hello everyone , please i need your help if you can advice me or give me any assistance i will really appreciate it.

i'm a student leaving switzerland soon but my school is black mailing me. i have graduated since april and the school has held my diploma back with different reasons and keep on giving me invoice to pay.

Now i'm being billed an invoice for something that i haven't even done or used.

school is billing me an invoice to pay for:

Occupation, liability insurance and checkout. the grounds for this invoice is that the owner of the school saw me a few times at my girl friends apartment which she rents from school. there is no contract agreement with her and the school for this apartment.
so the owner of the school billed me an invoice that mentions that i have been living at my girl friends apartment for one year and refuses to give me my diploma unless i pay the full amount.

my permit has expired and i'm seeking to extend it for at least a couple of weeks to find a solution. I don't have money to hire a lawyer and i have already spoken to the commune in my town and they said that they cannot help because it is a private matter and they are not aware of the documents or agreement been signed by students and the school.


Note: I'm living with a host family and my address is registered here plus there and the commune knows that well.

so please if any one can help me , i'm really in a tight spoke and i can't afford to go back to my country without my Diploma

My thought is... Call their bluff. Can they prove you were living there? You can prove residence (registered with the gemeinde) with your host family (get a written statement to that effect from them anyway, just in case). Write a letter, asking them to document your residence at your friend's location, and tell them if they cannot, you will view this as defamatory and pursue your further options. Set a specific deadline (something like 1 month from the mailing) for them to respond; if they fail to respond in time, tell them you will expect your degree to be forwarded forthwith without further delay, or you will pursue your legal options (they don't have to know you can't afford a lawyer). Send it with delivery confirmation, so you have a record of receipt.

Not free but affordable ( CHF50 for 30 mins )

http://www.permanence-juridique-geneve.ch/index.php

or Vaud

http://www.oav.ch/site/index.php?opt...d=54&Itemid=77

Thank you for your time for reading my message and your advice.
Sadly I cannot call their bluff because the Administration of my school is just run by one person which is the Owner/Director/Accountant. And he is well aware of my financial situation.

I have even visited the School accompanied by my landlady and the Owner didn't want to hear a thing, he just started to scream and said the discussion is over. He either pays or won't get his Diploma .

To make matters worst, tomorrow i will try to get an extension for my stay here which might be till the end of the month maximum. so i'm between a rock and a hard place really , i feel so lost and depressed.

i will try to call my country's embassy tomorrow so see if they can aid me with my situation.

Permancence juridique is exactly a service you should contact, as mentioned above. Good luck, it sounds like the school has zero proof of you actually living with your gf there, anyone can visit, right?

Yes the school has no poof at all of me living with my girl friend because I am not. I live with a host family and have my address registered here.

The argument of the owner of the school is that he saw me there a few times at my girl friends apartment.
Once i was sleeping there and my girl was away at work but left the door unlocked and the guy just came in and woke me up and then left.

Second time was we were having a dinner at my girl friends and every one was helping out, we were three. then the owner came to the apartment to fix the door because the key whole wasn't working and he saw me cooking.

that is all he has. He doesn't even give students contracts to sign for the apartment they rent from school.

but he has the upper hand here because my permit is expired and i can't afford to go out of the country and come back.

i have a meeting at the local commune to extend my permit at 8am and i'm sooo nervous i can't sleep

Butt he has to Pay the pleasure Tax to the government

I wish it was a laughing matter but i'm on the verge of losing it here

either pay the invoices, or pay for a lawyer to fight them.

Go into your local cantonal office and explain you are a student who is in urgent need of legal advice. They can refer you to a lawyer who will provide free legal advice or refer you further. These appointments usually take 2-3 weeks but for really urgent cases, they may get you in within 24 hours, depending on how nice you are and how nice they are.

First... that is not "blackmail." Blackmail would be a situation where he was demanding money to keep the photos of you and your girlfriend inflagrante from reaching Blick am Abend. Assuming you're famous of course.

Second... they have to prove that you were living there. You say you can disprove their claim. Do so. Collect your evidence, make copies, and submit it to them. Attach a cover letter saying that you are disproving their claim that you owe them the money. By the way... if it was your girlfriend's apartment, and she didn't have a contract for it... then who did? And how is it that she isn't being billed? How much has she already paid? Does she have receipts?

Third... if this does not convince the school that you do not owe this money, then you will need to find a lawyer or pay the money. Either way, if you can't convince the school that you don't owe the money, you'll be paying something.

Presence alone (i.e. sleeping, cooking) does not constitute Living. He would have to show that you'd moved in. I really wish you could find a lawyer to take this pro bono for you.

How much is he trying to extort from you anyway?

Can I ask what kind of school this is? I'm just curious as to what sort of school is run along these lines. The guy seems a bit odd, why would he be entering your gf's appartment without prior permission? There are a whole bunch of issues here, and based on what you've said, he should be answering a lot of very difficult questions.

wildfire, please confirm that you have now approached someone for free legal assitance. If you have done nothing wrong, as you say, then you will be able to sort this out quickly.

Also, calling their bluff is no problem despite the owner/manager etc knowing everything about your situation. They also know that there is free legal assitance available and that you could have gotten some.

I am sure many of us here would love to help with advice but if you don't follow the referral to http://www.permanence-juridique-geneve.ch/index.php or OAV then we can't really do anything for you.

Most diplomatic missions have a panel of lawyers to assist citizens.

Based on Wildfire's location, I am guessing the school is probably the American Graduate School of Business (http://www.agsb.ch).

Yet another MBA school (YAMBAS).

is extortion illegal in switzerland? maybe time to counter-sue...

If that's the case, then screwing every possible penny out of him without any appeal to reason or humanity is simply them practising what they preach

I have had two situations during my 7 years in Switzerland whereby I have been forced to write some very strong legalistic letters to fight against schools that were trying to get money out of me.

One time, in Vaud, I got a very nice apology and a lot of money refunded. The other time, in Zürich, I ended up having to bite the bullet and pay for a course I never did. Very frustrating.

It is unfortunate that in Switzerland, if you are billed for something and don't pay, you more often than not have a tough battle ahead since you get recorded as being a bad debt and can do nothing to get that note removed.

Although it appears you have a very clear case, perhaps the tenants' support organization (ASLOCA) would be of help to you or to your girlfriend when she attempts to leave this odd/unfortunate situation. Costs are modest (CH75) and in our case they were quite helpful in extracting a 3 months housing deposit from a recalcitrant Regi.
http://www.asloca.ch/

What a nonsense. Foreigner is living there where he is registered. Go to police and report an extortion..Because it realy looks like that. But tell them first so that they can think about that one more time.