You have submitted a purchase offer for an Austrian property. Afterwards the bank denies the required loan or offers only a different financing. It must now be clarified what your declaration of acquisition is actually linked to in relation to the bank decision. A cancelled financing and a terminated obligation to purchase are not necessarily the same established event.
This article examines an expressly agreed financing contingency (Finanzierungsvorbehalt) or the absence thereof. A loan revocation, an alleged mistake or the non‑receipt of a public subsidy are not decided under this single question.
Present declaration and bank decision in their actual form
Our editorial recommendation: Secure the complete offer, accompanying annexes, the acceptance, later amendments and the actual bank notice. Arrange the documents in relation to one another. Was the declaration accepted, which further declaration exists and which condition is actually part of the intended transaction?
§861 ABGB describes the concordant will as the contractual starting point. [EINIGUNG] A restriction written afterwards in your own copy will therefore not be treated as a condition already agreed by both parties. Have the actually decisive version determined by an expert.
Determine the effect of the agreed contingency
§696 distinguishes suspensive and resolutive conditions; §897 establishes the statutory connection to conditions in contracts. [BEDINGUNG] [VERTRAG] Have it explained to what legal effect the concrete agreement links the event.
A required financing commitment, a specific financing amount and an agreed timing can give rise to different questions. This guide does not set standard conditions for that. It also does not draft its own contingency that would automatically apply after the already submitted offer. What matters is what was actually agreed and how it is to be categorised legally.
Compare the requested event with the actual feedback
Check with your adviser whether the bank fully refused, requested further documents or offered a different amount. An ongoing review must not be independently characterised as a final refusal. Likewise, a partial commitment is not automatically the agreed full financing.
Assign each relevant response precisely to the agreed prerequisite. Ask whether further necessary steps or notifications remain outstanding and how they should be validly made. The article does not set its own evidential period and does not create a declaration by which a condition would have to be recognised as failed.
A mere expectation requires a different assessment
§901 distinguishes a motive expressly made into a condition from mere corresponding statements in remunerated contracts. [ERWARTUNG] The general statement that you wanted to buy with a loan is therefore not declared to be a completed financing contingency without examination.
If no appropriate contingency is established, have the actual binding status and possible other legal or consensual solutions examined. This article does not declare an automatic withdrawal nor the certain continuation of every alleged obligation. Brokerage claims are additionally assessed on the basis of their own grounds.
Fictitious case: A partial commitment is read as an unequivocal response
A purchaser agreed a financing prerequisite. The bank later offers a smaller amount; the parties draw different conclusions from this. The purchaser considers herself fully released, the seller regards the response as a sufficient commitment.
The purchaser now submits the concrete condition together with the complete bank response. She has the effect, the actual occurrence or failure and the necessary subsequent steps clarified. She plans the next instalment on the confirmed basis. The case does not set out a correct contract subsumption. It prevents either side from deriving their desired legal consequence unexamined from the word “financing”.