After experiencing my first earthquake last night, a rather exciting experience, i woke up this morning to find that there are huge cracks on either side of our balcony. They do not appear to be superficial, the crack(s) runs through the whole wall on both sides completely wrapping around the entire balcony.

My wife is now terrified of stepping foot on our balcony, we dont use it much and have never had more than 2 people on it since we live directly in front of the train tracks and it is quite loud and annoying. We live on the 3rd (top) floor. There are two chairs and a weber BBQ on it so the idea of the balcony having to bear much of a load is out of the question.

Coincidentally we have been recently searching for a new appartment. My question is would this be an instance where we can terminate our contract because the apartment itself is "unsafe". We dont have a contract, but we must give a 3 month notice if we want to move out. Is this enough means to void this agreement in the case that we find an apartment within the next 3 months? What are our rights, and whom other than our landlord can/do we contact in this type of instance.

I will attach pictures. Thanks for all the help in advance!

Right Side

Left Side.

It might well be superficial but having read of a case in Au/Wädenswil on Lake Zürich where a balcony actually did collapse onto the balcony below (building was quite new but someone had forgotten to join something to something else!!!) I'd keep off it and inform the folk below of my worries. I'd be on to the Agents first thing tomorrow morning if not before.

It might be a storm in a tea-cup but the photos of that balcony and what might have happened had anyone been standing on the one underneath send a shudder down ones spine.

This isn't the accident I meant - it's another one, also in canton Zürich though! Text is in German, but the picture tells the story.

From the pictures you do need to take action.

What you don't know, and your agent will not know either, if the cracks are just superficial and limited to the final outer layer or if they are structural.

From my time living in the Los Angeles area I can tell you with absolute certainty nothing can be determined by just looking at the surface. I had instances where cracks on my home were just superficial, and others where structural repairs had to be done. In one case I had a crack running up the entire side of one room, but after the wallboard was broken out there was no structural damage found. However there was no way to know this until the wall was opened.

If your agent tells you it's nothing without having a qualified structural engineer take a look you need to push on and be concerned about their professionalism, they are in no way qualified to make such a statement.

Personally, I would not use the balcony, agree with the advice you've received to notify your downstairs neighbor but do it in writing, and absolutely use registered post to officially inform your agency of the damage after you speak to them.

Good luck

..and don't forget to mention that you know of TWO cases in canton Zürich alone where balconies have actually collapsed so it isn't just some vague panicky idea that an alien has come up with.

I could understand the crack being superficial if the crack were just on one side of the balcony, or just the interior or exterior part of the supporting wall(s). But for it to be on both sides of the balcony and wrapping around both supporting walls leads me to believe its not.

As for the link you posted, thats awful, like you said one could only imagine what could of happened if someone were standing under that collapsed balcony. Ill have to refrain from showing my wife otherwise she`ll probably be staying in a hotel until we find a new flat...

Surely you just need to get the agent in asap to have a look and register the damage, get an expert in to assess.

I am curious, how do you manage to rent a flat without a contract?

Are you sure those hairline cracks were not there yesterday, or did you just look for them today?
I notice a pipe goes through one, any water in that pipe that froze due to the cold weather could easily have caused one of the cracks in the last week.
You know there is something wrong if the crack gets bigger, I know a building in central London where a crack opened up by half an inch overnight.....Most old buildings in London have cracks due to bombing during the war.

I agree with Longbyt on this. Contact your agent first thing in the morning. And I would also speak to your neighbour that lives below ASAP... If you don't speak the same language then print out the photo... I would be most appreciative if my upstairs neighbour did that for me.

@Dantesheaven - yes that is true, neither i nor my landlord can tell if it is superficial or not, we will push the landlord to get it thuroughly checked. If our landlord refuses to get it thuroughly checked and we have to hire an structural engineer, is the cost of that on our shoulders?

@Odile- We have lived here for over a year and a half, so our original 1 year contract is over, we now are month to month and if we ever decide to move out we must give a 3 month notice.

@fatmanfilms - That pipe is the railing for the balcony, no water runs through it. Its possible that there was an indistinguishable crack there before, but whatever the case it is much bigger now. I`m a light smoker so i go out there once or twice a day and have not noticed it before.

My wife is Swiss so she can communicate with our neighbor fine. we will definitely take your and Longbyt`s advice and do that. Hopefully it doesn't scare her to death if our landlord doesn't deal with the issue appropriately.

Damn those Ikea instructions!!!! I also always have "spare" parts left over once I'm finished building.

Also just noticed that the texture of the wall seems to be different where the cracks are. It may be possible that this happened before and they just re-textured over it. You can slightly see it on the first picture on both sides. Could this mean that the issue is actually worse that it appears to be?

It's probably an old crack probably totally unimportant, unless it moves continuously.

I've seen areas where concrete block or slab is covered by an insulating layer followed by some concrete mix to give it interesting (looking) texture and sometimes just that outer layer is cracked, sometimes the insulating layer also cracked, and sometimes it goes through to the concrete.

I wouldn't let it signify as "proof" of anything one way or the other, because it may be that only the outer layer was cracked (and repaired) previously (and that's why you're seeing difference in texture), but now with the earthquake it's something more major.

I used to live on the 10th floor in a 1980s building in an area where earthquakes were quite common, we would get about 2-3 per year in the 4 to 6 Richter region and every 5 or so years up to 7-8. The earthquakes were quite long, sometimes up to a minute.

I've seen many cracks around corners that were too small and not deep at all, you could see that it was only the plaster (the top cover) from the wall that gets the paint. But vive never seen so large and long crack like on these photos to be honest with you.

I'm not a professional but in my mind (even though it's very long and quite thick) it seems that it is only the outer skin (plaster) of the paint/wall, I really doubt it went deeper. For the sake of your safety and piece of mind talking with your landlord would be a good idea.

I am just a other armchair Engineer Architect,but I think you should report this to the "Gemeinde,Building inspectors if they exist in CH.Land lord maybe not that much interested in structural damages ,cost money

Except that in most (if not all) cantons homeowners are required by law to have building insurance (in Zurich this would be these people http://www.gvz.ch/). Therefore if there was any damage caused by the earthquake it would actually be in the owner's interest to have it looked at and repaired at the insurance company's expense.