Property owners put forward more than 1,500 complaints in Strasbourg

Czech property owners have filed more than 1,500 complaints with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg over regulated rent in the Czech Republic. The deputy chairman of the Association for Property Owners, Milan Krcek, said the full number - 1,607 - was not yet final. House owners estimate that losses related to regulation are worth 40 billion crowns, the equivalent of 1.6 billion dollars US, since 2002. House owners say that funds from regulated rent are not sufficient to cover maintenance costs. They are asking for an immediate rise and pushing for rent to reflect real-market value by 2010.

Rent-regulation concerns some 750,000 apartments in the Czech Republic, about 20 percent of homes. About 300,000 are privately-owned.