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Building law in Vienna: Bauordnung für Wien, WBTV 2023 and OIB guidelines

In Vienna the building law for a project rarely sits in one text. The building code governs zoning and procedure, the building technology ordinance makes the OIB guidelines binding, garages and allotment gardens have their own acts, and MA 37 explains in its information sheets how it reads all of that. Piloti brings these texts together for a project and cites each at the passage that answers the question.

OIB status per the OIB overview “Inkrafttreten der OIB-Richtlinien”: 2023 edition as of September 2025, RL 6 edition 2025 as of July 2026. Legal texts from RIS.

In short

Piloti answers questions on a Vienna project from the Bauordnung für Wien and the Wiener Bautechnikverordnung 2023, which makes the OIB guidelines binding, each with a checked citation. According to the OIB overview, Vienna has applied OIB guidelines 1 to 6 in the 2023 edition since 23 February 2024 (as of September 2025) and OIB guideline 6, edition 2025, since 15 July 2026 (as of July 2026).

Try it with a real questionChecked: September 2026

What applies in Vienna

Piloti draws these Vienna texts from RIS, each with its citation. Federal law such as the ASchG, the workplace ordinance or the monuments act comes in where the project touches it.

Bauordnung für Wien
Vienna’s urban development, planning and building code: zoning, building classes (Bauklassen), applications and permits. The first text for almost every Vienna question.
Wiener Bautechnikverordnung 2023
Declares the OIB guidelines in its annexes binding, with some exceptions, and allows deviations that reach the same level of protection. Anyone citing an OIB requirement in Vienna checks the edition and the deviations here.
Wiener Garagengesetz 2008
Garage construction and the duty to provide parking spaces. The parking question of a housing project is answered by this act, not by the building code.
Wiener Kleingartengesetz 1996
Applies in allotment-garden zones and replaces substantial parts of the building code there.
MA 37 information sheets
Information sheets, instructions and checklists of Vienna’s building authority on submissions and interpretation. They supplement the building code and the OIB guidelines and create no new duties.
OIB guidelines
RL 1–6, 2023 edition, binding since 23 February 2024 according to the OIB overview; RL 6, edition 2025, since 15 July 2026 according to the overview.

Two editions of RL 6

For energy saving and thermal protection Vienna changed edition in 2026: according to the OIB overview, OIB guideline 6, edition 2025, has applied since 15 July 2026, while guidelines 1 to 5 stay in the 2023 edition. Which version governs a procedure filed around that date is a question of transition law, and that sits in the building technology ordinance, not in the guideline.

Piloti therefore names the edition that governs the procedure for every RL 6 requirement. If the project has no submission date, it asks for one or states which edition it assumed.

How Piloti answers a Vienna question

  1. 01

    Choose the source

    The parking question goes to the garage act, the shed in an allotment garden to the allotment act, the escape route through the building technology ordinance to OIB guideline 2. If the project has no state, Piloti asks once.

  2. 02

    Cite like a permit

    The citation reads the way the authority writes it, such as “Bauordnung für Wien, § …” or “OIB-RL 2, Pkt. …”. Before it appears, Piloti checks it against the source text.

  3. 03

    Open it in RIS

    One click opens the cited passage from RIS inside Piloti, marked. You read the paragraph, not a summary of it.

  4. 04

    Keep practice separate

    If MA 37 has an information sheet on the question, Piloti places it next to the law, labelled as the authority’s interpretation and never as a rule.

Good to know

The building authority decides on the application; responsibility for the design stays with the office. Piloti names every source so you can read it in RIS, sets MA 37 information sheets beside the law as interpretation, and asks when the submission date or zoning is missing. What the zoning and development plan fixes for your plot, it reads from the plan in the project.

Questions

Which OIB guidelines apply in Vienna?

According to the OIB overview (as of September 2025), Vienna applies OIB guidelines 1 to 6 in the 2023 edition, binding since 23 February 2024. For RL 6, the overview (as of July 2026) lists the 2025 edition as applying since 15 July 2026. The Wiener Bautechnikverordnung 2023 makes them binding and also holds the exceptions and transition rules.

Where can I read the Bauordnung für Wien in full?

In the federal legal information system (RIS), free of charge and in its current version. The building technology ordinance, the garage act and the allotment act are there too. Piloti opens a cited passage straight from RIS, marked.

Can Piloti answer questions on the Vienna building code?

Yes. Piloti answers questions on a Vienna project from the building code, the building technology ordinance, the garage act, the allotment act and the OIB guidelines, with a checked citation, and names MA 37 information sheets as practice alongside. The answer is a documented working basis, not an official ruling.

Does the Vienna building code apply in allotment gardens?

Only in part. In allotment-garden zones the Wiener Kleingartengesetz 1996 applies and replaces substantial parts of the building code. For a project in an allotment garden Piloti therefore turns to that act first and does not apply building-code or OIB rules there unchecked.

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