Your existing mortgage repayment instalment is going to be temporarily difficult to pay. A payment pause might ease next month, but it says nothing about how payments will develop afterwards. Before you agree any change, you need a plan for both periods. This article covers preparing for an individual discussion in Austria; it does not promise a general right to defer payments nor a bank's consent.
Describe the shortfall with concrete data
Our editorial recommendation: Contact your lending office early and explain from when and which amount is likely to be missing. Distinguish a known short-term default from a longer-term unclear change. A hope of rapidly rising income is a different basis than a newly confirmed payment.
Place the current payment schedule, remaining debt statement and your revised household budget side by side. Note which instalment is due next and which other necessary expenses exist. Until a concrete change is actually clarified and agreed, a mere enquiry should not appear in your planning as an already promised payment pause.
Deferral is not forgiven debt
The FMA explains deferral as a postponement of the due date of one or more instalments and names a reduction of instalments with an extended term as a possible arrangement. The FMA page used, however, originates from the COVID context. Only this limited definition is used here; no special law from that time is transferred to current loans. [BEGRIFF]
Ask for each concrete offer whether the entire instalment or only a part is changed. Which interest, fees or other payments continue to apply meanwhile? When will deferred amounts be paid? Does the term change, will a later instalment change or is there a payment at the end? Have these points explained together. The single word pause does not answer them.
In the scope of HIKrG, § 17a requires, before any change to the credit contract terms, inter alia a clear description of the changes, information on the implementation period and details of complaint options including time limits and the competent authority. [AENDERUNG] This duty to inform is not a promise that the relief you request must be agreed.
View the period after the relief in full
Compare the previous and the proposed schedule from the same starting date. Consider payments during the shortfall, the initial period afterwards and the further final date. Ask for a comprehensible comparison of the total remaining burden under the respective assumptions. Different interest scenarios or open costs must not be presented as the same basis.
Check whether the proposed solution merely postpones the real problem. A later higher payment can be acceptable if there is truly a solid basis for it. It is not a solution merely because it falls outside the visible month today. If the income shortfall lasts longer than hoped, further advice should be sought in good time.
Read old COVID texts in their temporal context
§ 2 of the 2. COVID-19-Justiz-Begleitgesetz concerns, among its other conditions, consumer credits concluded before 15 March 2020 and due dates between 1 April 2020 and 31 January 2021. [HISTORISCH] That the text is still accessible in the consolidated law does not create a general right to suspend new loan instalments of 2026 for ten months.
Therefore do not adopt old periods, bank offers from that time or statements about special protective effects unexamined into your current discussion. For a current agreement your contract and the rules that are concretely applicable today must be considered. This article does not decide any open disputes about a deferral actually used at that time.
Example: Three months without the previously planned outflow
Fictitiously three monthly instalments of €1.000 each were scheduled. If these were fully deferred after a concrete agreement, initially €3.000 would be less to flow out than originally planned. That does not imply a debt forgiveness of €3.000 nor cost-free status. The household can therefore be explained how exactly these amounts and any further burdens are accounted for in the new payment plan. The example does not calculate actual interest nor any bank condition offered.
Seek a sustainable agreement rather than a quick makeshift
Keep the confirmed new plan with its conditions and check whether the actual debits match it. With multiple parties or securities it should be clear who must be involved in the change. A new private bridging loan or a quick online confirmation should not be left unchecked and hide the next problem.
If you no longer see a viable way forward, seek suitable independent debt advice. The preparation is intended to make it possible to discuss a realistic solution before a temporary shortfall creates further opaque obligations.