Real property dictionary

If legal regulations can be deviated from through contractual agreement, this is referred to as derogation. An example of this is the distribution of expenses in flat ownership. By law, this action is allocated in accordance with share of co-ownership. Under the agreement of all flat owners, a different basis of allocation can be agreed. Mandatory legal requirements cannot be derogated.

Developers may be the client themselves or their representatives. In any case, however, they are a company responsible for handling a construction scheme. They can be distinguished between commercial and non-profit developers.

In Vienna, development regulations are announced after an application has been made for their announcement, are valid for 18 months, and include prescriptions about the exploitability of a building site, as well as building alignments and building classes.

Conducting due diligence requires a careful examination and analysis of a property, with special regard to economic, legal, fiscal, and financial characteristics, which is carried out by the potential purchaser of a property. The objective of the due diligence is to determine, as well as possible, whether assumptions and conditions, which are related to a purchase offer for a property, apply and all relevant risks have been clearly identified. In the course of this, all documents on the property are checked, analysed and verified. Due diligence comprises different sections, among which the examination of financial situation, market analysis, and legal and fiscal analyses are of primarily great importance. The result of conducting due diligence is a due diligence report, which gives an overview of the most significant findings in the extensive analysis.

Devolution is the formal transfer of the inheritance to the identified heirs through a court ruling at the end of the probate proceedings. Through the certificate of inheritance, the heir obtains ownership of the inheritance.

This is a cashless payment process where the payee has a payment booked through the bank from the account of the payer. The bank payment process is therefore triggered by the payee. The requirement for this, however, is that the payer grants the payee his agreement to the direct debit and their bank has ordered the payment of the direct debits. This takes place by way of a SEPA direct debit authorisation.

The deposit or guarantee amount is a liability amount demanded by contractual partners to ensure the adherence to a contract, in particular for a claim that may arise at a later date. In real estate law, the deposit serves to ensure the payment of rental fees or damages to the rental object. Usually, it is three to six times the gross monthly rent. If this is given to the landlord as a sum of money, then the landlord must invest this for profit in a savings account or in another similar form of investment (equally good interest and equally high security).

After the end of the tenancy agreement, the landlord must return the deposit to the tenant, including the interest attained from its investment, as long as it is not used to repay legitimate claims of the landlord from the tenancy agreement.

If insolvency proceedings are initiated on the landlord’s assets, the deposit may not be used for any claims that are unrelated to the tenancy agreement.

A contractual object must correspond to the qualities determined in the contract or it is considered defective. A defect is when the purchased and transferred contractual object lacks either the usually provided features in commercial transactions or the expressly agreed features between the contractual parties at the time of transfer.

The determination of floor area is calculated according to actual measurements or on the basis of authorised building plans by civil surveyors.