Tenants' Association of Austria
The Tenants' Association of Austria (MVÖ) is an Austrian association that has set itself the goal of helping to improve people's living conditions and advocating for this both generally politically and in specific individual cases. Legal advice and legal representation are also offered. The tenants' association is considered to be close to the SPÖ .
The association is the umbrella organization of the state organizations represented in each federal state. She is also a founding member of the International Union of Tenants . The association is based in Vienna .
As of 2008, the MVÖ had 61 employees across Austria, plus 230 volunteer officials.
Georg Niedermühlbichler has been President since March 29, 2008 .
history
Until 1917, the free market economy had the Austrian housing market firmly under control. Terminations could be made at any time without giving a reason and the rent was set arbitrarily. The majority of the Viennese population lived in small apartments (room, kitchen, sometimes with a cabinet ), whereby the households usually consisted of six or more people. It was also the time of the so-called " bed-walkers ". In working-class families, 58% of the people did not have their own bed.
In 1917 92% of Viennese apartments did not have their own toilet and 95% did not have their own water supply. After Budapest, Vienna was then considered the city of tuberculosis .
These miserable framework conditions were the basis for the emergence of a tenant movement, which culminated on February 25, 1911 in the founding of the Austrian tenants 'association, which at that time was still called the “General Tenants' Association”.
The aim of the organization was from the beginning to bring about a general improvement of the living conditions - an extensive task when you consider the initial situation. The number of members grew quickly to 77,000 and then to 381,000 by 1934.
In the course of the First World War there was a general increase in supplies. These increases threatened to be reflected in a corresponding increase in the rent and therefore the imperial government at the time issued the first tenant protection ordinances on the basis of the War-Economics Enabling Act on June 26, 1917 and June 20, 1918. This led to the freezing of the rents at that time and the so-called peace crown . An ordinance issued on October 26, 1918 then also initially regulated legal provisions. While the first two regulations were limited in time, this was now valid for an unlimited period and, above all, increased protection against dismissal.
After the First World War, political developments led to a restructuring of the tenants' association, which in this period (1921) also got its name, which is still valid today: Tenant Association Austria - MVÖ.
When the Rent Act was finally passed in 1922, a first major stage in improving living conditions had been successfully completed. This was preceded by tenant demonstrations and the committed appearance of MVÖ board members Felix Kössler, a lawyer in Vienna, and Robert Danneberg . They had drawn up an objection that had been sent to all parliamentary groups. Robert Danneberg, then also a member of the National Council, subsequently introduced this draft to parliament and resulted in the Rent Act (MG) that came into force on December 7, 1922.
The tenant , the club newspaper, reported in January 1923: "The new rent law guarantees the rights of tenants for all time and is probably the best rent law in Europe."
For the first time protection against dismissal was introduced and tenant representatives were given the right to inspect the invoices of the landlords.
In 1931 the number of members had grown to an impressive 256,244. The government was troubled by the strength of the tenants' association with its large number of supporters. But the political developments of that time put an end to this rapid increase. The association was dissolved.
The confiscated property was subsequently transferred to the patriotic tenants' association, because even then there was more than one tenant movement in Austria.
On September 11, 1945, the tenants 'association was approved to resume its activities and a time began in which the constant improvement of the housing situation in Austria was closely linked to the work of the tenants' association. Its main goal, namely "to bring about a general improvement in living conditions and to protect and promote the legitimate interests of tenants, apartment owners and all other beneficiaries of apartments, business premises and other objects in general and those of their members", has remained in the association's statutes since 1911 almost unchanged.
The tenant protection in Austria, which is unique in Europe , has been based on the two pillars of protection against dismissal and price protection and an underlying economic consideration since the Rent Act.
The cost of housing before the First World War was 25% of the wages of a worker for a one-room kitchen apartment of the lowest standard. In 1929 this proportion had been reduced to an average of 2%. From the point of view of the rulers, the continued existence of tenant protection in its form at that time was therefore the guarantee for economic growth and economic improvement for broad sections of the population - a view that had persisted until the early 1990s.
Only with the introduction of the benchmark rent and the location surcharge did a complete turn away from this basic idea, which is, however, already reflected in the sharply rising cost burdens in the area of housing. The main objective of the political work of the tenants' association is therefore to ensure the affordability of living, in particular to bring about legal reforms for the formation of rent as well as ancillary living costs .
See also
- German Tenants 'Association and tenants ' associations in Germany
- Swiss tenants' association