What are the OIB guidelines? (Author: Michael Pitsch) As already mentioned in some previous articles, building law in Austria is the responsibility of the federal states due to the federal structure. This means that building regulations also fall within this area of competence. In order to achieve harmonisation in this area, the Austrian Institute for Building Technology (OIB) was founded by the federal states in 1993. One of the tasks of this organisation is the publication of the "OIB Guidelines", which regulate the building regulations. The first edition was published in 2007 and is updated every 4 years. The guidelines are published following a decision by the General Assembly and are therefore available to the federal states. The federal states therefore have the option of making them binding in their building regulations. There are currently 6 guidelines for the following areas: RL 1 - Stability RL 2 - Fire protection Guideline 3 - Hygiene, health and environmental protection Guideline 4 - Safety in use and accessibility Guideline 5 - Sound insulation Guideline 6 - Energy saving and thermal insulation The fact that Guideline 6 is binding in all federal states means that the energy performance certificate for buildings is also standardised in a legal norm. The OIB guidelines follow the concept of performance-orientated building guidelines. As a result, it is possible to deviate from these if the building applicant can prove that an equivalent level of protection is achieved. One problem, however, is that not all federal states have enacted the latest editions of the guidelines and some individual federal states have their own versions. This means that different versions are valid in parallel, which again undermines harmonisation. In other words, there is still a long way to go before the same rules can be applied everywhere in Austria.