All-you-can-barbecue Party
What could be more relaxing than ending all the warm summer evenings with a proper barbecue on the balcony? From the neighbors’ point of view, this question is often easy to answer: no barbecuing, no smoke, and no smell of burnt fat on the balcony.
Especially in densely built residential blocks, barbecuing on the balcony promotes heated arguments among neighbors every summer. Threats with police, charges, and lawsuits are quickly made.
Do you know who is right?
a) The “I’ll do what I want on my balcony” barbecue master?
b) Or the “What’s too much is too much” neighbor?
The Right Measure when Barbecuing on the Balcony
Regardless of whether it’s a villa in the countryside or a small apartment in the city – barbecuing in the garden, courtyard, on the terrace, and also on the balcony is permitted to a certain extent. In principle, it makes no difference whether an electric grill, a gas grill, or a charcoal grill is used.
If heat, smoke, barbecue smells, and party noise move into the neighboring apartments, then this must not exceed the “measure customary according to local conditions” and must not “significantly impair the customary use” of the property or the apartment .
Peter HarlanderHarlander & Partner Rechtsanwälte „Diese Regelung ist knifflig.
Um Störungen durch den Nachbarn untersagen zu können, müssen zwei Voraussetzungen gleichzeitig vorliegen.“
Complicated Regulation of Barbecuing on the Balcony
On the one hand, it requires an extent unusual for local conditions: In the first district of Vienna, where there is generally less barbecuing, the usual extent is exceeded more quickly than in a rural Salzburg municipality, where everyone has a grill in the shed.
On the other hand, the impairment must be significant. The benchmark for assessing whether the impairment is significant is not a particularly sensitive neighbor, but an average person.
Barbecuing once a week will have to be endured by the neighbor in any case, unless he is completely fogged in by acrid smoke during this time. Barbecue fetishists, on the other hand, who sizzle steaks over charcoal on the narrow balcony every day in summer, exceed the limits of what is permissible.
The greater the distance to the neighbors, the less frequent the barbecuing, the lower the smoke and odor emissions, the lower the impairment to the neighbors and the less problematic is the food preparation outdoors.
The tenant on the balcony on the first floor should therefore limit his grilling skills to one day a week or use an electric grill. The residents of the roof terrace apartment, on the other hand, are free to barbecue much more often if there is sufficient distance to the other apartments.
Legal Consequences for Excessive Barbecuing on the Balcony
If you overdo it with barbecuing on the balcony, you risk administrative penalties, court injunctions, termination of the lease without notice, or even exclusion from the condominium in the worst case.
Frequently Asked Questions about Barbecuing on the Balcony
In Austria, barbecuing on the balcony is generally permitted, provided that the measure customary according to local conditions is exceeded and the customary use of the neighboring properties and neighboring apartments is not significantly impaired.
Yes, in principle, barbecuing with a charcoal grill on the balcony is legal, provided that it is done rarely and professionally. If the neighbors’ eyes are watering due to the smoke, then the extent of what is permissible has certainly been exceeded.
How often you can barbecue on the balcony per week depends on the local conditions and the type of grill. The less smoke and stench the basement develops and the greater the distance to the neighbors, the more often you can barbecue on the balcony.
Conclusion
For these rules, you wouldn’t actually need a law, but only a healthy sense of good neighborliness. If some limit smoke, smell, and noise, and if others don’t complain about every little “nuisance”, then living together works even in the blazing summer heat anyway.
Peter HarlanderHarlander & Partner Rechtsanwälte „Haben Sie Streit mit den Nachbarn?
Nutzen Sie unser kostenloses Erstgespräch mit einem Rechtsanwalt für Immobilienrecht zur Klärung ihrer Fragen.“
