Not sure I can mention the letting agencies name BUT I have an issue with the apartment I am living at in SCHWERZENBACH

I have at times BLACK WATER coming out of the hot water system. It is intermittent, so at times I cannot capture it. I have complained to my agency who amazingly have said they've seen this problem before and cannot do anything about it. Considering others haven't complained either.... basically I should just live with it.

My partner has made enquiries in the area and spoke to the janitor about it. He came round and said... oh yeah, I have this problem and then proceeded to try and get rid of the water we had saved in the bath / wash basin. My girlfriend stopped him from doing so.

I complained again to the agency, this time threatening to with-hold my payment for the month and eventually they send a lab (which I hear is owned by them) round to do some analysis. Now we are hearing nothing is wrong with the water, just a normal iron content.... oh yes.... that's another thing, there have been bits of metal in the water too.

What can we do????? Why should this agency get away with this appalling behaviour? Anyone offer any advice? Kreisburo also have shown an interest but nothing what we'd expect

Can the moderator of this forum advise me whether I can name the agency?

http://www.mieterverband.ch/ is where you want to go. Join up and ask them.

Stale water that has been standing for a long time appears black. You see it in central heating systems.

Have you just moved into an apartment that been standing empty for a long time?
Does it go away if you run all the taps for a while?

Maybe this is not new.. Your town is even named after a black stream.

I had been away for a while cos I was living at my girlfriends house and coming back at weekends. It would make sense what you say BUT it appears like black hair dye that runs for about 2-3 seconds and then goes away. The water does run clear for a while and then the black can appear again... I mean it is very black.

If you google "rusty water pipes" you'll find that despite it not looking terribly nice it's not as bad as it looks (at least health wise).

We just replaced all the water pipes in my apartment building (owner occupied) as the hot water lines were full of rust (see attachment). If I ran the hot water in the bath tub wide open I would have a very dark and disgusting bath awaiting me (nearly no rust from the cold water). Our building was built about 20 years ago and the problem was the standard of the time had the horizontal pipes in the basement with to large of a diameter which allowed air to accumulate allowing rust to form.

If the pipes need to be changed in your building (as I suspect) it's not going to be cheap and you can also expect the rent to increase in the near future because of it.

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Can you post a picture of the black water? standing or running, as long as we can see it.

Hi all,

See attached

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If it's just rust you have no problem but if you have lead pipes then it's time to worry!!

On the plus side, your anaemia problem seems to have improved.

If it was rust, would it prove it to put a magnet in the water and see if it attracts all the 'dirt'.
In the UK I have a magnetic filter on the pipes in the central heating system taht attracts any the rusty gunk in the system, which can then be withdrawn and wiped clean. (Magnaclean)

Does it stink of anything?

In Ireland our water was brown and smelled horrible. This came out of a nearby reservoir, so it explained allot..

That doesn't look like rust. As hinted at in the subject and OP, the water is black. When I've been away for a couple of days and put the bathroom sink hot tap on, I get rusty coloured water for around 10 seconds. It's not black.

Be careful with the water in your tub, if you leave it in there to long it will settle and create a stain/ring that will be hard to remove..

It doesn't smell of anything, it's just black like hair dye

I have run the hot water taps for a while and after a while the problem goes but then it comes back the next day

My agency needs to do something!

as others have said, its just rust in the pipes, short of ripping all the pipes out and replacing everything there isn't much they can do. doesn't look that bad to me, certainly not black like hair dye!!

if you can't live with it then move out, replacing the pipes would take while, cost a fortune and cause you a hell of a lot more inconvenience then running the taps for a few seconds to clear the crap.

Oh trust me it is worse, it's just mixed with clear water from before

The thing is that it isn't black to start with, it takes a minute or two to come out then it'll be a burst of about 2-3 seconds of jet black stuff so it's very difficult to capture when it comes. So work that out

I was expecting further revelations of Iraqi atrocities

Haven't checked out the nationalities of the agency

Will keep you posted

As Carlos R said earlier, Mietverband are the people to go to. Become a member and then ask for their advice, it's their speciality as they're the Swiss Tenants Association.