Objection to a penalty order (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.
A letter objecting to an Austrian penalty order (Strafverfügung) from a district authority, a city's Magistrat or the Land police directorate, for instance for a traffic offence: with the file number, the date and the day of service, against the whole order or expressly only against the amount (§ 49 of the Austrian Administrative Penal Act, VStG). Deadline: two weeks from service; no reasons are needed, e-mail is accepted, and posting on the last day is enough. If the case ends in a penalty decision, 10 % costs are added, at least € 10 (§ 64 VStG). On-the-spot fines and anonymous orders cannot be objected to. In German.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Sender
- Sender's address
- Fines authority (name as on its letter)
- Fines authority's address (street and number, then postcode and town, each on its own line)
- City
- Date
- Case number
- Date of the fine notice
- Registration plate
- Date the authority's letter was served (if left at the post office: the first day it could be collected)
- Scope of the objection: the whole order, or expressly only the amount of the penalty
- Reasons, in German (not required by law; if none yet, write that reasons will follow after inspecting the file)
- Income, assets, debts and maintenance obligations (e.g. net income, loans, children you support)
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- By when and where must an objection to a penalty order be lodged in Austria?
- Within two weeks of service, with the authority that issued the order – the district authority (Bezirkshauptmannschaft), the city's Magistrat or the Land police directorate (§ 49 Abs 1 VStG); the period cannot be extended. The objection may be made orally, in writing or by e-mail (§ 13 AVG). By post, handing it in on the last day is enough, as days in the post do not count (§ 33 Abs 3 AVG); keep the receipt. Do not leave an e-mail until the last evening: some authorities count what arrives after office hours as received the next working day. If the period ends on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, it ends on the next day that is none of these.
- Does an objection to a penalty order under Austria's VStG need reasons?
- No. No reasons are needed, though you may name evidence. An objection in time sets the order aside, and the authority runs the ordinary procedure. If it is expressly directed only at the amount of the penalty or at the costs, the same authority decides only that afresh and the finding of guilt stands (§ 49 Abs 2 VStG). If the objection also disputes the charge itself, it is treated, in case of doubt, as an objection to the whole order.
- Can the penalty go up after an objection in Austria, and what costs are added?
- It cannot go up: the penalty decision (Straferkenntnis) that follows an objection may not impose a higher penalty than the order did (§ 49 Abs 2 VStG). But if the procedure ends in a penalty decision, 10 % of the penalty is added as a contribution to the costs of the proceedings, at least € 10 (§ 64 VStG). A penalty decision can then be challenged by a complaint to the Land administrative court, in Vienna the Verwaltungsgericht Wien.
- Can an on-the-spot fine (Organmandat) or an anonymous order be objected to in Austria?
- No. There is no remedy against an Organmandat (§ 50 VStG) or an Anonymverfügung (§ 49a VStG); an objection to either achieves nothing. You can pay, and the matter is closed. If an Anonymverfügung is not paid within four weeks, it lapses and the authority opens the ordinary procedure: often it first asks the keeper to name the driver (Lenkerauskunft), then issues a penalty order, which can be objected to. The authority must take a first step against the person within one year (§ 31 Abs 1 VStG).
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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