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Question about rent deposit in Austria (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/austria@feddit.de
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I'm sorry if this question doesn't belong here, but couldn't figure out where else to write and this community doesn't have a rule against english posts so decided to ask here:

Are landlords in Austria required to pay back the rent deposit with interest ? And if so, is the interest rate tied to something specific? Or are all of these things contract specific and the landlord by default is not required to pay back the deposit with interest to the tenant (if the tenant hasn't caused any damage that would allow the landlord to keep the deposit obviously)?

I tried googling and translating some pages without success, and my German skills are limited to oida gemma zu billa so I thought maybe someone here could help.

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[–] 5 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

I am not a lawyer, so take it with a grain of salt, but looking at the Mietrechtsgesetz (law of tenancy), § 16b "Kaution", it says that the landlord must deposit the rent deposit into a savings account (or something that has a similar yield, is as secure and separates it from the wealth of the landlord), and yes, assuming there are no damages that need to be paid, it seems the landlord is obliged to return the rent deposit including all interest. Upon request, the landlord must inform you about the savings account in writing. The similar-yield-as-a-savings-account-thing is quite wishy-washy, unfortunately.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 years ago

    This eases my mind a bit, but yeah I'm afraid that paying high kaution and staying in an apartment for years means that the money is just losing a lot of value. 4500e is insane amount of money to just put away but the rental market is what it is. This answered my question, Danke sehr!

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    • [–] 3 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    IANAL but this page says yes. There are no fixed rules for how much interest, but the common understanding from previous court cases is that it should be roughly equivalent to the interest you'd get in a savings account.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 years ago

    Danke sehr! This was really useful, checking the translated word for deposit interest rate led me to check on AT National bank what is considered "industry standard" interest rate (Sparzinsen Entwicklung) and seems about right, normal saving account rates.

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    • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    This link should help.

    https://www.oesterreich.gv.at/themen/bauen_wohnen_und_umwelt/wohnen/3/1/Seite.210221.html

    Answer to your question:

    Yes, the landlord is required to pay back the rent deposit with interest.

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