Exekution in Austria: How Debt Enforcement Works Under the EO

Exekution is the Austrian legal term for court-supervised debt enforcement, the process a creditor uses to actually collect on a debt once a court has confirmed it is owed. Many people in Austria first encounter the word when a Gerichtsvollzieher (court enforcement officer) contacts them, or when a portion of a paycheck or bank balance is withheld. This page explains how Exekution works under the Exekutionsordnung (EO), what a creditor must have before it can start, the three main enforcement routes, and the Existenzminimum that protects a portion of a debtor's income.

Information last verified on 22 July 2026. This page provides general legal information about Austrian law and does not constitute legal advice in an individual case.

What has to happen before Exekution can start

Exekution cannot begin from an unpaid invoice alone. The creditor first needs an Exekutionstitel, an enforceable legal title. In practice this is usually a final civil judgment, a court-approved settlement, an enforceable order for payment (Zahlungsbefehl that was not objected to in time), or certain notarial deeds drawn up with an explicit enforceability clause.

Once the creditor holds a title, it applies to the competent Bezirksgericht (district court) for an Exekutionsbewilligung, an order authorising a specific enforcement measure against a specific asset or income source. The court does not re-examine whether the underlying debt is valid at this stage. It checks only that the title exists, is enforceable, and matches the enforcement measure requested.

A debtor who believes the underlying debt is wrong, already paid, or time-barred has separate legal remedies, such as an Oppositionsklage or Impugnationsklage, to challenge the title or the enforcement itself. These are distinct from simply disputing the original bill and generally have to be raised in a fresh court proceeding, not by ignoring the enforcement notice.

The three main enforcement routes

The EO sets out several enforcement measures, but three cover the large majority of everyday cases against individuals. Each targets a different kind of asset.

A creditor can pursue more than one route for the same debt, and often starts with whichever is fastest to enforce given what is known about the debtor's assets. Wage garnishment is common because it does not require locating specific physical property, while Zwangsversteigerung is generally reserved for larger debts secured against real property or pursued after other measures fall short.

Fahrnisexekution in practice

Under Fahrnisexekution, a Gerichtsvollzieher can attend the debtor's premises to identify and seize movable items with resale value. Austrian law exempts certain categories from seizure, including basic household items needed for a modest standard of living and tools or equipment a debtor genuinely needs to earn a living. Seized items are typically sold at a court-organised auction, with proceeds applied to the debt after costs.

Zwangsversteigerung in practice

Zwangsversteigerung follows a more formal, multi-step judicial process because real estate is higher-value and often carries existing mortgages or other registered claims (Pfandrechte) that have to be accounted for before proceeds are distributed. The Bezirksgericht where the property is located runs the sale, and other creditors with registered claims against the same property can participate in the distribution.

Wage garnishment and the Existenzminimum

Gehalts- und Forderungsexekution is enforcement against a claim the debtor holds against someone else, most commonly an employer (for wages) or a bank (for an account balance). § 290 EO sets out which claims are unpfändbar (not subject to garnishment) or only beschränkt pfändbar (subject to garnishment only above a threshold), and § 291 sets the calculation basis (Berechnungsgrundlage) used to work out that threshold for a given pay period.

The protection that actually shields a debtor's income is the unpfändbares Existenzminimum under § 291a EO. This section ensures that where the calculation basis for a monthly payment does not exceed the Ausgleichszulagenrichtsatz for a single person under § 293 Abs 1 lit a sublit bb ASVG, the debtor keeps that amount in full (the allgemeiner Grundbetrag). Above that floor, only a portion of the remaining income can be garnished, and the protected amount rises further (erhöhter Grundbetrag) for debtors who do not receive certain other benefits, and again where the debtor supports a spouse, registered partner, or children.

Why the Existenzminimum is not a fixed number

The Existenzminimum is best understood as a formula rather than a fixed euro figure. Because § 291a ties the protected floor to the Ausgleichszulagenrichtsatz, a reference value under the ASVG pension system, the floor moves whenever that reference value is adjusted. The Ausgleichszulagenrichtsatz is re-set annually, effective each 1 Jänner, as part of the broader annual pension adjustment (Pensionsanpassung).

The practical result is that the euro amount an individual debtor may keep changes from year to year, and also varies by household situation (single, married, with or without dependent children). Because of this, official Existenzminimum-Tabellen (Pfändungstabellen) are republished each year to reflect the updated reference value, and a debtor or employer applying the wage garnishment calculation needs to use the table current for the relevant pay period rather than a figure from a prior year. This page describes the mechanism rather than quoting a specific current euro amount, since the correct figure depends on the year and the debtor's personal circumstances.

Worked example of the mechanism (illustrative, not a current figure): suppose a single debtor's monthly net salary, after the § 291 calculation basis is applied, sits at or below the current Ausgleichszulagenrichtsatz for a single person. Under § 291a Abs 1, that debtor keeps the entire amount; nothing can be garnished from that pay period. Only income above that threshold enters the graduated garnishment scale, and the threshold itself, along with the graduated bands above it, is what the annually updated Pfändungstabelle sets out.

The 2021 reform of the Exekutionsordnung

A substantial reform package took effect under BGBl. I Nr. 86/2021, in force since 1 July 2021. The EO's own version history records this instrument as the most recent amendment to the wage-garnishment provisions, and it modernised a range of procedural rules governing how enforcement cases are filed, processed, and handled by the Exekutionsgerichte and Gerichtsvollzieher. The reform did not remove or restructure the fundamental Existenzminimum protection or the three main enforcement routes described above; those continue to operate on the same statutory footing after the reform as before it.

Because enforcement law interacts closely with related reference values elsewhere in the legal system, it is worth checking the current year's figures against an official source before assuming a prior year's numbers still apply, particularly around the January adjustment date.

Where enforcement fits with other debt options

Exekution addresses collecting on a debt that is already legally established. If a debt collector (Inkassoinstitut) is still trying to recover an unpaid claim before any court title exists, different rules apply, including fee caps on what the collector may charge; see debt collection for that stage. For debtors facing enforcement they cannot realistically satisfy, Austria's insolvency law offers a structured alternative; see personal insolvency for how a Privatkonkursverfahren can restructure or discharge debt instead of leaving it subject to repeated Exekution.