Letter demanding the return of a tenancy deposit (Austria)
Published byDocMuse
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 letter a tenant in Austria sends after moving out to get the deposit back. It states the end of the tenancy, the return of the flat and the deposit, sets a deadline to repay it with interest — or to hand back the savings book or bank guarantee — asks for a clear account of anything kept back, and names the next step. Where the Austrian Tenancy Act (MRG) applies, § 16b MRG requires repayment without delay, enforceable through the Schlichtungsstelle or the district court. In German, for every Land.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Tenant (name with any academic degree)
- Tenant's address
- Landlord (name with any academic degree, or the company name)
- Landlord's postal address (street, then postcode and town on the next line)
- City
- Date
- Address of the flat (with staircase and door number)
- Date of the contract
- End date of the contract
- Date of return
- Deposit amount
- Payment deadline
- What the landlord is to return (money, savings book or bank guarantee)
- IBAN
- Does the Austrian Tenancy Act (MRG) apply to the flat: fully or in part, or is it exempt?
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 must a landlord in Austria repay the tenancy deposit?
- Where the Austrian Tenancy Act applies in full or in part: without delay once the tenancy has ended, together with the interest it earned, except as far as it is needed for justified claims arising from the lease (§ 16b MRG). The law names no number of days, so the letter sets a deadline; about 14 days is usual. For a flat wholly exempt from the MRG, the lease and the Austrian Civil Code apply.
- How does a tenant in Austria enforce the return of a deposit the landlord will not repay?
- Where the Austrian Tenancy Act applies in full or in part, apply to your municipality's Schlichtungsstelle if it has one — in Vienna, the MA 50 — and otherwise to the district court, asking it to fix the amount owed and order the landlord to pay (§ 37 Abs 1 Z 8b MRG). All tenants should sign; the lease and the handover records go with it. For a flat wholly exempt from the MRG, an ordinary claim in court remains.
- May a landlord in Austria keep back part of the deposit?
- Only for justified claims arising from the lease, such as unpaid rent or damage beyond ordinary wear (§ 16b MRG, § 1109 ABGB). So the letter asks for a clear account that names every claim with its reason and amount and backs it up, and for the rest to be paid now. For damage, the landlord must sue or set the claim off within one year of the flat's return (§ 1111 ABGB).
- How should a deposit demand be sent in Austria so that its receipt can be proved?
- The law sets no form, but the letter takes effect only when it is received, and the sender must prove that. Hand it over against a dated confirmation on a copy, or send it by registered post, ideally for delivery to the addressee in person, and keep the receipt. An e-mail is poor proof of receipt. If every tenant named in the lease signs, it is clear the demand comes from all of them.
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
DocMuse sells documents, not legal advice. Acceptance always depends on the recipient's rules and your local law.
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