Mr K. had not signed the registration form. The clerk regretted her mistake and wanted to rectify it, but the head of the office intervened and refused. According to his information, anyone can register their main residence anywhere in Austria without the consent of the owner or landlord.
The Austrian Ombudsman Board, the portfolio of Ombudsperson Christoph Luisser, requested a statement from the Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and was particularly interested in why the registration authority had not followed up on the information about a suspected fictitious registration.
As the investigation finally revealed, the municipality had (incorrectly) assumed that the person who had managed the mountain hut was also its owner. The BMI stated that it had informed the municipality that, according to the Registration Act, a fully completed registration form must be submitted for a valid registration or deregistration and that the main residence registration had to be cancelled in this case - due to an incompletely completed registration form. "As the registration in the case of Mr K. was made without a fully completed registration form, his complaint was justified. However, due to the announced cancellation of the erroneous main residence registration and the sensitisation of the employees of the registration authority in the municipality, the reason for the complaint was considered to be in the process of being rectified," explains Ombudsperson Luisser.
Conclusion: Registration without the consent of the property owner is not possible.
Alpine hut. Picture credits: Wikimedia Commons - Böhringer Friedrich