A family member wants to buy an apartment in Austria and asks you to sign for the bank. You are not to move in yourself nor acquire an ownership share, but to help as additional security. Treat this request as your own financial decision. A personal relationship of trust does not answer which payments you would assume towards the bank and whether you could afford them.
Name the role on paper specifically
Ask for the complete draft and clarify whether a guarantee (Bürgschaft), an obligation as guarantor and payer (Bürge und Zahler) or another form of liability is intended. The familial phrase I am just helping briefly does not change the contract content. Our editorial recommendation is to have a separate conversation about this without time pressure to sign.
§ 1357 ABGB provides that a guarantor and payer are liable as undivided co-debtors and leaves it to the creditor’s choice to pursue the principal debtor, the guarantor or both. [HAFTUNG] Do not therefore rely on the idea that every other possibility must necessarily be exhausted first. Have the exact content and scope of your intended obligation explained on the basis of the specific draft.
Separate the scope of liability from the monthly instalment
A known monthly instalment is not a complete description of the guarantee. Ask about the specified loan, the maximum extent, included ancillary claims, any time limitation and the conditions for an actual release. If a maximum amount is provided, it must be clear what it covers and which further provisions stand alongside it.
Also record possible later changes: what should happen in the event of a change to the term, a deferral, additional financing or a change in life circumstances? The article does not claim that a particular clause covers or excludes every such change. It is decisive that you get answers to these questions before binding yourself and not merely expect a favourable normal course.
Lay out your own housing and life planning alongside it
Calculate with your own household, existing commitments and already planned expenses. A reserve that you need for your next own flat or a necessary purchase is not freely available just because today no one yet demands its transfer. Consider what the consequences of an actual claim would be for you.
For a hypothetical case, a person has a €6.000 reserve and plans €4.000 of it for their own move. A desired liability of €30.000 cannot be compatible with the statement it’s already been explained. The remaining €2.000 obviously does not answer how a much higher claim could be met. The figures are a freely chosen thought example, not a blanket liability limit and not a recommendation for a specific guarantee product.
Discuss uncertainties openly. You may distinguish between a supportive attitude towards a relative and your ability to make a concrete commitment. Another form of support may be conceivable; it too must fit you financially and legally. This article does not advise concluding a specific substitute product.
What the protection rules actually achieve
For a consumer who joins another’s obligation as an interceding party (Interzedent), § 25c KSchG, under its conditions, requires the creditor to give notice of an identified or identifiable likely non-performance by the debtor. If the information is omitted, the provision links liability to the question whether the obligation would have nevertheless been assumed. [WARNUNG] This is a concrete protection rule; not every guarantee automatically becomes ineffective because of a later payment default.
§ 25d KSchG allows, in the event of an unreasonable imbalance with regard to the ability to perform and under further conditions, a judicial mitigation up to and including remission. Relevant are, among other things, circumstances discernible when the obligation was entered into; the provision also names aspects for the balancing. [MAESSIGUNG] A possible later legal dispute is therefore no reliable substitute for a sustainable decision before signing. Whether you at all fall into the relevant interceding-party constellation will be clarified professionally if your own interest is unclear or roles are otherwise distributed.
Record your own decision before signing
In the end you should be able to state without placation for whose debt you vouch in what form, which amounts may be affected and under which demonstrable conditions the obligation ends. The non-binding expectation the bank will let you out later anyway is not sufficient for that.
In case of uncertainty obtain independent legal or financial advice with the complete draft. If you have already been called upon, claim, contract, information given at the time and the economic starting situation all belong to the review. Neither family closeness nor a general reference to consumer protection replaces the assessment of these specific documents.