Built-up area and courtyard (land type)

Zastavěná plocha a nádvoří (built-up area and courtyard, abbreviated “zast. pl.”) is one of the ten land types in the Czech land register. According to the annex to Decree No. 357/2013 Coll., it is land with a building on it, including the courtyard: yard, driveway, small structures, swimming pool, lawns, flower beds and other adjoining areas that serve the building. Shared courtyards, demolition sites and water structures also fall into this type.

How to read it

A parcel of this type is by law a building parcel (Section 2(c) of the Cadastral Act). Buildings are normally recorded on such parcels (Section 11 of the Decree). If no building is recorded on the parcel, the register gives a land use, typically shared courtyard or demolition site.

It is not agricultural land. The parcel therefore does not belong to the agricultural land fund, and the register gives it no soil quality code (BPEJ), which it keeps only for agricultural land.

What it means

• For Czech real estate tax, this land forms a separate group (Section 5a of Act No. 338/1992 Coll.).
• The area covered by a taxable building is not subject to land tax; it is taxed as a building. Only the rest of the parcel, such as the yard, is taxed as land (Section 2(2) of the same Act).
• The land type alone does not say what may be built or rebuilt on the parcel. That is decided by the zoning plan and the building authority.

What to watch out for

Do not confuse it with the built-up area of a building. The land type describes the whole parcel in the register, while the built-up area of a building is its footprint from the project documents or the RÚIAN register. The parcel area is therefore usually larger than the footprint of the house.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the parcel under the house larger than the house?

Because it includes the courtyard: yard, driveway, paths or the lawn by the house. A garden behind the house, however, is often a separate parcel recorded as garden.

What if a house stands on a parcel recorded as garden?

Then the register does not match reality. A new building has to be entered in the register on the basis of a survey plan and proof of its permitted use; ask the agent or the seller.