A Report From Austria Of Instruments For Preserving The Unity Of Family Property

A Report From Austria Of Instruments For Preserving The Unity Of Family Property. Presented by: Prof. Dr. Kohl Date: 7 June 2024 Contents of the Paper - Instruments now and then • Private Foundation 1993 (BGBI 1993/694)  Family Foundations & Entailment / Fideicommissa • - Parameters / Aspects • - Special Peasant Inheritance Law: “Anerbenrecht” -In general, & Examples Agricultural communities • State - Sustainability - Forests Private Foundation Act 1993 - - - - "Declaration of Foundation" (Stiftungserklärung) • Inter vivo or by testamentary disposition • by notarial deed and entry in the commercial register Requirements • Minimum assets of EUR 70,000 • Information on the duration and purpose of the foundation • Information on the beneficiaries Possible • Detailed regulations on the foundation's bodies • Board of at least three people, various supervisory bodies Costs! • Establishment of the private foundation and annual fees for the foundation bodies are cost-intensive >>> minimum assets practically not sufficient Administration - Trad. (Family) Foundation "family fideicommissa of the bourgeois circles" - ABGB § 646 - Pantheistic Doctrine: Legal Person - Admin. Law • - Civil Law • - Specific admin. task Charitable Purposes "Pure family found." General Purposes Fed. Foundation and Fund Act 1975/11 Legislation - Entailment (Fideicommissa) - 1938/39 - Period of lacking instruments - Private Foundation Act 1993/694 Special Peasant Inheritance Law - ABGB: “General” Inheritance Law • - § 761 Deviations for peasants Divided Property • Political Regulations 1790-1826  Land relief 1848ff: ...maintained  Constitution 1867: ...abolished (based on Principle of Equality)  RGBI 1868/79 repealed "special norms" NO regulations BUT customary law  RGBI 1889/52: new legal framework Special Peasant Inheritance Law - RGBI 1889/52: new legal framework - ABGB: “General” Inheritance Law - - § 761 Deviations for peasants • Tyrol 1900 Farmsteads Act • Carinthia 1903 Hereditary Farmsteads Act Others: 1958 • Peasants Inheritance Act (“Anerbengesetz”) “Hereditary Farms” - Medium Sized Farms? - Changing agricultural structures! - Reasonable maintenance of... - - - - • 1958… a family of five persons … max 7 times (> 35 persons) • 1989… two adults … max 20 times (> 40 persons) • 2019 one adult … max 40 times (> 40 persons) Legal Source: • Customary L. • Statutes • Contract Beneficiary: • Blood relatives • Spouses • Others Substantive Law. • PropertyL • InheritenceL • FamilyL • Debtl Interest: • - - Beneficiary 3rd party / State Object (sustainability) Time: • Unlimited • Limited / • Foreseeable Role of authority/state: - - • Legal Frame Permission • Supervision • Foundation Object: • Real property Others • Collections Means: • Private Law / Public Law Typical Form Of Servitude Redemption But: Forced „Community Former Entitled To Timber" Individual servitudes converted to collective property - Free princely / state property • Property of “community former entitled to timber” (forced corporation) Settlement agreement: private, legal transaction against payment agreement defined the community Compulsory Community Not Simple Co-Ownership - Interest of the state • NO individual negotiations • NO individual land registration • NO disputes due to lacking infrastructure