Parification
By parifying or calculating the utility value , the relationship between the ownership interests of the individual co-owners of a house in which the owner of the apartment is established is determined in Austrian residential property law. By calculating the utility value, the calculation key is also determined for the first time (e.g. to determine the share of operating costs or the voting rights of the individual owners); the owners can vote on the calculations independently of the parification, so it is not mandatory to apply it.
According to § 9 , the utility values are determined on the basis of an expert opinion by a civil engineer responsible for building construction or a generally sworn and court-certified expert for building construction or real estate.
The parification is also the basis for the condominium contracts to be signed by all apartment owners.
The basis for calculating the utility values are the usable areas. The respective usable area is the entire floor area of an apartment or another room minus the wall thicknesses and the openings, door openings, stairs, open balconies, terraces, gardens as well as basement and attic rooms, insofar as their equipment is not suitable for living or business purposes are appropriate. Circumstances that significantly increase or decrease the value of a specific apartment in comparison to other properties in the same house are taken into account by adding or reducing the usable area (defined by the expert issuer). These deductions are also used for areas such as gardens, terraces, balconies as well as basement and attic rooms. Areas in living rooms over which a room height of less than 150 cm is measured (in the slope in converted attics) are calculated with the factor 0.
Resetting
A new assessment can be made on request in the following exemplary cases:
- If mandatory principles were violated in the report
- If the report differs from the circumstances
- If the utility value of a share changes by more than 3% due to a construction management deviating from the expert opinion
- If the utility value of a share changes by more than 3% as a result of subsequent construction processes
The costs and fees of a reassessment of the utility value are to be borne by those co-owners to whom co-ownership shares are transferred. For the transferred co-ownership shares, the transferring co-owners must be paid an appropriate fee, unless they have expressly waived it. This "transfer fee" is calculated, for example, from the value of the property.
It should be noted here that determining the utility value is a process under civil law and must not be combined with the process under building law, the approval of the building application for the building permit . The consent of the parties to the building permit does not constitute a waiver of the fee for the utility value tax.