My apartment is brand new as of this year and my boyfriend and I just moved in in August. In September (within the 30 days we were given to find problems with the apartment) my boyfriend shut the front door with the key on the inside in the lock. When he went to open it again, he couldn't because it was locked. Because the landlord is a companx, we couldn't get help from them and instead contacted the general manager. He found someone to open the door, but the lock had to be broken and we had to pay upfront 700 CHF to get in the apartment. Because the lock was broken it cost additional funds to fix it. Now the landlord wont pay us back the 700 CHF and wants us to pay the additional costs because the company that makes the doors says there is no way that that could have happened and refuses to reimburse the landlord, who refuses to reimburse us. Even though the landlord says we are in the right and did everything we should have.

Anybody have any advice? It seems here in Switzerland there is no legal advice for free (even though I am a student), and no procedure to resolve the issue except to go to court which is expensive.

Thanks for your help!

Get in touch with the renters association (Mieterverband or Asloca), possibly they can give you some advice.

Here in German for Canton Bern and also in French for the city of Biel/Bienne. My German is not that good, but I am fluent in French - if you don't speak either and need any help understanding the French website, feel free to PM with questions, I'd be glad to help if I can (with the language).

maybe you can get a statement from the company that broke the lock tht it was actually locked and the key was on the inside. i can only imagine that the key was in and on the cusp of turning and then turned when the door closed. i could see them arguing that this was the user's fault unless you can show somehow there is a technical malfunction with that particular lock (or design of lock).

Handel on the inside side, door knob on the outside side? Key in lock partly turned? Oooops. Nothing wrong with the lock but normal operation. Unfortunately your fault. You break it, you pay it. Sorry, but it was lecture 1 of class 101 Lock Functions.

Or do you have handles at inside and outside? Then it was a case of very, very bad luck.

hint: Please do not miss lecture 1 of 101 Third Party Liability Insurance.

I'm confused. Did he lock himself out of the house? Or could he not get the key to turn anymore?

If you lock yourself out why is that the problem of someone else to fix?

As the Kaba style locks require to be turned mechanically, and if the manufacturers have said it wasn't a defective lock (Phils explanation is actually the most likely) I don't know how you can argue against that. Logically they unless you get an independent inspection by a locksmith (which will cost) and providing he thinks it was defective, you could try to recover your cost via the courts (which costs) and would be in a still be in weak position. The likelihood manufacture/owner is most likely to win, and you get their cost to... see where that's all going.

Unpalatable as it may be, I wouldn't hold out much hope of re-imbursement... and make sure the key is all the way in the unlock position in future