Determining the actual purpose of the payment
First clarify whether the money is intended to be rent in advance (Nutzungsentgelt) at all, or whether it is a security or a consideration for specific items. Different purposes must not be hidden in an indeterminate lump sum. Present the intended content in full for advice, including the ongoing rent claim and all side agreements.
§ 27 MRG contains, within its scope of application, prohibitions on certain payments without equivalent consideration and rules on reclaiming such payments. [M27] Which framework applies to your property and the contract must therefore be clarified before assessing the specific payment. This article does not assume the general applicability of every MRG rule to all Austrian tenancy agreements.
Do not postpone the period to an unknown end
In 5 Ob 23/95 the OGH required a period determined or determinable in advance for a genuine rent prepayment. The designation as the last six months of an open-ended tenancy at some unspecified time did not suffice in the decided case. [J23]
For your review task, therefore describe exactly which period the payment is intended to cover according to the proposed content. A termination that may become available later or a contractual end unknown today is not treated on its own as an already clarified temporal allocation. Do not simply adopt the word "prepayment" from someone else's contract template as the legal justification.
Create your own case history before requesting payment
In the fictional case a landlord plans an additional sum that is set out as the last rents in the draft. His first thought concerns only the earlier inflow of money. While preparing the advice he recognises three unanswered questions: which periods are meant, how will settlement be made in the event of an earlier end, and how does the payment interact with the ongoing rent?
He puts the planned payment request back and has the complete draft reviewed. The goal is not merely to find a new heading. The performance actually desired must be explained in terms of content and legally classified. This article does not propose a ready-made substitute clause.
Check prepayment quality and rent level separately
5 Ob 2067/96y deals with the specified period and the proportional reclaimability in the event of an early end. At the same time the OGH distinguishes this classification from the question of an excessive rent. A missing monthly deduction there did not by itself prove a prohibited transfer payment (Ablöse). [J2067]
Therefore demand two comprehensible results: the legal classification of the one-off payment and the review of the total intended rent burden. A favourable result on the first question does not replace the second.
Only proceed once the basis is clarified
After the review the payment purpose, the period and the treatment of an earlier end should be clearly established. If a disputed payment already exists, the actual contract with the payment receipt belongs in the advice; this article neither confirms repayment nor retention in the concrete case. An economic discount calculation can be helpful afterwards, but it does not resolve the preceding legal question.