Containers or front gardens on the streets

For example, if you want to create a front garden in front of your pub or put a container or scaffolding on the pavement. How to proceed, where to report everything and how much will it cost?

According to the law, public spaces are all squares, streets, market places, pavements, public greenery, parks and other spaces accessible to everyone without restrictions, regardless of their owner. For example, a parking lot in front of a department store is a public space, but privately owned. A fee must be paid to the municipality even if we are encroaching on a privately owned public space. In this case, we still have to enter into an agreement with the owner, perhaps even a lease agreement, which may involve additional expenses.

Fee

The municipality may impose a fee for the use of public spaces, such as excavation works, placement of sales and other stands, restaurant gardens, containers, scaffolding or other construction equipment, advertising boards, circuses, amusement parks and other attractions, reservation of parking space, organization of cultural, sporting, advertising events or for the purpose of filming a movie. In the case of charitable and public benefit events, no fee is payable to the municipality.

It is therefore necessary to find out what conditions are laid down in the municipality’s general binding ordinance. This will tell you the specific places subject to the fee, the amount of the fee and how you can occupy the public space. Of course, you must respect this if someone else has occupied the same space before you.

What is not charged

For example, the use of public roads for demonstrations and parades cannot be subject to a local charge, even though it is certainly not a normal use of the road. The use of forests or agricultural land is also excluded. These lands are covered by a different law.

It is therefore always necessary to pay attention to local regulation. For example, if we want to put a front garden in front of our restaurant in Prague, we have to find out whether the municipality in the area allows it. There may also be restrictions in terms of dates or seasons.

You then need to make a notification by filling in the relevant form and sending it by post or electronically to the relevant municipal authority. This must be done within a specific time limit, in Prague at least seven days before the front garden is to be placed.

The Prague restaurateur will pay CZK 100 per m2 per day for a front garden outside the market. If you are renovating an apartment or house and put a container on the street, the fee is set at CZK 10 per m2 per day. If you do not report the encroachment or do not pay the fee on time, the authority can increase it up to three times and you can be fined up to half a million crowns.