I'm hoping someone can provide proper advice for my situation.

Last December I returned to Canada from the CH as my consulting job was terminated shortly before it began.

I had the opportunity to return to my old job so we left quite quickly.

We had some active accounts with Swisscom, Orange, etc. which were cancelled with one month notice. Those bills were paid.

I got a small bill for 76 CHF and logged into my USB account to pay it when I noticed the payment option was not available. Contacting USB help notified me of a freeze/arrest order for 25000 CHF.

I contacted the Zurich Betreibungsamt and they faxed me documents (in German) saying my former landlord states I owe them 9000 CHF plus other fees totaling 14000 CHF for 3 months rent.

When my job was cancelled, my B permit was taken by the Gemeinde as it was connected to my (former) job.

The landlord holds security deposit of 6000 CHF. The frozen USB account holds less than 400 CHF.

My queston is how do I proceed? I feel like the landlord is trying to get more money than he is due. Plus, since I was not able to live in the country anymore, why should I be liable for 3 months rent?

I don't plan on returning to Switzerland in the future, but do not want to be detained/arrested if I have to travel to there or through there.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you very much in advance, John.

I think you need to start with the tenancy advice service for the canton in the area in which you live. If they can't let you join and give you advice, then you might require a lawyer...

Also, did you actually give proper notice etc to your landlord and did you leave a forwarding address - did you handover keys, do your final cleaning etc etc etc...what arrangements did you give your landlord when you left ?

It's probably a case of 'give an inch and they take a mile' - if you left them with your 6000 deposit and hoped that it would cover your failure to wind up your apartment etc...

If you signed a contract for a property, why should the landlord lose out? It is not the fault of the landlord, did you give notice or any type of communication with them or did you just leave?

A contract was signed with a 3 month notice. We left the house clean and sent the keys/notice to the landlord. Unfortunately, we had to leave within 5 days of notice as I had to start my new job.

I understand the point of the landlord missing out, but on the other side why should I have to pay 3 months rent plus give up my deposit when my permit was canceled and I did not have the right to work/stay in the country (except as a visitor for <90 days). It was not my fault the company closed their office and left me without work.

Since I have not even gotten a notice, can I appeal the judgment? Are there any links to how this process works?


Thank you.

You are not liable (OR 266 and OR 119) but as everyone can do a Betreibung, you are basically guilty untill a judge tells you you are innocent.

If the advice given here is correct you are well above the red zone.

As far as my limited knowwedge of law goes, a contract is valid only to the extent that the facts assumed therein are true. For example, if a 15 year old misrepresents himself as an adult and enters a contract for something, the contract is null and void backdated, when the truth emerges.

A tenant enters a contract with the owner on the assumed facts of a certain type of permit, income statement, reference letter etc. The employer is given full opportunity to verify these claims, and ask for copies of the documents to reassure himself. If it is later realized that the permit wasn't valid as assumed, despite there being no wilful mileading by the tenant, the contract is null and void.

It is hard to judge the fairness, (personally my sympathies are with the OP, not just because in Switzerland finding tenants is no big deal for the owner), but from a purely legal angle I think the OP is blameless. Now why his account was frozen etc is beyond me, I guess some helpful EF lawyers can share their thoughts, given that the person has already left the country and will be hard to coordinate with Swiss authorities.

Suppose you are married and have 3 children, and rent a 4 room apartment to accomodate them as per law. When you applied, you were asked to give full details of each member of the household, before the owner chose to rent it to you. Now imagine all the kids and the earning parent died in a planecrash, leaving a destitute single person. Let us say the insurance is pending aircraft investigation, and the surviving spouse is in no position to continue in that house, emotionally and financially. So he walks out, let's say abruptly after handing over the keys.

Is the surviving spouse, as the co-signee, liable for a prematurely broken contract, in your opinion? I mean, why should the landlord lose out for no fault of his

In the eyes of the landlord, you did a runner. I presume the contract was between him and yourself? In his shoes, I'd probably think the same thought and pursue a Betreibung. Just because you left the country super-quickly is of no concern to him, you *should* have factored the notice period and associated costs into your decision. He's going to heap everything he can onto your plate, from damage to cleaning to redecorating (my landlord had me in stiches when he told me my five room appt cost CHF12000 to paint!!!). Contact the Betreibungsamt for your Gemeinde and communicate - they're a calm bunch and will no doubt offer you advice you'd pay for from a lawyer.

Good luck!

Many contracts have a three months' notice period but this notice is not just to the end of any month and it can also be explicitly stated when you can first give notice. This is a contract, which you signed, and you must adhere to these conditions. Notice to terminate a contract must be given in writing and sent by registered mail. It sound to me as though you did none of the above. Placing your keys in the mail does not let you off the hook.

Each time a foreigner behaves this way it just reinforces what some landlords already think, that foreigners cannot be trusted and it just makes it that much harder for other foreigners to find landlords who will rent to them rather than a Swiss person. Losing your job and having your permit cancelled are legitimate reasons to break a contract but failure to communicate any of this to a landlord is not the way to act.

You should have contacted the landord, explained the situation and if the apartment was left clean and there was no damage, you would have been entitled to receive your rental deposit back as this cannot be applied to unpaid rent. It would also have been possible for you to avoid paying future months rent as without a job, or the right to remain here, this is impossible.

