For a divorce by mutual consent under § 55a of the Marriage Act (EheG), nobody in Austria needs a lawyer – the law does not require one. In court fees, the two spouses pay €812 together (€406 for the petition plus €406 for the court settlement), or €1,015 if a property is transferred. These amounts have applied since 1 August 2026. Legal representation pays off wherever a mistake has lasting consequences: property, joint loans, children and maintenance. You can reach Teamanwälte, a law firm in Penzing, Vienna, on +43 1 419 13 18. We advise in German, English, Slovak and Polish.
What you can do without
Let’s start with the argument against us. For a divorce by mutual consent, there is no requirement to be represented by a lawyer. The two of you can fill in the petition together, file it with the court and attend the hearing without representation. The judge takes you through the hearing.
For a couple with no children, no property, no joint loans and an agreement both of you have stood by for weeks, that is the right route. You then pay €812 in court fees and nothing else. Anyone who tells you otherwise at this point is trying to sell you something.
In every other case, doing it alone becomes expensive. Not straight away – usually only years later.
The three places where people lose money
1. The one-year deadline
The claim to the division of matrimonial property and savings (§§ 81 et seq. EheG) lapses one year after the divorce becomes final, unless by then it has been acknowledged or asserted in court (§ 95 EheG). This is not a limitation period that can be interrupted. After that, the claim is gone.
A worked example: a couple owns an owner-occupied flat bought during the marriage. Its market value is €420,000, and €120,000 is still owed on the loan. Around €300,000 would be divided, so €150,000 each. If you divorce by mutual consent and plan to sort out the flat ‘at some point later’, you lose this claim after twelve months. The agreement that would have prevented this costs a fraction of that.
2. The joint loan
The bank did not sign your divorce agreement and is not bound by it. If the court settlement says that your ex-partner takes over the loan, you remain liable to the bank – until the bank expressly releases you from liability. If the other person does not pay, the bank will collect the money from you.
This release has to be negotiated before you sign, not afterwards. Once you have signed, the bank has no reason left to cooperate.
3. Waiving maintenance at the kitchen table
A waiver of maintenance almost never comes from a miscalculation. It comes from the wish for it all to be over at last. If you have looked after the children for 15 years and work part-time today, in that mood you waive a claim you would urgently need five years from now.
As a rough guide, case law points to around one third of the paying spouse’s net income if the other spouse earns nothing. If both earn, it points to around 40% of the couple’s combined net income, less the recipient’s own income. These are guideline figures, not fixed amounts – but they show the order of magnitude at stake.
Work it out before you waive anything. Not afterwards.
What we charge
Our fees are based on the Legal Fees Act (RATG), the General Fee Criteria for Lawyers (AHK) or a fee agreement. What they come to in your case depends on three things: whether an agreement is already in place, whether a property or a share in a company has to be valued, and how many rounds of negotiation are needed.
A flat fee published online that then did not fit your case would be of no help to you. Instead, we tell you the likely range at the initial consultation, before you decide to instruct us.
Which district court deals with your divorce
Not the one at your current address. The court with jurisdiction is the district court for the spouses’ last common habitual residence. This follows from § 76(1) of the Act on Court Jurisdiction (JN), and for divorce by mutual consent from § 114a(1) JN. If neither of you lives there any more, the defendant’s residence decides, and failing that, the claimant’s. If that does not settle it either, the Vienna Inner City District Court takes the case.
So if you moved from Ottakring to Floridsdorf after separating, you still file where the two of you last lived together.
Vienna has twelve district courts: the Vienna Inner City, Leopoldstadt, Josefstadt, Favoriten, Meidling, Hietzing, Fünfhaus, Hernals, Döbling, Floridsdorf, Donaustadt and Liesing District Courts. Which one is yours depends on how the courts’ judicial districts are drawn – and that has changed several times. We check this before anything is filed. Filing with the wrong court costs nothing in fees, but it does cost weeks.
The flat
Most people in Vienna rent, so in most divorces the flat is the biggest item – bigger than the savings account. The matrimonial home is included in the division, and the court can transfer rights to it (§ 87 EheG). Who is the main tenant, what the tenancy agreement says and whether there is a right to take over the tenancy can be worth a great deal of money.
Do the sums: a long-standing main tenancy at €7.50 per square metre, compared with €18 on the open market, makes a difference of around €735 for 70 square metres – every month. Over ten years, that comes to around €88,000.
If you have children
Before a divorce by mutual consent, parents of minor children must prove that they have received counselling on their children’s needs. The rule is in § 95 of the Non-Contentious Proceedings Act (AußStrG). You bring the certificate of attendance to the hearing. If you book the counselling appointment too late, your divorce is postponed – this is one of the most common reasons for a cancelled hearing.
For child maintenance, the courts have developed guideline percentages, graded by age: 16% of net income up to age six, 18% up to ten, 20% up to fifteen, and 22% after that. The percentages are lower if there are other maintenance obligations, for example towards other children or a spouse.
For example: with a net income of €3,000, paid 14 times a year, and a twelve-year-old child, that comes to around €700 a month. If there is a second child, both figures change. These figures are not set out in statute, but the courts use them in their calculations.
When you need us
Six situations in which we advise you not to negotiate alone:
- A property, a share in a company or pension entitlements are at stake. These have to be valued and worded so that the land register will accept them, and guesswork costs five-figure sums.
- There is a joint loan you want to get out of.
- Minor children are involved, and custody or the right of contact (formerly known as visiting rights) could be at risk.
- One of you earns considerably less or will depend on maintenance.
- There is a cross-border element – assets, citizenship or place of residence.
- The opposing party has a lawyer. Then you need one too.
You are not alone in this
In 2025, 15,217 couples divorced in Austria, 3,470 of them in Vienna. Of these divorces, 87.1% were by mutual consent. The bitter divorce battle that many people fear is the exception – not the rule.