians’ documents.
For routine faults, first describe the problem and agree diagnosis, cost limits and access. Do not discard equipment before the cause is recorded.

If the landlord does not respond

§691 permits necessary remedial work after warning a landlord who has failed to fulfil a repair obligation, with recovery of reasonably incurred costs. It does not authorise expensive upgrades. Claim reimbursement promptly; the right expires if not asserted within six months after repair. Keep the warning, diagnosis, estimate and invoice.

§§698–699 provide for an appropriate reduction for substantial or prolonged impairment or inadequate services. Assert it promptly; the six-month expiry after defects are remedied also matters. There is no universal daily percentage. Request a reduction in writing and explain the period and impact. Do not simply stop all rent payments: disputed amounts and set-off can create arrears.

Advances and annual reconciliation

Zálohy are advances, vyúčtovanie the final reconciliation, nedoplatok an amount due and preplatok an overpayment. If the contract reconciles advances against actual costs, request the billing period, invoices, readings and allocation method. A bill’s arrival date is not its consumption period. Costs before or after your stay cannot automatically be allocated to you; fixed contractual charges require checking their terms.

For a full year of agreed advances: €180 × 12 = €2,160 paid. Verified attributable costs of €1,980 yield a €180 refund; €2,430 yields €270 due. Do not automatically compare advances with every owner expense: reserve-fund, insurance and other entries depend on the contract and payment type. For a midyear departure, simply dividing annual costs by 12 is insufficient because consumption and allocation methods vary.

Where to take a dispute

Send the landlord a disputed-item table, payment evidence and a specific request with a reasonable response deadline. The správca can explain building accounts, but your contractual settlement is generally with the landlord. A private repair or deposit dispute is not automatically for the consumer inspectorate; jurisdiction depends on the relationship. A lawyer or, subject to eligibility, Centrum právnej pomoci can assess your claim.