Brno - If children cannot afford to live independently, parents are obliged to provide them with a place to live - even if they have already reached their adulthood.
That is a verdict of the Czech Supreme Court which ended a dispute between a house owner and his tenants - parents and their 19-year-old daughter - in Třebíč region, some 160 kilometres south-east of Prague.
The owner ordered the family to vacate the four-room apartment they were renting and since they owned another flat, he denied them any compensation.
The problem was that their two-room apartment was too small for the family. And so the litigation began.
Adulthood = autonomy?
First, a district court in Třebíč decided the family could have been forced to vacate the flat only after a compensatory housing had been provided for them by the owner.
However, a regional court in Brno overruled the verdict and said the owner had no such obligation towards his tenants. This was based on a change of the circumstances - the daughter had reached her adulthood.
"She is qualified as a shop-assistant, hence able to make living on her own and find herself an accommodation somewhere, for example by renting a room," stated the judges. According to them, this had freed her parents from the obligation to provide housing for her.
The undeniable right
"Our daughter has just started to work, she has no experience, no resources," objected the parents in their appeal to the Supreme Court. They believed that under such circumstances, their daughter was still in need of their help.
The Supreme Court concurred and canceled the previous decision.
"Adult children can have their right to stay with parents denied only when they are able to live on their own or when they are abusing this right against those who provide the housing," explained the court.
And with regard to the conditions of the renters, they cannot be compelled to undertake the duty of the owner to secure compensatory accommodation.
