Prague - A Prague landlord will spend six months in prison for mistreating a tenant he wanted to move out.
The man announced to his tenant that her contract had expired and refused to ensure pressure tests on her water pipes or open her water taps in a house in Prague 6 from the end of 2005 until last autumn.
The Supreme Court has now confirmed a sentence for the landlord for breaching with tenants' rights.
Move out
The district and municipal courts in Prague had already sent the owner to prison for six months, but he filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.
The man said he had shut the water off for technical reasons, citing a defect with the electrical wires. "It was an emergency situation," the landlord said in the recourse, adding he was merely trying to protect his property.
In the appeal, the owner said the courts should not have considered his acts a crime, and that the case could have been handled under civil law. But the Supreme Court judges said he had clearly committed a crime.
"The accused as an offender must bear penal responsibility for his acts. The circumstances of the case and the deliberate act negate his opinion that the relationship was purely civil and does not require a penal solution," said Supreme Court spokesman Petr Knötig.
One of the first
This is one of the first cases when the Supreme Court confirmed it was a crime to shut off water and that a landlord can go to prison for that.
Last year, a court canceled a suspended 10-month sentence for a landlord who shut the water off, saying it was too strict. In the last two years, the Supreme Court has dealt with four similar cases, involving disputes over water supplies.
But all of them were civil disputes, and no sentences have been imposed until now.
Adapted and republished by Prague Daily Monitor.
