The normative monthly housing costs are updated at the beginning of each year. Due to rising energy prices, they have already been increased three times in 2022. However, the Act did not clearly stipulate whether the increased amount of the normative housing costs would be used for purposes other than the determination of the amount of the housing allowance as provided for in article 26a of the Act on State Social Support. 

The amount of the normative housing costs also plays a role in the calculation of the amount to be forfeited in foreclosure and insolvency proceedings. Some insolvency courts, however, have issued measures according to which the non-forfeitable amount for the purposes of calculating the instalment in debt relief is not increased by the increase under article 26a of the Act on State Social Support. This has been argued by some bailiffs despite the fact that such measures are binding only for insolvency proceedings pending before the courts in question.

Thus, employers could not be sure whether to proceed on the assumption that the legislator’s intention was to increase the non-forfeitable amount for enforcement proceedings as well, or to give in to the bailiffs’ encouragement to take the opposite approach.

In June 2022, the Supreme Court issued an opinion with file no.  Cpjn 202/2022, in which it stated that the increase is to be used not only for the calculation of the housing allowance, but also for the calculation of the non-forfeitable amount in enforcement and insolvency proceedings. Further positive changes will be felt by persons subject to distrainment due to the increase in the subsistence minimum, which from 1 July 2022 corresponds to CZK 4,620.

Author: Roman Burnus, Valérie Kovářová