It is unfortunate that you did not ask anyone from your company to deal with your landlord on your behalf. Now your landlord is going after you for whatever he can. Do you blame him?

If you were sent (and received) a Betreibung (which they were obviously unable to deliver as you were out of the country) you would have had the possibility to reject it (Rechtsvorschlag) at which point the landlord would have had to take the matter further in order to get at the money. This would then have entailed going to court and a judge deciding what was the correct compensation. Had it got this far, the landlord may have been willing to negotiate a settlement based on the facts as you have portrayed them here. You would have had grounds to cancel your contract early, although maybe not from day one.

However, as you just up and left without obviously trying to do things correctly you have now got yourself into a pickle which probably only a lawyer will be able to extract you from (and probably not in full, maybe in part if you are lucky).

At the end of the day, whilst I understand the situation you were in, you could not have handled it in a worse way. You signed an agreement, made a commitment and then just backed out of it. Can you understand in any way why your landlord may be somewhat irate and wish your guts for garters???

Because you are a grown-up and grown-ups (as opposed to babies and young children) usually understand that they are responsible for their actions.

First, I appreciate all the replies and the opinions.

Some additional information:

I received notice of the job termination via email. The defunct parent company was in the U.K. and I was the only person in CH, so there was no one to represent me from the company.

I went to the Gemeinde to notify them and they kept my B permit telling me since my job was gone it was no longer valid.

I lost out on several month's wages, only receiving a partial payment for relocation back to Canada.

The contact was between me and the flat owner. I attempted to contact him via telephone however I got the notice on Dec 16. They were in Italy at the time on holiday so I sent the keys and notice (goodbye paperwork from Gemeinde with our Canadian address/email/telephone) via post to them and sent them an email.

It was not my intention to disappear, but given the crappy circumstances, I did the best I could.

I informed the landlord to keep the security deposit for his trouble and made sure we paid him for the time we actually occupied the flat.

I was never informed of Betreibung until a few days ago and the Betreibungsamt which issued the arrest/freeze order to USB sent me the paperwork. Unfortunately, the lawyer's contact information is not on this.

Based upon what I've read, I think I'll appeal the order and then contact the owner and see if he will not work out a settlement. Hopefully he will be reasonable. Otherwise, he will be left with the 400CHF in the USB account.

I appreciate your reply. You seem to have good understanding of the process.

How else could I have handled it? I contacted the landlord as soon as possible and explained to them the situation and the law as explained to me by my Treuhand, that the contract was not valid since I could not stay in the country. I did not hear anything else from them until the USB arrest order.

Are you saying I do not have the right to appeal? I never received a Betreibung. The office and landlord has my address (it is on the freeze order paperwork). This would seem I did not receive due process. If the landlord would have contacted me and said pay me some I would have worked out something probably.

So what type of pickle am I in? If I fly to Zurich or Geneva will they arrest me?

It is possible.
You need to discuss the problem with the landlord and have him justify his costs, IN WRITING. What does it say in your contract with him?

What you could have done differently is put yourself in the landlord's shoes. You were between a rock and a hard place through no fault of your own and I think none of us would want to find ourselves in the unfortunate position you did, just before Christmas.

But look at it from the landlord's point of view. He came back off holiday to find himself minus a tenant who's quit the country, leaving only an email alleging something to the effect that as far as the law's concerned, the fact that he's out of pocket is his problem and offering as compensation a fraction of what he thinks is owing to him. Since then a wall of silence from you.

If I had been in your shoes I would've probably quit the country as you did minus quoting the law at him and minus making what might've seemed to him like a final offhand "like it or lump it gesture". Whether that's what you intended or not and whether the law is on your side or not, it might've been better instead to assure him that you would be in touch with him as soon as he returned from holiday to resolve the financial consequences of you breaking the tenancy.

I would've been the one apologising profusely for the inconvenience and doing the running to communicate with him and sort this out proactively instead of waiting for him to contact you. If nothing else I would have wanted to know if he found my offer acceptable. Who knows, if the law really leaves him holding the baby then he might've settled for the security deposit if you had kept the dialogue going with him. But by staying silent you lost the initiative and probably just aggravated the guy.

It's still not too late to try and reach a compromise with him outside of court but it's up to you to be proactive. If you want to, that is.

Of course I attempted to contact the landlord several times. I sent him a letter via post and an email briefly explaining the situation and apologizing for the situation.

He replied back saying I did not properly notify him and must give 3 months notice. It is then I replied and relayed the information about the law as I was informed by my Treuhand. I didn't simply drop him an email saying goodbye and you are stuck.

Of course I'll contact him and attempt to resolve it amicably.

The rental contract appears to be a standard contract as used/recommended by the tenant/landlord association.

So why not simply pay him the 3 months rent and be able to sleep with a clear conscience and know you can travel back without worry?
As far as the other fees he demands, well, justifiable?

...and most important of all, as Mrs Doolittle points out, this would clear the way for this landlord to let to other foreigners. It's a really tough job for expats to get accommodation in Switzerland - and now we see one big reason why...

unless I misunderstand you, anyone leaving a place, whether expat or not, has no say what the landlord does after they leave. If he rents it for double income, good for him, but for the landlord to justify surcharges... unsure. 3 months is better than 12 months (mobile, tele, TV, etc).