Reader question: How can an agreed service be valued as the main rent and what remains to be clarified when the service ends?
You have agreed for an Austrian flat to perform part of the main rent by providing services. The scope of work has since become larger than expected. Or the activity is to end while you wish to continue living there. Then labour, cash payment and the tenancy should not be treated as an inseparable personal favour.
§28 MRG contains a special rule where the agreed main rent consists wholly or partly of services provided by the tenant. [MRG28] This article assumes that this provision is applicable in the specific relationship. Mere occasional neighbourly help does not automatically become such a rent agreement.
What was actually agreed as the consideration?
Provide the lease, supplementary agreements and, if applicable, a separate service contract. Which specific activity was to fulfil which share of the main rent? Are material costs, substitutions or additional tasks treated separately? A later task list from the landlord is not yet a confirmed original agreement.
Describe the actual sequence with date, type of activity and a comprehensible extent. Separate agreed work from additional requests and voluntary tasks. This will show whether the dispute concerns the valuation of the agreed service or an extension of the assignment.
The statutory valuation standard is the local customary rate
Under §28 the tenant may require that the services be valued at the respective locally customary remuneration for activities of that kind. [MRG28] An arbitrarily chosen hourly rate or an old flat contractual figure does not settle this question conclusively.
Prepare the specific service description for the expert assessment. An offer for extensive commercial overall care may contain different services than your individual task. Our recommendation is therefore to state comparison scope, location and period comprehensibly before any figure is adopted. This article does not set an appropriate wage or market price.
Hypothetical case: The agreed task remains unclear
A tenant is to regularly clean certain common areas. Later the landlord expects additional garden work and occasional errands. In his first summary he had described everything only as “work for the flat”.
He now separates the originally agreed cleaning, later additional requests and tasks already actually completed. For the valuation it is first clarified what extent was agreed as the main rent. The case neither confirms a specific claim for additional services nor a particular type of employment contract. Precisely this delimitation may belong in further tailored advice.
An added value is not an arbitrary credit
If the statutory valuation for the services yields a substantially higher amount than the permissible rent, §28 provides for appropriate remuneration by the landlord. The provision also allows the landlord to demand the permissible rent in money instead of the services. This also applies if the service relationship ends but the tenancy continues. [MRG28]
Therefore check the service and the legally permissible main rent together. The article does not invent a fixed percentage threshold for “substantial” and does not endorse an unauthorised offsetting of an estimated surplus. Under this rule, the ending of a service does not automatically mean that the remaining period of residence runs without rent payment.
Proceed with a specific valuation question
§37 names the crediting of services against the main rent as a matter in its own right. [MRG37] For a further review you need the concrete agreement, proof of services and the payment history to date. Also have clarified who requests which change and from when a cash payment is to apply. A clear separation of these points prevents tenure and work accounting being governed only by mutual expectations.