About The Trust Register

For clarification: On a cash transaction, one is able to receive goods on the immediate payment of the purchase price. On conveyances, this is not strictly possible. The transfer of real property necessitates the transfer of the registration in the land register. This is at first possible if various conditions are satisfied, for example, the land transfer tax is paid or declarations of lien holders are provided.

Attorneys may offer to serve as trustee for the protection of the reciprocal rights and obligations of buyers and sellers. The attorney accepts the purchase price and pays it out only if, on the one hand, the rights of the seller and, on the other hand, the rights of the buyer are ensured.

A Trusteeship is to be transacted according to the statutes of the electronic legal Trust Register of the ‘Rechtsanwaltskammer Wien’ (Law Society of Vienna). The form of transaction provides a special insurance protection for breach of fiduciary duty of up to ATS 100,000,000.00 (€ 7,267,283.41) for the trustor and is not associated with any additional costs. Such trusteeship must be registered by a trustee (attorney) of the Rechtsanwaltskammer Wien. The trusteeship is then registered in the so-called Trust Register; furthermore, a confirmation in writing in issued.

Further, the trustor has the possibility to prohibit the trustee from disclosing information. Then, an anonymous trusteeship comes into existence. The notification of the trusteeship restricts, in this event, the mere disclosure of the acceptance and the simultaneous indication of the consecutive number of the trust index of the trustees. However, the transaction is effected without the specially granted insurance protection.

Disposition of the Trust Fund

The trustee is authorized to receive the trust funds only after the acceptance of the trusteeship by the Rechtsanwaltskammer Wien. The disposition of the trust funds by the trustee–in whole or in part–is authorized after the receipt of the registration of the trusteeship by the Rechtsanwaltskammer Wien.

Bank Transfer from the Trust Account

The movement of funds to be carried out by the trustee is to be governed before hand in the deed of trust with the attorney (for example, on the disposition of real property). In principle, an appropriate instruction for the disposition via the trust account (account disposition order) is to be signed by the trustee (the attorney) and the trustor (for example, buyer or seller). This instruction is to make reference to the appropriately established trust account and clearly state that the trustee may transfer only from the account of those persons who are previously disclosed to the bank and the Rechtsanwaltskammer Wien. The system functions similar to a type of “letter shoot”: it guarantees that the money that the buyer had placed into one side of the shoot also actually, on the other end of the letter shoot, arrives at the seller. Further, the trustee must obligate in writing and irrevocably the credit institution, which administrates the trust account, to forward a duplicate of each statement of account about each posting on the account. The trustee must as well notify the Rechtsanwaltskammer Wien on the fulfilment of the trust conditions or the ending of the trusteeship.

The compliance with the regulations of the Trust Register is supervised by a mandatory audit of the Rechtsanwaltskammer Wien. This is subject–similar to the trustee–to a sworn obligation of confidentiality.