They used the premises not as an apartment, but as a hotel or hostel. “It could become a precedent,” says Petr Městecký, chairman of the Association for Tolerable Housing in the Center of Prague, thanks to whose suggestions the authorities began to deal with the case.

The fine for using the apartment for business with short-term accommodation was previously imposed by employees of the Municipal Office of Prague 1. The owner appealed against the fine, but on July 29 the Department of Building Regulations of the City of Prague rejected the appeal and upheld the fine.

The City Hall of Prague 1 was the first to boast of the decision of the officials this Monday. “I am very pleased with the decision of our building authority and the municipal department of the building regulations. What way to solve the phenomenon of short-term accommodation and its very negative impact on the quality of housing in the center of Prague is welcome, “said Bronislava Sitár Baboráková (YES), member of the current Prague 1 coalition, which chairs the Committee against Depopulation and Support for Community Life.

It is spicy that the town hall of the first city district fired Městecký from the Committee against Depopulation of the Center the very next day. And at the suggestion of Baboráková.

But let’s get back to the beginning. Petr Městecký lives in the very center of Prague between the Main Railway Station and Wenceslas Square, probably the most lucrative location for Airbnb entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic. As chairman of SVJ, in January 2020 he filed several complaints to various authorities due to the number of flats, which their owners use only as a source of income from short-term tourist accommodation.

“At that time, five apartments were rented for short-term accommodation. Two flats were owned by the Arta company, ie Mrs. Ivana Tykač (wife of billionaire Pavel Tykač, ed. Note), another flat was a certain gentleman who is known for buying flats in Prague and dividing them illegally into two and so on. Tourists changed there every three days. For example, twenty people come to your house and then you find out that they live in a different street, but when they ring other tourists, they open the door for them from a distance. He has the room as a consumable, they don’t understand that the rest of us have a home here. I recently found a drunk tourist in a pool of urine, who subsequently attacked the vice-chairwoman of the committee and so on, ”describes the experience with Airbnb Městecký.

He therefore decided to bomb the authorities with his own initiatives, founded the association ‘Tolerable Housing in the Center of Prague,’ began negotiations with the City Hall and participates in the committee in Prague 1, although he is not a member of any political party and said he never ran.

It is based on a simple statement: there is no need to invent a new law against Airbnb and similar services, it is enough to enforce the current legislation. According to him, Airbnb and similar services are not ‘short-term rentals’ or the sharing or temporary exchange of an apartment, but are simply accommodation services that need to be governed by the relevant laws. And officials from the City Hall found him right in the last decision.

“It is clear that at present there has been a shift from bed and breakfast accommodation in ‘own home’ to regular unlimited use of the apartment for accommodation services, without meeting the legislative requirements for hotels and hostels,” reads the decisions published by Městecký on the website of his association.

In the appeal, the owner referred, among other things, to the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court in another case from 2008, which was in favor of the landlord. But officials dealt with it.

“While this used to be the only problem, currently the phenomenon of short-term leases has resulted in the transformation of the center of the capital city of Prague into an area without permanent residents,” officials said, adding that the 2008 decision no longer reflected . binding.

“It is the first final decision of the authorities. So far, similar decisions have been made at a lower instance, but at the municipality they have always thrown it under the table. If the owner is to be sued, he has a chance that, for example, it will take place in administrative proceedings before the Supreme Court, which will confirm or cancel it. Then it would be a judgment that everyone would refer to, “describes Městecký.

Problems with Airbnb in the meantime, at least in part and temporarily solved by covid. Today, long-term tenants often live in the apartments purchased by investors for the operation of Airbnb.

Paradoxically, however, there is a dispute between Městecký and Baboráková. According to Městecký, its committee in Prague 1 serves primarily to raise money for unnecessary legal opinions. Baboráková has been criticized by others for a long time.

“It’s a money tunnel. She had an analysis done for a hundred thousand, but the new legal decision denied it because something else follows. And she is still proud of that decision, “says Městecký.

Baboráková, on the other hand, claims that the committee is working properly, while it is not possible to cooperate with Městecký. He strongly rejects the waste of public funds.

“Unfortunately, this is another unsubstantiated attack by Mr. Městecký, who simply decided that he alone was right and that he alone understood everyone. Instead of discussing the subject matter and making the results so important in a team, he was glad that someone was active in the issue and could do something specific like that, so he just insulted and challenged the work and the Committee, and when it took more than a year and a half, so the deputies logically ran out of patience, “says the chairwoman of the Committee.

And I also disagree with the fact that the only solution to the City Solution is right.

“Unfortunately, this statement (that it is enough to enforce the valid laws, ed. Note) is not so simple, and there is no clear opinion on the issue in this regard at all. And I do not mean that within political parties, but experts, judges, ministries and legislators. That is why our Committee also supports both solutions, ie the effort to enforce current laws, where we cooperate with the City Hall with Dr. Marvanová. But also a variant to adopt a new law for its complexity. It wouldn’t be a bad trip for me just because we would copy abroad. It would be in the form of a license, which would not have to be granted at all in the places incriminated, just as Amsterdam, for example, did, which in some places banned the business altogether, “he adds.

In any case, public criticism from a former colleague is the chair of the anti-fur committee. In the motion to dismiss Městecký from the Prague 1 Committee, he states that it is unconstructive.

“It is expected that it will not critically criticize individual members of the committee without discussing it constructively in the ordinary course of the committee’s deliberations,” the proposal said. “Despite personal disagreements and dissent, it is appropriate to respect mutual collegiality and human decency. Unfortunately, none of these things, Mr. Ing. Městecký does not respect and does not perform despite the warning, “Baboráková explained why it is necessary to expel Městecký from the committee.

And the result was not long in coming. The Prague 1 City Council, in which it has a majority coalition of ODS, ANO, STAN, TOP09, KDU-ČSL and the Citizens’ Initiative, voted to remove Městecký from the key committee. The decision was made at the end of Tuesday’s meeting, in fact on Wednesday morning.

The editors approached Baboráková with a request for an interview, unfortunately without answers. Airbnb also did not comment on the decision of the municipal officials when asked by the editors.