They cover all the bases eh ..
Even the radio on your ship or motorbike counts.

And radio/tv via internet.

They've sent two bills, one for 2019 and one for 2020. They seem to be mixing up the system, shouldn't they make you pay either retrospectively or for the future? What bothers me is having one single bill for 700 francs.

Is it two now or one single?

However, obviously last year you slipped through the cracks (you were all cheerful about that back then, eih? ) due to the mess the communes made when they were supposed to deliver the data on households. But nothing ever gets forgotten here. So Fr. 700.00 it is now.

edit: Maybe this other EFer, who's chasing them for his bill in the other thread is not so wrong after all. Although he could save the energy and just put the 350.00 aside somewhere.

No I did not, because last year I paid the bill for the 2018's months that I was asked to pay - I can't recall how many, but I think it was from August to December 2018. So, logically, I was expecting a bill for 2019 now.

If I recall correctly with Serafe you pay in advance.

He groans.
Charge him tripple.

Hi everyone,

I received a bill from Serafe for an entire year from August for my flat. The bill was due to be paid by 29th December, so is now overdue.

Back in November, I emailed Serafe to tell them that I didn’t want to pay for an entire year for this flat because I would be moving house. I have received no reply to my email, however, I am concerned now that the bill has remained unpaid. For clarity, I lived in the flat for just over four months. A lot of others have reported that Serafe takes months to reply on Google Reviews.

Does anyone have any advice as I don’t want to keep paying this bill for an entire year each time I move house (I am likely to move again within a few months). I am obviously also worried about the consequences of not paying.

I would ring, however, I don’t understand Swiss German very well and this has been a problem in the past when speaking over the phone. I am also not in Switzerland until 7th Jan and so I would be charged quite a bit for ringing.

I think it's linked to you, not your address, i.e. if you pay for a year that payment transfers with you when you move house.

Pay the bill, then inform them of your change of address when the time comes.

The website is in English and the first page seems to suggest there was at least for 2019 an option to pay quarterly, there is support phone number and according to your profile says your German is advanced.... and you knew that email responses were slow, it was your responsibility to get this sorted before the deadline.....

https://www.bakom.admin.ch/bakom/en/...on-system.html

Looks like it is all done through registration with your gemeinde. So when you tell the gemeinde of your change of address Serafe will either refund you then send you a new bill, or transfer what you've paid to your new address.

Registration and exemption
Do changes to my housing situation (e.g. moving house or separation) have to be notified to the collection agency?
No. For billing, the collection agency, Serafe, uses data provided from the residents' registers of the cantons and municipalities. If you move house, it is important that you communicate this information to your residents' register office immediately.

Yes - I can speak German quite well, however, Swiss German is another challenge for me altogether. It takes time to get used to a new dialect of German (that some would say is also a different language) and even some native speakers from struggle.

I also provided adequate time for Serafe to respond, but didn’t know the correct thing to do (I am new to the country and don’t actually watch TV). The only reason I need to pay the bill is as I own devices capable of receiving TV.

Thanks for this, I will pay it and hope it clears up

And let me guess, you met the on Swiss German speakers that could not speak high German.....

Well, it is funny you should say that. So far, I have encountered quite a few people who have told me that they don’t want to speak in High German with me, both in the workplace and outside of it. This obviously presents me with a problem if their English is not good enough to hold a conversation and I do not understand Swiss German that well. This has actually been the case when speaking to people for arranging visits for new flats and so on.

It is difficult to know what to do without causing offence as clearly it would be easier for both sides to communicate in High German, but it is not possible if someone outright tells me they don’t want to speak it.

Tips towards fixing this issue, both in the sense of learning to understand Swiss German, and also in the sense of opening the locals' hearts to be more willing to speak to you in High German (typically they will like it if they think you're trying):

• Listen to Swiss radio stations, a lot.
• Try to use what you hear to modify your High German to intonate in the same way as Swiss German. Swiss German, and even High German spoken by a Swiss person, tends to be much less clipped, and much more melodic (sing-songy) than High German spoken by a German, or by an English-speaking person who has learnt High German.
• Learn at least how to greet people properly in the local dialect of the region(s) in which you live and work, paying attention to knowing the different forms for Sie (formal) and Du (informal), for both "hello" and "good-bye". Ask a local Swiss person to practice with you, until you say those basic forms properly.
• Ditto learning the expressions for "please" and "thank you", "yes" and "no".
• Even while you continue to speak High German, at least substitute the dialect expressions for those words.
• Listen to Swiss radio stations, a lot.
• Get a few private lessons in Swiss German, from a good teacher, and learn how to modify the most German-sounding aspects of your German, to soften and Swissify them.
• Listen to Swiss radio stations, a lot.
• When you are out and about, in a café, in public transport, at an event, concentrate on conversations going on around you, and try to attune your ear to following the Swiss German.
• Depending on the context, sometimes it is possible to win someone over to speak more slowly and clearly, if you show you're trying.
  In such cases, when someone speaks dialect to you, and won't budge to High German, tell them (in the local dialect): "I'm trying to learn to understand dialect." Then repeat back to them what you understood that they said, in High German.
• Listen to Swiss radio stations, a lot. Oder?

In thirty years I’ve yet to find anyone in the German speaking area that refused to speak High German for business issues.

I agree with this when in the business world. However, I did on occasion (long ago) experience people in government department phonelines or enquiry desks, and in shops, and some neighbours, and in non-business moments at work like in the coffee-breaks, who were not willing to make the effort to speak High German on my account.

I think that at least some of them hoped that they'd thereby be encouraging/forcing me to take the leap into Swiss German.

Our German teacher encouraged us to train our ear, listen, listen, repeat, listen more, so that the need for that sentence: "Würden Sie das bitte auf Hochdeutsch wiederholen?" would fall away as soon as possible.

EDIT: I have been told, by a few Germans, that the refusal to speak High German is quite persistent. They weren't sure whether it was through specifically anti-German sentiment, or whether the Swiss were perhaps a little embarassed at their pronounciation when speaking High German. In any case they, too, worked hard to at least understand Swiss German, so that this soon became a non-issue.

More a 'Swiss version' of High Greman, which is why you see Swiss speaking high German sometimes subtitled on German T.V.

Aside from listening to radio stations, I do all of this. I have been met with people saying things like ‘foreigners shouldn’t attempt Swiss German because it never sounds right’. People have also commented that my pronunciation of certain words sounds ‘Swiss’, however, this is probably because I have lived in Austria before. I do use most of the basic Swiss expressions for ‘please’, ‘thank you’, etc.

I have stopped wearing headphones on the train just so I can listen to people. The hard part about this is that I keep hearing the same Swiss German words but not know what they mean, and I don’t have a Swiss person to ask, e.g. if I am travelling by myself. In Austria, I found it more helpful as people did explain some of the dialect words to me and said nothing when I used words specific to the region.

I have also been told that one of the reasons people don’t want to speak High German with me is because they are afraid of making a mistake when speaking High German. However, chances are I would not notice or care if the communication was flowing.

As for Jim2007: then you have been very lucky with the people that you have met. You do seem more like you are trolling, though.

Nope, the reason you need to pay it is because EVERYBODY has to pay it now.

You should pay that bill. It is easier to prove you already payed the yearly fee after moving than discussing what you seem to want to discuss with them.
It's Serafe's first year, the communes messed things up big time for them and they got other problems to deal with. So should you actually be charged again for the same period of time in the new flat, that will be a better time to argue about it. As you will actually have something to argue about.