Hi all!

Early January I found a dripping pipe in my balcony. I promptly called the renting company (Livit) and the (not very nice) lady asked my phone number and told me that "if she had time" she would send someone to fix it. Early February I called her again, which took my phone number again, and again she did not move a finger about it.

The pipe itself is no big deal, but it's leaving my balcony with a permanent layer of water or ice.

Since March is approaching, I'd like to know if anybody knows if Switzerland has some sort of tenant protection entity. I know that in Germany, when people have this sort of problem, they resort to this kind of entity and renting companies tend to fix the problem really fast.

Any advice on what I should do would be much appreciated!

not much fun ice skating on your balcony eh?
here is what I found on the forum
Mieterverband House Insurance

You might want to consider joining the Mieterverband ZH http://www.mieterverband.ch/zh_top.0.html

It's a cheap annual membership and you'll get good advice on how best to resolve this matter.

One thing I have found in CH is that to make anything official you need to send a registered letter in German. This is the very first step and records your date of complaint.

Good luck.

W

An exterior pipe that's leaking during the winter..? Either they never turned off the water for the winter and/or there's a pipe that's getting ready to burst when the water pressure is turned back on in the spring. That really needs to be looked at prior to the water being turned back on outdoors.

The caretaker should fix this.

Thanks a lot for the advices!

My plan now is to send them a registered mail with my complaint. I guess they will probably react, but if not I will consider the "Mieterverband". I don't really like the idea of having to pay extra in order to get what is my right in the first place though :/

Thanks again!

Principles come at a price....sometimes professional help gets you where you want to be faster and more effectively. I guess you don't consider your own time to be worth much either?

You really should join a Mieterverband. You can then get free legal advice, and as a fresh foreigner you are just being ignored by the nasty lady already aren't you? Your contract doesn't explain everything, there is a lot of rental law and house regulations that you should be aware of.

You are obliged to report any fault in the building, so send the letter anyway.

Wow, that was unnecessarily unfriendly!

Yup, it sounds like it's the way to go here in Switzerland.

Er, no actually, it wasn't meant that way at all... But consider what the Mieterverband membership would cost and what time it will save you and do the math.

Now, if I wanted to be unfriendly I would just have called you cheap. But I am a nice guy, so I won't.