Tenant's application to the conciliation board or district court under § 37 MRG (Austria)
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This document is in German
The PDF you download is in German — that is the language it has to be filed in, so it is not translated. Everything on this page is here to tell you what it says.
The tenant's application in Austria's non-contentious tenancy procedure: to have the main rent checked, the deposit repaid, the service-charge statement reviewed or repairs carried out (§ 37 Abs 1 of the Austrian Tenancy Act, MRG) — with the parties, the flat, the request, the grounds and the enclosures. Where the municipality has a conciliation board (Schlichtungsstelle), it is approached first (§ 39 MRG); elsewhere the district court for the flat. Vienna prescribes no form; if your municipality offers its own, you may use it free of charge instead. Signed by all tenants. In German.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Tenant (name with any academic degree)
- Tenant's address
- Contact phone
- The municipality's conciliation board (Schlichtungsstelle) or the district court (Bezirksgericht) for the flat
- Address of the conciliation board or the court (street, then postcode and town on the next line)
- City
- Date
- Address of the flat (with staircase and door number)
- Other tenants making the application too (names; blank if none)
- Landlord (name with any academic degree, or the company name)
- Landlord's address
- Date of the contract
- Flat let to the tenant since (start of the tenancy)
- What the application asks for: a rent check, return of the deposit, review of the service-charge statement, or repairs
- Grounds: the facts, amounts and periods, and for repairs the defects
- Does the municipality have a conciliation board: yes (apply there), no (apply to the court), or yes but no decision within three months
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- Is there a form for an application to a Schlichtungsstelle in Austria?
- None is prescribed, as far as is known: Vienna's conciliation board accepts an informal signed application with enclosures. If your municipality offers its own application form, you may use that instead, free of charge; ask the board. Where there are several tenants, all sign. Vienna's board also accepts written applications by e-mail. A district court does not: send the application by post, hand it in, or file it through JustizOnline with ID Austria.
- Must a tenant in Austria go to the Schlichtungsstelle before the district court?
- Yes, if the municipality where the flat is has set up a conciliation board: the application must go there first (§ 39 MRG). If the board has not decided within three months, either party may take the matter to the district court (§ 40 Abs 2 MRG). A party that does not accept the board's decision may take the matter to the court within four weeks of its service (§ 40 Abs 1 MRG). Only some larger municipalities, such as Vienna, have a board; elsewhere the application goes straight to the district court (Bezirksgericht) for the flat. The municipal office (Gemeindeamt or Magistrat) can say whether yours has one.
- What deadlines apply in Austria to having the rent checked?
- The invalidity of a rent agreement must be raised within three years (§ 16 Abs 8 MRG); after that the agreed main rent can no longer be challenged. For a fixed-term lease this period ends no earlier than six months after the tenancy ends or becomes open-ended, so a check is still possible shortly after moving out. Repayment of the deposit can be demanded once the tenancy has ended; the landlord must repay it with its interest without delay, less justified claims (§ 16b MRG).
- Which leases in Austria does the § 37 MRG procedure cover?
- Rent checks, service-charge reviews and orders for repairs mainly concern flats under the full MRG. Repayment of the deposit can be sought this way under partial application too (§ 16b MRG). If the lease is wholly outside the MRG (full exemption), claims are brought by an ordinary action in the contentious procedure. Flats of limited-profit housing associations follow the WGG, with rules of their own. The tenants' association (Mietervereinigung), the Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer) or the conciliation board itself can help place a lease.
How you can sign this document
- Print it and sign by hand. The signature lines in the document are left blank on purpose — sign on them in ink.
- Sign it yourself with a qualified electronic signature. If you already hold a QES — Evrotrust, B-Trust, StampIT, ZealiD or any qualified provider on the EU Trusted List, on a card, a USB token, in a mobile app or in the cloud — our signing guide explains step by step how to sign this exact file without invalidating it. Step-by-step help, and a way to check it worked
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