Hi there,

We had our initial preliminary inspection with the landlord, and he said if we are not able to get certain marks/stains off the walls they will need to be painted.

The question is, do I need to find someone to paint the walls?

If not is it the rental agency who will do that and subtract from my deposit?

They also said we need to replace the extractor fan filter. I wouldnt even know where to start on that one. Do we really need to do that?

Cheers!
Alan

When we looked at apartments some agents said we can paint the walls any colour we wanted as long as we repaint them to white before we move - so I guess the same would apply to marks on the wall. I am moving out to a new place and have some marks on my walls and managed to clean them off with a 'magic sponge' I got in the UK - it worked great!! From Lakeland Plastic.

As for the extractor - the carbon filters should be replaced every 6 months anyway but I searched online and found tips for washing them so that's what I've been doing - I have the round black plastic disc filled with carbon and covered with a black 'woolly' fabric. I soak it in hot soapy water with vinegar - leave over night then rinse in hot water and leave to dry. Looks brand new. If yours has been in use for a long time it might be too far gone. You can find spare parts online - just type in the model of your extractor.

Depends how long you been living in the apartment, how much maintenance was done, what condition was it when you moved in.

For example when we moved, my Hubby had been renting that apartment for 26 years, 1st alone then with me, very little maintenance had been done, so when we moved they just took the keys and paid for all the works themselves before the new tenants moved in.

I believe the rules on painting are, they should paint every 5 years, if you lived in there for more than 5 years and it never got done, they cannot charge you for new painting (check your tenancy agreement or the rules on mieterverband http://www.schweizerischer-mietersch...ation/f259.cfm (hope this is the right link) they list all the rules for both parties.

Regarding the broken fan, it is you duty as the tenant to report anything belonging to the landlord that is broken or damaged, so if its broken and you didn't report it, then they can charge you for it (or you change it yourself). A friend got charged CHF800 for a broken fan in the bathroom although they never used it and didn't realise it was broken.

Emulsion paint has a lifespan of 8 years. You are liable for the differnece in life span, so if you've been there 6 years, you will need to pay for the last 2 years of life, or 25%.
However, if you have liability insurance then the insurance company will pay if you claim.

For the extractor, download the manual and take a look how to do it. They are usually very simple and designed to be replaced. if you don't do it then you'll be charged, and that is not claimable.

If you need to ask these questions, maybe you should join ASLOC in Geneva, and ask for a witness at the handover?

http://yellow.local.ch/en/q/Geneva%2....html?rid=mc_n

You can paint the walls white, over the stains, yourself. It doesn't have to look pretty, only clean.