Hi, we are getting ready to leave our house after almost 5 years of renting. While I will be leaving in December, my husband will stay to do the exit interview in January. We were told by friends that we should not pay the last months rent and use up our deposit to prevent the landlord from not returning the deposit. We of course have insurance that should cover any damages done, and should only have to pay the deductible. Is this something we should do? Or can we get in trouble or be prevented from leaving the country? We had friends who left the same group of houses with the same management company 2 years ago and they said that even though their insurance company covered their damages, it took over a year to settle the accounts, and they didn't get any of the deposit back. I'm not trying to not pay, I just don't want to be back in the U.S. and then have no way to get our deposit back. Thanks for your thoughts.

http://www.mieterverband.ch

Perhaps you should join the mieterverband. They will send someone along when your husband gives up the apartment and make sure everything is properly signed and acknowledged. It does often take a long time to get the deposit back unfortunately.

Good luck with the move.

P.S Withholding rent is not a good idea.

I believe they can hold onto your deposit for 12 months before they have to hand it back, less any deductions of course. Have to say this does not sound very fair but does not seems to happen that often.

But have you actually caused any "damage" during your stay? Is it not something you can fix while still there?

Some things receive normal wear and tear over the course of your stay, not everything that is damaged gets paid from your pocket, and some damage is ok and hardly considered an issue (small things, scratches and things like that).

I know there is normal wear and tear, but we have 3 boys, and from the relationship we've had with the landlords, I think they will try to get us. Our friends who left had a lot of problems when they went out. The house was only 1-2 years old when we moved in and we've been here almost 5 years. Also, when we left our last place, we'd only been there less than 1 1/2 years and they claimed all sorts of things. Not only did our insurance not cover it, but we didn't get our deposit back and had to pay. (admittedly we had lost one of our keys and that was a big chunk.) I'm just worried because we will be leaving CH this time and not just moving within the country.

Your friends are wrong, you must pay the rent just as you would in any other month. The deposit cannot be applied to the rent. Besides, you cannot access that money without two signatures (tenant and landlord).

Do you have an inspection report (Protokoll) from when you moved in? Did yo have someone there with you when you did that report?
This will be very important. Upon leaving there are two things you need to do: have the place profesionally cleaned and have someone from the Mieterverband (tenant's association) attend the inspection with your husband. He shouldn't even attempt to do this alone. The people from the Mieterverband know the rules and look out for your interests. Anyone who even attempt to do this inspection on their own is asking for trouble.
Your insurance will cover the damage but the money will be taken out of the deposit.

It can take a long time to settle matters, but just be sure you give a forwarding address and bank details to your property manager and insurance company.

It does often take a long time to get the deposit back unfortunately.
P.S Withholding rent is not a good idea.[/QUOTE]

I agree with the above.

Just because you will have already have left Switzerland doesn't make it any harder to get your money back. The forms are signed by yourselves after the handover and you can give the bank details of where you wish the deposit to be transferred to then also. They wont try to keep your money just because you aren't around, it's a very small world we live in.
We've done this a couple of times and it has gone okay.
If damage has been done they will want to get their money back, of course, but you can fix everything possible before you leave anyway.
OOps old thread... might help someone else some day though...

Sorry, but I do think this is utter rubbish!

First of all, if you do not pay the rent, you are at fault already! Just the more reason to list each and every little sh*tty scratch and make you pay.
Secondly, who in their right state of mind would pay you the deposit right away, in cash , before they had ample time to make sure there really isn't any hidden damage (I know friends who are very good at hiding what they did....). If you go in with that attitude, you deserve what's coming.

Of course, even if you do everything squeaky-clean you are not guaranteed to get the deposit within days, especially with damages. I'd go with the recommendation of the Mieterverband...

Though I understand the concern, I do think this is a little misleading. When we left our appartment, we (well, my wife) did the cleaning ourselves and we didn't join the Mietverband and had no-one there to help us. We had no problems at all and all we had to fork out for was a replacement flusher on one of the toilets.
However, that does depend entirely on the landlord (and it sounds as if you have a right one there) and you'll probably have a better peace of mind by doing what Mrs. Doolittle suggests.
And to concur with the others, do not withold a month's rent, it's just asking for trouble.

