Offices for refugees

First “horror house” landlord in Vienna charged

The accused Iraqi (29) with his defense lawyer Wissam Barbar in the Viennese "Landl"(Bild: Gerhard Bartel)

The conditions in which refugees were living in Vienna were unacceptable - they rented accommodation in a desolate, poorly converted former AMS office building in Dresdnerstraße. The landlord of the illegal accommodation is on trial for serious commercial fraud. The Iraqi himself fled to Austria in 2014 and his asylum application was rejected. 

The now accused landlord, a 29-year-old Iraqi, demanded extortionate rents of around 1000 euros per unit for the former offices, which had been illegally and very provisionally converted into "apartments". "He pretended to the people that they could rent the apartments on a long-term basis, although the building was not intended for residential purposes," the public prosecutor opened the trial in the Vienna Regional Court. He does not go into the suffering of the people who were housed there. But he does mention that the accused collected outrageous commissions, deposits and rents from the residents.