Costly conundrum

Farmer pays for land she knows nothing about

For almost 30 years, Mühlviertel farmer Annemarie Weichselbaumer paid for an 800 square meter embankment, although she knew nothing about the land she had been leasing all this time. It was only when she terminated another lease that everything came to light - the background to the case is curious, read the details with Krone+.

When farmer Annemarie Weichselbaumer (68) from Luftenberg in Upper Austria terminated a lease agreement last November, she was informed that she had leased a second plot of land - a small area, around 800 square meters of embankment not far from her farm. The farmer was surprised, she had never heard of this land before and immediately made inquiries.

This revealed that she had been leasing the land since 1995. "I was blindsided because I didn't know anything about it," said the farmer in an interview with Krone. She was also surprised that there was actually a lease agreement with her signature on it.