An unmarried couple gets a mortgage on the same terms as a married one, but anything the law settles automatically for spouses, from the shares in the flat to inheritance, you have to arrange by contract. Both of you sign the loan agreement as co-borrowers (spoludlužníci), the bank adds up your incomes, and LTV 90 % applies if at least one of you is under 36. Whether you have a marriage certificate does not interest the bank.
The difference lies in ownership. Without community property of spouses (společné jmění manželů, SJM) you do not own the flat jointly but as co-owners in shares (podílové spoluvlastnictví), with the shares recorded in the land registry (katastr). There is no statutory settlement after a break-up as there is after a divorce, and if your partner dies you do not automatically inherit. The debt, meanwhile, is fully shared: the bank can demand the whole payment from either of you.
Can unmarried partners get a joint mortgage?
| Area | Spouses | Unmarried partners |
|---|---|---|
| Debt to the bank | both co-borrowers, jointly and severally | the same: each owes the full amount |
| Ownership of the flat | usually community property of spouses, no shares | co-ownership in shares, as set in the purchase agreement |
| End of the relationship | settlement of community property after divorce under statutory rules | agreement, or court-ordered dissolution and settlement of co-ownership |
| Death of the partner | the spouse is an heir in the first class | the partner inherits by law only if the deceased had no descendants, in the second class and after a year of shared household |
| LTV 90 % under 36 | yes | yes |
| Interest deduction | CZK 150,000 limit per household | the same limit; only a partner who is both a party to the loan agreement and a co-owner can claim it |
The bank treats you the same way, but you lack the protection the law gives spouses. The purchase agreement, a co-owners' agreement and a will have to stand in for it.
How to split the shares
The shares recorded in the land registry decide who gets what part of the proceeds when the flat is sold. They do not divide the debt; you each owe the bank the full amount. Couples usually choose one of these set-ups:
- 50/50 with no further agreement. Simple, and fair only if you both put in the same own funds and repay equally.
- Shares by contribution, for example 60/40. This reflects unequal deposits on the day of purchase but not who repays how much, so after ten years of joint payments the shares no longer match reality.
- 50/50 plus a co-owners' agreement on returning contributions. The land registry shows equal shares, and the agreement says that on a sale or buy-out each of you first gets back your own contribution, with the rest split in half. For most couples this is the most practical solution.
Settle the shares when you sign the reservation and purchase agreements. Changing them later is a transfer of ownership, with a new entry in the land registry and the bank's consent. Buying as a pair more generally is covered in Co-ownership and a mortgage.
A break-up after five years, in figures
Option A, 50/50 shares and no agreement: each gets CZK 978,500. Petr comes off worse, having put in CZK 600,000 more.
Option B, 50/50 plus an agreement on returning contributions: Petr first gets back CZK 800,000 and Lucie CZK 200,000, and the remaining CZK 957,000 is split in half. Petr ends up with CZK 1,278,500 and Lucie with CZK 678,500. Each recovers their contribution plus half of the gain.
One page signed at the time of purchase was worth CZK 300,000. Without it, Petr would have had to go to court and prove who paid what.
What are the ways out after a break-up?
1. One partner buys the other out. Whoever stays pays the other for their share and takes over the mortgage alone. The bank has to agree to release the departing co-borrower, and it will only if the remaining partner meets its conditions on their own. The CZK 23,384 payment from the example needs a net income of about CZK 52,000 at the banks' usual internal threshold of 45 %.
If the current bank refuses, the fallback is refinancing into a new mortgage in one name, with income assessed afresh. The LTV limit of 80/90 % applies only if the loan grows, for instance to pay out the partner's share. The procedure is described in the article on transferring a mortgage to another person.
2. Sell and divide the proceeds. This is the cleanest route: the mortgage is repaid from the price, free of charge if at least 24 months have passed since the loan agreement was signed. Before that, the bank may charge at most 0.25 % of the amount repaid for each started year left until the fixed-rate period (fixace) ends, and no more than 1 % in total. The proceeds are split by shares or as your agreement says.
3. No agreement. Nobody has to stay in co-ownership: either of you can ask a court to dissolve and settle it. The court awards the flat to one of you against compensation, or orders a sale.
That takes a long time, and throughout it you both owe the bank the full payment. If the partner who moved out stops paying, the other has to pay the bank and can then claim the partner's part back.
If a partner dies, the debt stays but the flat may not
If one co-borrower dies, the survivor still owes the bank the whole balance. The deceased's share of the flat, however, passes to their heirs: children, or possibly parents. An unmarried partner inherits by law only in the second class of heirs, and only if the deceased left no descendants and the two shared a household for at least a year (with the partner looking after it or financially dependent on the deceased). Even then the estate is shared with the deceased's parents.
Without preparation, you end up repaying the whole mortgage while owning the flat half-and-half with your late partner's parents or children. Two tools protect you:
- A will, handwritten or made before a notary. If the testator has children, they are entitled to a compulsory share (three quarters of their statutory share for minors, one quarter for adults), so have a lawyer draft it.
- Risk life insurance (rizikové životní pojištění) on both partners, with a sum insured that covers the loan balance. The payout lets the survivor repay the mortgage or buy out the heirs.
What the bank does after a borrower's death is covered in a separate article on that subject.
What to put in a co-owners' agreement
- how much each of you put in, and the rule that contributions are returned first on a sale or buy-out;
- who repays how much, and how it is settled when one partner pays more (for example during parental leave);
- how the flat is valued in a buy-out: by an independent expert, and at whose cost;
- the deadline for paying out the departing partner, and the remaining partner's duty to ask the bank to release the co-borrower or to refinance;
- a contractual pre-emption right (předkupní právo) for the other partner, so that neither share can be sold to a third party;
- who pays the repair fund, insurance and annual property tax while only one of you lives in the flat;
- what happens if you marry: property acquired before the wedding does not become community property, but payments made after it from joint money are settled on divorce;
- a reference to your wills and life insurance, so that the agreement and the inheritance arrangements do not contradict each other.
If you plan to marry, consider a prenuptial agreement that builds on the co-owners' agreement.
Sources
- Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code – § 1115 et seq. (co-ownership), § 1140 et seq. (dissolution and settlement of co-ownership), § 1872 (joint and several obligation)
- Act No. 89/2012 Coll., the Civil Code – § 1636 (second class of heirs), § 1643 (compulsory share)
- Act No. 257/2016 Coll., on consumer credit, as amended with effect from 1 Sept 2024 (early repayment on sale of the property)
- Act No. 586/1992 Coll., on income taxes, § 15 (interest deduction, limit per household)