Traismau tenants defend themselves against drastic rental price increases

Traismau tenants defend themselves against drastic rental price increases

in Traismauer, St. Pölten district, tenants fight against drastic rental price increases of up to 69 percent within just one and a half years. This alarming development concerns many residents of a cooperative residential complex of the WET group. A similar case was already reported in Enzersfeld in January of this year, where tenants reported almost 50 percent increases. The situation has prompted the tenants concerned to take legal action and to contest the increases at the St. Pölten district court.

Christian Andre, a affected tenant and one of the main applicants, has already collected signatures against the price increases. He experienced many fates and spoke to citizens who reported that their fears of existence were written in their faces. The second applicant, Anita Anna Schmid, also expressed that she had not neglected her lease if she had known about the upcoming increases. "It is important to us to show that we don't put up with everything," says Schmid.

financing of the WET group

The WET group, as the largest non-profit housing carrier of Lower Austria with around 22,500 managed residential units, attributes the rent increases to a variably interest-bearing capital market loan, the interest of which rose to 4.5 percent. According to the group, rental prices must be adjusted according to the conditions of the loan. However, the tenants argue that the WET group as the owner is obliged to regularly negotiate the loan interest.

The allegations also include that this was only orally documented, which should possibly justify the high rental prices. Michael Kloibmüller, one of the board members of the WET group, made headlines when he was responsible for post-chess allegations from his time in the Interior Ministry in the ÖVP corruption committee.

The court has now commissioned a loan expert to check whether the credit conditions were in line with the market or should be considered. The negotiation is postponed for an indefinite period, which the tenants continue to leave in their uncertainty about future rental prices. For more information on this topic, the article can be found on www.noen.at .