Thousands of proceedings concerning rent reviews are pending before the conciliation board in Vienna. The number of these proceedings before the conciliation board is so high that the conciliation board can no longer cope with the pending proceedings with its existing staff and even has to increase its staff. The Supreme Court decision 5 Ob 74/17v on the admissibility of a location surcharge when determining the guideline rent us of 2017 did not make this situation any better; on the contrary, even more rent review proceedings are being initiated.
Various litigation financiers and law firms have “specialised” in these rent review proceedings and are doing very good business with them.
The tenants are happy about the landlords’ reimbursement of the overpaid rent – reduced, however, by the share of the litigation financiers. The landlords and property managers are furious about this development and grudgingly put tenants who have initiated rent review proceedings on their internal so-called “black list”.
In view of this overall situation, the question arises whether the real estate agent who brokered the property at the time and who now “lands” this property before the conciliation board should have informed the client – either landlord/landlady or tenant/tenant or both – in connection with the legally permissible rent.
I worked out this exciting question in the course of my Master’s thesis. In this thesis, therefore, the duties of an estate agent to provide information are first described in general terms according to the Real Estate Agents Act (§ 3 Maklergesetz), the Consumer Protection Act (§ 30b KSchG) and the Austrian Civil Code (§ 1299 ABGB).
The next step is to examine which duties of disclosure apply to the real estate agent in connection with the brokerage of properties and specifically in connection with the legally permissible rent in the fully applicable area of the Tenancy Act (MRG).
Finally, the legal consequences of breaching duties of disclosure (damages, commission reduction, liability as an expert) will be explained and the possible counter-objections of the real estate agent (duty to mitigate damages, contributory negligence objection, statute of limitations, etc.) will be presented.
Of course, the present work also explains the relevant provisions of rent law for properties within the full scope of application of the MRG (above all § 16 MRG, Guide Value Act) in outline, whereby the Vienna area serves as a basis in connection with the guide value rent.
If you have any questions on this extremely exciting and practically relevant topic – whether as a tenant, landlord or real estate agent – please contact my law firm. I will advise you on this and recommend the best course of
