When there’s housing trouble, whom can you turn to? How much do you really have to pay when the water heater breaks down, or how can you find out if your rent is actually too high? What if your greedy landlord or landlady refuses to give your deposit back? Those were the troubles I had. I lived in a small apartment in the 9th district, Alsegrund of Vienna, on a normal 3-year contract. It was going well until the water heater broke down after just one year. My landlady, Mrs. W, insisted I should pay for half of the new water heater, which I found naturally bizarre.
So I went to the free consulting in the Bezirksgericht, in Florianigasse in the 8th district. And according to Mietrecht, I would have to pay only up to 20% of the new heater, since I was going to use it only up to 2 years. The strategy they recommended was, that I’d first agree to pay the 50%(that’s about €1000,00), and ask it back when I move out. My obligatory question to this strategy was of course, what if the b**** doesn’t’ pay it back! The answer was, ‘Well then, you can go to Mietervereinigung. They can help.’ And that’s exactly what I did. And after two years when I moved out, that’s the place I went for help.
Mietervereinigung is an organization sponsored initially by SPÖ and now by its membership. According to their website(http://www.mietervereinigung.at), they are not aiming to make big profit, but just help tenants. The membership for one year is about €140, and only about €46 for students!
So I made my appointment, talked about the troubles I had. (1. the cost for water heater 2. the landlady refuses to pay the deposit back, and most interesting 3. if my rent was too high) I know it sounds absurd that if the rent can be regulated nowadays in western world like Austria, but actually it can! And probably only in Austria and Germany, such initially socialist concept of renting a place is put into practice, and not just in the law.
There’s an application you can file to ‘investigate’ if the rent is too high. A guy from the Schlichtungsstelle(arbitration board) came to the apartment with presence of me and Mrs. W, to take measure of the whole place. The idea is about ‘what kind of apartment is it anyway?’ There are 4 categories, A, B, C, and D. And each category has a maximum amount of rent per square meter. ‘A’ being the highest.
It turned out I was paying too much, about €3 more per square meter, times 40 square meters, times 36 months, that’s more than €4000! Plus the deposit, and €800 back for the water heater, it did make Mrs. W nervous, and she hired a lawyer:-)
On the day of arbitration, Mrs. W came with her lawyer, and I was there with a lady appointed by the Mietervereinigung. There must have been enough cases to have Mrs. W’s lawyer convinced that a extra-judicial agreement is a better solution for both of us. It’s true that extra-judicial agreement is the better solution in such cases, based on the adequate amount of stare decisis on housing issues in Austria, Mrs. W knew that it’d have costed her more if we bring the case to court.
Their offer was a lump-sum of €6000,00 which I accepted. Had such a great smile when I, being asian, foreign, and seemingly the perfect candidate for becoming a victim of some greedy schemer who lives in Niederösterreich(lower Austria), had a successful negotiation.
My advice on the subject in a nutshell: you’ve got to have the right attitude. Just find out about your rights, and don’t get crossed too much by some necessary formality. What seems most tiring is actually the mental pressure of the hassle you think you have to go through, and that stretched in certain tiring length of time..But the Mietervereinigung can offer substantial help. And from the cost-benefit perspective, the attractive membership fees did bring out highly satisfying outcome. Generally in Europe it’s a lot cheaper to deal with legal matters, so seize the opportunity and don’t let those greedy old landladies get their way!
P.S
1. you need some good German for such matter. If not, get a friend who can do this for you.
2. according to the new law, if the water heater breaks down, the landlord has to replace on his/her own cost. This new law is definitely one of the achievements of the Mietervereinigung, and all the tenants who refuse to get ripped off. Stare Decis does add up to something sometimes in a good way, So react when you have to!
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