If residential property within the meaning of the Austrian Residential Property Act (WEG) is established on a property and two natural persons jointly acquire residential property (properties eligible for residential property ownership can be apartments, but also (terraced, detached) houses, etc.), this has automatically established an owner partnership in accordance with Section 13 WEG since 2002. It is not necessary for a special family relationship to exist between these two persons.

The special thing about an owner-occupier partnership is that both persons become owners of half of the property, regardless of how much each of them contributes to the purchase price, for example. If, for example, a married couple establishes an ownership partnership by purchasing a property, both become owners of exactly half of the so-called minimum share.

Death of a co-owner:

If one of the co-owners dies, the surviving co-owner inherits their half of the residential property by law. The share of the deceased therefore passes directly into the ownership of the surviving partner (§ 14 WEG). This process is called accretion ex lege. However, the surviving partner must generally pay the heirs a transfer price equal to half of the market value of the share of the apartment, although there are various legal exceptions to this.

This “automatic” accrual only does not occur if the condominium ownership partners conclude a deviating agreement during their lifetime. Such an agreement is the only way to prevent the deceased’s half share from being transferred ex lege to the condominium partner and third parties from being completely excluded. However, third parties are still not treated completely equally to the surviving condominium partner: a third person does not acquire direct ownership of the half share, but only a claim to transfer of ownership of the same.

In summary, there is extensive legal protection for the surviving partner in the case of an owner-occupier partnership. The purpose of the relevant provisions is to secure the property within the partnership and to satisfy urgent housing needs. In the case of condominium ownership, it is therefore not (exclusively) a question of whether there is a right of inheritance, a testamentary disposition has been made or the condominium partners were married.

_{Sources:
Condominium Act 2002
Zak Aktuell issue 17/2017}