Contract for work between businesses — Werkvertrag (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.
A contract between two businesses in Austria for a defined result — software, a website, an expert report, a design or a refit. It covers the description of the work, deadlines, the contractor's duty to warn under § 1168a of the Austrian Civil Code (ABGB), its own acceptance procedure, a fixed price or a cost estimate (§ 1170a ABGB), payment on acceptance with the late-payment interest of the Austrian Business Code (UGB), warranty, liability, rights of use and confidentiality. Both parties are named with their company register number (FN) and VAT number (UID). In German, ready to print and sign.
What you fill in
The details the document asks for.
- Client
- Client's address
- Client's register court and commercial register number (if registered)
- Client's VAT number (UID-Nummer, if any)
- Client's representative
- Contractor
- Contractor's address
- Contractor's register court and commercial register number (if registered)
- Contractor's VAT number (UID-Nummer, if any)
- Contractor's representative (or “in person”)
- Description of the work
- Outside the scope
- Start date
- Deadline
- Time to raise objections (days)
- Acceptance criteria
- Remuneration
- Kind of price: fixed price, or a binding or non-binding cost estimate
- Payment term (days)
- Liability cap
- Kind of usage right: non-exclusive (Werknutzungsbewilligung) or exclusive (Werknutzungsrecht)
- Fields of exploitation of the work
- Additional terms
- City
- Date
Preview
This document is produced for you. Your answers are typed into it and the finished PDF is yours to keep.
Common questions
- Contract for work or service contract: which one fits an assignment in Austria?
- It depends on what is owed. Under a Werkvertrag the contractor owes a result, such as finished software, an expert report or a refit (§ 1151 ABGB); the fee is as a rule payable once the work is complete (§ 1170 ABGB), and the warranty rules apply to defects. Under a service contract the contractor owes careful work over a period, such as ongoing support, and is paid for the services rendered. What counts is the content of the agreement, not its heading.
- What does the contractor's duty to warn under § 1168a of Austria's ABGB require?
- If material supplied by the client, or one of the client's instructions, is obviously unsuitable, the contractor must warn the client. If the contractor fails to do so and the work fails as a result, the contractor is liable for the damage (§ 1168a ABGB). The warning must make clear that the work may fail; the contract requires it without delay and in writing, and an e-mail is enough. If the client then insists in writing on the material or instruction, the contract frees the contractor from liability for a failure it causes.
- Can a contractor in Austria charge more when the cost estimate is exceeded?
- That depends on the estimate. If the contractor expressly guaranteed that it was correct, no increase can be charged even for unforeseen extra work (§ 1170a(1) ABGB); this contract agrees the same for a fixed price. Under an estimate given without a guarantee, the contractor must report a considerable overrun without delay as soon as it becomes unavoidable, or loses any claim for the extra work; the client may then withdraw, paying a fair amount for the work already done (§ 1170a(2) ABGB).
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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