Reader question: How do I make an Austrian care-home offer with accommodation, care and additional services comparable before concluding the contract?
For an Austrian care-home place a friendly offer with a monthly total price is available. It is unclear which rooms, care and additional services are included. Before you agree, you need a comprehensible description of services. Two identical total prices can describe different contractual offers.
The article concerns the special care-home contract framework under §27b KSchG. The actual type of facility and contract must be clarified first. Not every supported living arrangement or accommodation automatically falls under it. [KSchG27b]
Request the essential information in writing
Under §27c the care-home operator must, on request, provide in writing to applicants whom it can admit information on essential matters of the contract conclusion and the accommodation, care and nursing. [KSchG27c] Our recommendation: Ask for the information relating to the specific offered place and the proposed contract together with the named annexes.
Record the version and the time of the offer. A general brochure can supplement, but does not automatically answer which specific living option is actually available now. A still vacant place is not recorded as promised merely by receipt of an information package.
Describe accommodation and care concretely
§27d requires, among other things, information on duration, rooms, equipment, laundry provision, cleaning, meals and basic care. [KSchG27d] Assign the available information to your daily life: Which private room is intended? Which communal facilities are included? What is actually agreed for laundry and cleaning?
If a wording is unclear, ask about scope and responsibility. The word “care” alone does not answer which service at which times is part of the contract. Medically or nursing-appropriate provision must be clarified individually with the suitably qualified bodies; this article does not perform a needs or suitability diagnosis.
Break down the total price into the required parts
The statute provides for a breakdown of fees for accommodation, meals, basic care, special nursing and additional services as well as information on services covered by social or disability assistance. [KSchG27d] Also ask which services are merely brokered and provided by third parties.
An illustrative comparison: Offer A lists certain laundry services in the stated scope. Offer B presents the same service as a separate offer. The two total prices are therefore not directly comparable unchanged. First it will be clarified whether the required service is included, charged additionally or not yet agreed. No general market-standard care-home costs are asserted.
Also recognise expressly absent services
For the special services referred to in §27d paragraph 2 the law requires information insofar as they are provided, brokered or demanded. If they are not offered, this must be stated. [KSchG27d] An empty field is therefore not quietly treated as a free promise.
Mark open points with the concrete question: “Is this service part of the offered contract, separately available or not envisaged?” This turns an indeterminate comparison into a decision about the actual scope of services.
Review the complete contractual status before being bound
§27d requires understandable yet precise content and regulates written form and delivery of a contract copy with specific time limits. Personality rights and the procedure at contract termination are also part of the contract framework. [KSchG27d]
Compare the final version with the concretely confirmed information. Missing annexes, unclear additional costs and outstanding service questions remain visible until clarified. A trusted person can assist; who may act with legal binding authority is determined separately. The result is an informed decision about a specific care-home place and its complete contractual basis.