I have lived here for over 20 years and I am not going to get into a big argument over this. I have the experience: I have had 2 major fights and seen a third family pay an extra CHF 5'000 to bring the place up to a higher standard than when they naively signed the contract.

KDJAK asked for good advice, I have given them my opinion of what I would do, indeed what I have already done in Switzerland!

Sometimes there is no easy legal way out and why should bullying landlords hide behind the laws to get their flats reconditioned?

You might think it's rubbish to keep the rent back (Note I did say pay the rent if he agrees to the condition) and its OK for the landlord to keep the deposit, but I disagree.

If you're incapable of cleaning a carpet or filling a few holes in a wall then a professional should be able reliive you of a large bundle of cash.

As for insisiting the landlord pays your deposit in cash, this is total crap. They don't even have free access to it as it's in a bank account and both have to sign to get it back or you wait for 1 year.
and if you do not pay the rent, you leave yourself wide open to eviction.

As you have lived here over 20 years Ittigen, you really should know better that this by now, you post is very inaccurate.

Yes you can pay large amounts for "deep carpet cleaning" by a professional, it is often in the rental contract and costs about 12 Francs per square meter. But you might also want to leave with your head high and rent a machine from the pharmacy and do it yourself.

The same thing for filling in the dubel holes, unless you are experienced it is best to get it done professionally, otherwise the whole wall has to be painted.

I know the money is locked away in the UBS until both parties agree, asking the owner to bring the deposit money is somewhat symbolic.

If you leave without paying the rent, the owner can claim this money after going to court. It takes about 6 months and quite a bit of effort, it is quite a strong lever to force an owner to be reasonable.

If you are leaving the country you have a very strong hand. My ex wife's previous owner telephoned me 3 times after she left his apartment in Bremgarten (and also Switzerland). He is a psychiatrist and lives in Thun, he asked me "What have I done to deserve this?"

As you can see I do have the relevant experience! It would be a much better response if you added advice, and not just criticism, which is always the easiest way to make yourself heard.

they notoriously screw people here over deposits. from what I have heard. also, "cleaners" cost like 65 francs an hour and they will charge you lilke 1000 francs to clean it. what a joke.

look up the law. I did it in the US, and within 30 days they have to give you a written list of everything they used it for. if they don't ten they own you 100% of it, even if you trashed it. just look up the law somewhere.

Unfortunately the law here is a bit different. Not everyone has the same laws as the US

I think here the law says one year

It can take as long as 6 months or more to get some of your deposit back. Having moved out in Sept 09 I still haven't settled. I will next weel though. I had a whopping 3600 in deductions some of which I agrued about unsuccessfully. I decided life was just too short and in the end the agent probably had the law on his side. This was after taking advice from the Mieterverband.

As for the 'advice' offered by Ittigen, follow that at your peril. He makes it sound like the landlord would face hardship by your non payment of the rent. The reality is that CHF 10,000 is small beer to most landlords who will embrace the opportunity of taking you to court knowing that the deposit money will cover court costs WHEN you lose.

!the guy is leaving the country for goodness sake, he has nothing to loose but his reputation!

He has the deposit to lose. When you leave the country you can forget about getting the 2 month deposit back.

Absolutely, non payment of rent means the owner has a huge advantage in court.

I wonder what the 3600 in deductions were for though ?

I hear you. And that's another landlord who won't rent to foreigners! And the landlords whom he is friends with and so on. Communities are tight here.

So, it's not just his reputation at stake it's the reputation of a group of people - auslanders, expats, you and me.

Unlike you, there ae people here who believe that having enjoyed their time in Switzerland they have a responsibility to preserve the acceptance of foreigners by the locals and that it would be very selfish to act in a way that disadvantages their fellow expats.

As far as I read in the OP, the friend recovered the lost deposit money from the insurance company.

So if their worst fear does come true and the landlord eats up all the deposit with real or made up repairs then as long as the insurance company has contact details then the money will eventually be returned.

One thing I will say about last year (actually summer of 2008) is that the price of oil was at it's highest and there will almost certainly be additional nebenkost.

One last thing. Maybe the OP might want to have the option of returning to CH and rent another apartment!