I have just been informed that one of my tenants has not paid the rent for the last three months.
Calls have been made to the apartment and it appears that nobody is there.

Apartment is in Ticino.
It was rented Furnished.
Tenant are two Italians with residency permits in Ticino.
Tenancy agreement was for 5 years from 1st February 2009 (so nearly four years left).
I have only one months deposit in a tenant holding bank account.

Please; What are the procedures and actions I should now take?

Corrected below. Also, how come you found out about the rent non-payment after 3 months?

get new tenants and check rent more regularly next time. might also want to take a bigger deposit.

do you have previous addresses? phone numbers? copy of passport / ID / Permit?
If you have a copy of the Italian ID it probably show the last address of residence before they rented your place, maybe a good place to start?
failing that get a lawyer and contact the police.

keep us posted!

I have this wonderful person called a mother who was too embarrassed to inform me until now of the situation.

Cheers for the correction on 4 months to 4 years.

Ah tough luck.

Are you sure that they are not just on holiday? Do you have their home based address in Italy as well as their employment records?

It is a good idea to write into the contract that if rent is not paid on time the rental contract therefore is canceled instantly.

Wow . . . I had no idea people even signed up for five year long tenancy contracts! How can one have so much certainty about life?

my rental contract says something about interest being charged if i am late with payments.

doesnt do much good if you cant find the guy - lawyers and stuff as suggested by others.

Is their an organisation for landlords like there is for renters ?

Have you or your mother been in (are you allowed to just go in), as I am wondering, is the furniture still there???

my tenants signed for 4 yrs,

It's tough but at least they left themselves - I had one who wasn't paying and refused to either pay or clear out. I had to officially cancel the contract which is not that easy and had to give him a lot of notice. If they're still in Switzerland, go to the local council and get a 'Betreibung' against them. If they've de-registered and left an overseas forwarding address you can forget that as the council will not follow it up.
And for the next contract, get a bigger bond paid.

Happened to me too last year. The tenant was nice enought to call me and tell me he was bailing on his lease immediately. I lost a month's rent (unfort back home, you can only collect 1/2 month deposit). If I were there, I would have gone after him, but being here, the legal costs wouldn't have been worth it.

So I can sympathise as the only useful point to this post.

Maybe you should ask your mom?

Bummer, sorry to hear that.

I never rent my French places out long term, just for holiday rentals in the summer for that very reason, too many horror stories of bad tennant, rent not paid etc. I'd rather they be empty than have the hassle. In France the tennant has more protection than you can shake a stick at and the minimum term is (at last year) 3 years, so a long term contract is nothing new.

I hope you get a resolution, but some how I doubt it.

Why not just say tenant did a runner?

Here's another example of why landlords don't want to rent to foreigners.

Because tracking down a Swiss national in Switzerland and bringing action against them is marginally easier. Just ask the guys looking for bin Laden.

Perhaps because as they are foreign, there's a distinct chance that they are no longer here. Hard to find and make them cough up.

I doubt Cashboy has any prejudice against foreigners- he's one himself. (I think?)

agree with others. be thankful tenant is gone. there are many nightmares with tenant still in there and unwilling to pay or leave costing you a fortune in lost rent and legal fees to evict them.