First identify whose rights and duties are affected
Record the business concerned, your role, the case reference and the outcome you seek. This shows whether the first issue is a claim, ownership, directors’ duties or an acquisition.
Focus area
Insolvency avoidance
Document payments and security received during the crisis and assess the relevant context.
Prepare your documents
What should you clarify before the review?
Answer two questions about your role and the documents available. The result identifies missing records and prepares the next steps for individual review.
Which role best describes your position?
Your answers
Review the documents
The documents are ready for focused legal review
With organised records, the legal question can be tested against the current procedural status and applicable law.
Close the documentary gaps first
Secure the contract, payment records, court notice and communications before making a legal or commercial decision.
An avoidance demand does not by itself establish that a previous payment or security must be returned. Review starts by preserving the complete demand and then separating every challenged transaction by date, amount, legal basis, consideration and information available at the time.
Sections 27 and 31 IO are important starting points for the substantive review. Section 43 IO concerns enforcement in proceedings. None supports a generic risk rating or prospects assessment without the complete facts.
1. Preserve the demand and procedural record
Save the complete demand, attachments, envelope or service evidence. Record the claimant, the insolvency proceedings referred to and whether any court document has already been served.
Work from a copy. Keep annotations and the first internal account in a separate file so that the original and its metadata remain intact.
- Demand, attachments and service evidence
- Court, case reference and administrator
- Transactions, amounts and legal grounds identified
2. Break down every transaction separately
Map each payment, set off, security or contract change separately. Date, amount, recipient, payment route and contractual basis must match the accounts and the demand.
Transactions should not be combined merely because they involve the same counterparty. Different invoices, performance periods or security arrangements can raise different factual issues.
- Date, amount and payment route
- Contract, invoice and performance period
- Form of satisfaction or security
3. Prove consideration with primary records
For every transaction, identify the delivery, service, right of use or other consideration. Contract and invoice are the starting point. Delivery notes, acceptance records, work logs and correspondence can evidence actual performance.
Keep the evidence transaction specific. State which record supports which amount and when performance occurred. Mark discrepancies rather than hiding them in a net balance.
4. Reconstruct information available at the time
Questions of actual or constructive knowledge concern the information available when the relevant act occurred. Facts discovered later should not silently be projected backwards.
Preserve dated reminders, instalment requests, payment promises, credit information, accounts, media reports and internal notes. Include potentially exculpatory material, such as promises that were kept or plausible explanations for delay.
- What was actually available on the transaction date?
- Who held which information?
- What became known only later?
5. Respond procedurally only after review
A substantive response should follow only after the demand, transaction file, consideration and contemporaneous information have been aligned. Admissions, payments and broad factual statements should not precede that review.
Record court service and specific procedural dates separately. Obtain an individual review of the period under section 43 IO and the prospects for the claim or defence.
Continue the review
Detailed article on Austrian insolvency avoidanceBackground on demands, payments and security in Austria.Avoidance document checkIdentify documentary gaps without a deadline or prospects prediction.Payment or security checklistPrepare the transaction, consideration, information and demand.Glossary: insolvency avoidanceA short definition with links to the legal basis.
General information on Austrian insolvency law as at July 2026. The assessment depends on the individual facts and current procedural status.
Frequently asked questions
What clients often ask.
Is every payment before insolvency avoidable? +
No. A specific statutory avoidance ground must be established.
What should be preserved after a demand? +
The demand, service evidence, contracts, invoices, payments, consideration and crisis communications.
Does the check issue a legal risk rating? +
No. It identifies documentary gaps and the need for closer review.
Related topics
This may also be relevant to you.
Creditors in insolvency proceedings
Review the basis of the claim, evidence, schedule status and commercial next steps.
Separation rights and retention of title
Identify goods or machinery in the estate through contracts, markings and payment records.
Directors and shareholders in a crisis
Separate filing duties, crisis records and shareholder loan issues.
Would you like us to review a claim, owned goods or a decision in a business crisis?
Tell us your role, the business concerned and the procedural status. We respond within one business day.
Direct line to the firm.
Address
BRANDAUER Rechtsanwälte GmbH Giselakai 51 5020 Salzburg
Phone
+43 662 6280000