Hi all,

Just when I thought I'd heard the last of my old landlord, he's sent me another letter. I moved out on March 13, we did a walk through, and I signed a statement in which he stated that the cleaning was ok and wrote down two things he thought were damaged (none of which included the dishwasher). Today he sent another letter saying that the new tenant has found the dishwasher front panel "repaired with white glue" and that the front panel has since come off and therefore it must have been me who did it. I never noticed the dishwasher repaired with glue and never had any problems with it while I was living there. Does anyone know if I'm now legally obliged to pay for this damage after the new tenant has already moved in? How would I know that the new tenant didn't cause this damage? I guess I find this curious since the new tenant could continue breaking things the rest of the year and he could continue charging me for it, if those are the rules.

Thanks for any advice,
- Jess

I was told the new tenant has two weeks to report anything wrong.

shouldn't think so if things had been signed off!

get these guys involved:

http://www.mieterverband.ch/

The two weeks thing is actually ten days.

And as for coming back to a previous tenant for damages after the apartment has been signed off it IS possible if the damage that was found would not have been found during a normal walkthrough and is considered a "hidden defect" (versteckte Mängel). This could well be considered a hidden defect as there would be no reason to check such a panel in detail. I guess this is a difficult situation because you have no way of proving that the panel was glued by a tenant before you...

I would definitely talk to the Mieterverband, but you may well find out that you are liable.

I have attached an article that appeared in K-Tipp, a Swiss consumer magazine, which may help you understand the process better (although it is in German).

Good luck!