Real property dictionary

According to Section 15 of the Act on Tenancy Law (MRG), the rental fee for the transfer of a rental object in main rent consists of the main rental fee, operating costs, and running public charges, extraordinary expenses (e.g. lift costs), and possible furniture rental. The main rental fee is therefore part of the total rental fee.

The lien on a property is called a mortgage. This serves as security for a claim by the mortgaging contractual party against the property owner. The mortgage is entered into the land register in the page of charges to the property concerned. Furthermore, in addition to the main claim, extra claims (interest, default and compound interest, legal fees, enforcement fees, etc.) can be secured by security for extra fees. A special form of mortgage is the maximum sum mortgage. Here, only a maximum sum is specified, under which interest and extra fees must be covered. Within the scope of the maximum sum, all kinds of granted credit, and credit to be granted can be secured, minus any advances. In this situation, the lien can be entered for the same claim, undivided over two or several objects (contributions) in the land register. In this regard, a contribution is denoted as a main contribution, while the rest are described as extra contributions. Regardless of this, each property is liable for the entire claim of the creditor (concurrent mortgage).

A maisonette is a two-storied home within a building of multiple stories. This is usually found in the top floor of the apartment block.

In flat ownership, the majority of flat owners make basic decisions. In certain cases, however, individual owners have the opportunity to legally enforce their individual rights. Examples of this would be a resolution challenge over extraordinary administrative measures or the application to carry out maintenance work if no such action is taken by the administrator.

The term building maintenance refers to the so-called usability preservation of a property. In principle, this can be distinguished between the costs of the core construction activity (investment costs) and the costs of the maintenance (upkeep costs). On the one hand, the upkeep costs comprise the regular maintenance and repair of buildings. On the other hand, however, cleaning and the supply of electricity, water, and gas to the building, as well as winter servicing, fall under maintenance costs. Due to the long-term life cycle of a property, these are higher than the core construction costs.

Maintenance includes measures that serve the preventative upkeep of a building or one located on the property, respectively. Maintenance comprises upkeep measures such as cleaning, lubrication, calibration, refilling supplies and catalytic convertors, as well as similar measures for the reduction and prevention of signs of wear and tear respectively. According to Section 8 Paragraph 1 of the Act on Tenancy Law (MRG), the tenant is liable for the maintenance and upkeep of the rental object and included inventory, in so far as to avoid any damage being made to the landlord or other tenants.

A controversial topic concerning maintenance in the real estate industry is the maintenance of gas-fired water heaters. Since 2015, the landlord has been responsible for the maintenance, repair, and replacement of water heaters, water heating devices, and boilers. The tenant must, however, pay for the upkeep of the water heater. This regulation applies to rental objects that fall under the full and partial use area of the MRG and applies retroactively, meaning also for contracts that were concluded prior to 2015.