Tünde Barta Sues Prague 3 Municipality Over Termination of Municipal Apartment Lease

Tünde and Koloman Barta have filed a lawsuit against the Prague 3 municipal district over the termination of their municipal apartment lease. The case will be heard by the Prague 3 district court, though the couple is not seeking financial compensation or reinstatement of the flat — instead, they want the court to declare the municipality's actions unlawful and to receive a public apology.

"The purpose of our lawsuit against the unlawful actions of the Prague 3 district is to prove that we have always acted within the law," the couple wrote in a letter to the municipality. According to them, the conclusions behind the lease termination notice are "entirely mistaken and rest solely on grossly distorted assumptions based on vague, publicly available information."

How the Eviction Decision Was Made

The decision to terminate the lease was made by district councillors on 24 June. According to then-municipal spokesman Petr Habán, the grounds cited were the subletting of the flat to third parties without the landlord's prior consent.

The couple firmly deny breaching the lease terms or handing the flat over to outsiders. In a letter addressed to Prague 3 Deputy Mayor Ondřej Rut, they claim the apartment was used by Koloman Barta himself, as well as for their daughter's needs. At the same time, the couple acknowledged that they frequently spent long periods abroad, and that two students — friends of their daughter — reportedly used the flat free of charge, without any formal agreement.

The Bartas also accuse the municipality of failing to contact them or request an inspection of the apartment before terminating the lease — an inspection which, they argue, could have confirmed who was actually living there.

An Apartment for 11,000 Crowns a Month

The dispute over the municipal apartment first came to light in mid-June. According to available information, the Barta family paid roughly 11,000 crowns a month for the 70-square-metre flat. Koloman Barta himself has said he lives in Průhonice, in a property owned by Imoba, a company linked to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO), while his daughter and her husband reportedly resided in Hungary.

Read also: Rental scams in Prague: how to spot a fraud

Source: novinky.cz