A tenant wants to terminate his rental contract prematurely – for example because of a job change. However, the quick processing often fails due to the agreed deadlines for termination. “It happens again and again that apartment tenants turn to the consumer protection of the Chamber of Labor because of such an issue,” says Herbert Steiblmüllner, housing law expert at the AK Upper Austria.
There are now two decisions by the Supreme Court (OGH) in which longer periods have been lifted. One case concerned a rental agreement with a three-year waiver of termination, the other case with a five-year waiver of termination. Both also included a one-year notice period. The OGH came to the conclusion that in the course of an open-ended apartment rental agreement, the agreement of such waivers and deadlines for termination is to be regarded as unreasonably long and therefore ineffective.
Financial double burden
The reason for this is that a tenant who no longer needs the apartment due to a change in his personal circumstances is threatened with a double financial burden with such long commitment periods because the old tenancy agreement is still valid while a new tenancy relationship has already been established. It is said that this could very quickly lead to an existential restriction of his economic freedom of disposition.
“Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not answer the question of how long notice waivers or notice periods can be classified as appropriate,” says Steiblmüllner. But it is clear from his point of view that shorter deadlines than those in the aforementioned procedures must be agreed. (az)
Source: Nachrichten
