Other land rights

Important property rights - in addition to the land charge - are in particular

 

Beneficial use

Usufruct confers a comprehensive right of use over the property, i.e. the usufructuary can in particular use the property himself, rent it out or lease it. What needs to be regulated in particular is which costs the usufructuary should bear for the property. According to the statutory regulation, the usufructuary only bears the usual charges and costs, but not the extraordinary ones (e.g. roof repairs). Furthermore, the usufructuary only bears the interest on a loan secured against the property, but not the repayment installments. Alternatively, it can be agreed that the usufructuary bears all costs for the property (including extraordinary charges) or, conversely, that the usufructuary bears no costs at all (and the owner bears all of these).

 

Housing law

In contrast to usufruct, the right of residence only entitles the owner to use the property for their own residential purposes. However, the owner can also allow the beneficiary to let the property to other persons (e.g. on the basis of a rental agreement). The right of occupancy also requires regulation as to who bears which costs, in particular the consumption costs as well as the usual and extraordinary repair costs, the property tax and the insurance costs.

 

Easements

Easements are possible in various forms:

• They can allow the owner of the entitled (dominant) property to use the obligated (servient) property in a certain way.
• They can also prohibit the performance of certain acts on the obligated (servient) property in favor of the owner of the entitled (dominant) property.
• They can also exclude the exercise of rights to which the owner of the obligated (serving) property is entitled.

Typical cases of easements are, for example:

• Rights of way
• Line rights
• Pitches
• Restriction of use, for example with regard to a specific trade
• Tolerance of immissions (e.g. emissions, odors, noise)
• Right to use the neighboring property as a distance area under building law

 

Right of first refusal in rem / right of first refusal under the law of obligations

The right of first refusal secures the entitled party the opportunity to purchase a property if the owner sells it to a third party. If a pre-emptive right in rem is entered in the land register, the person entitled to pre-emption can also enforce their claim against the third party buyer.

In the case of a right of first refusal in rem, the purchase price is always the price that the owner agrees with the third party. However, if a different price is to apply when the party entitled to pre-emption exercises its pre-emptive right, the parties involved can also agree this. This is then not a pre-emptive right in rem, but a pre-emptive right under the law of obligations. If the parties involved have a priority notice entered in the land register for this pre-emptive right under the law of obligations, it is secured in rem in a similar way to the pre-emptive right in rem.

 

Real burden

The real charge secures the provision of recurring services at the expense of the property. In particular, it is used as security for pension payments. Sometimes, when property is transferred between relatives (especially from parents to children), the parties involved agree that the child will pay the parents a monthly pension. The transferors can have this pension payment secured by a real charge on the transferred house or apartment. They can then enforce the property if the pension payment is not made.

 

Co-ownership agreement

If a property is owned by more than one co-owner in fractional shares, the co-owners can exclude the dispute between themselves by agreement. No co-owner can then pursue the partition auction of the property. If this agreement is entered in the land register, it is also effective against all future co-owners. Furthermore, the co-owners can regulate the joint use and distribution of costs for the jointly owned property in an agreement. Such co-owner agreements can be found, for example, in the case of garage and road plots that belong jointly to the owners of the adjacent houses.