landlord rent austria
Building has been out of hot water for 32 hours
<p>I currently live in a student residence with another 35 students. On Wednesday night I didn't have hot water and took a cold shower, then, next night I still didn't have hot water. I asked the other tenants if someone else didn't have hot water through the Whatsapp group we have and everyone who answered stated that they also don't have hot water.</p>

<p>This morning (32 hours after Wednesday's night) I informed the landlord of this problem and also encouraged others tenants to do the same.</p>

<p>I know that in most places hot water counts as a plumbing service and the landlord has a time window to fix this problem, after such time some legal actions can be taken.</p>

<p>What are my rights as a tenant of a room when facing this problem? Let's say that he doesn't fix it this weekend because paying a plumber on weekends is more expensive and he prefers to wait until Monday, so he leaves all of us for 3 more days without hot water, what can I do about this?</p>

<p>I'm not an Austrian citizen nor I don't speak German (yet) but I do have a rent contract signed by both parties.</p>

<p>If a landlord does not fulfill their duties to keep the rented property in a usable state, then <a href="https://www.arbeiterkammer.at/beratung/konsument/bauenundwohnen/miete/Miete_reduzieren.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">according to this source</a>, the tennant has the right to reduce the rent by a certain percentage while the fault persists (<em>"Mietminderung"</em>). There are several court cases which can be used as precedent cases about what kind of fault warrants what kind of reduction. </p>

<p>If a tennant wants to make use of this, they should inform their landlord about this in writing.</p>

<p>Possible risk: If the landlord does not agree that the fault warrants the rent reduction, they will have to take legal actions. In the worst case, the court might decide that the reduction was not warranted, which means that the tennant has to pay the legal fees and pay back the rent they withheld. If the tennant can not pay, the landlord can evict them (<em>"Räumungsklage"</em>).</p>
