Hello everyone! I’ve seen that many people here write about their problems looking for suggestion and here I am! (Maybe I just need someone with which discuss about all this stuff..). I arrived here in late july and I subrented a shared house with a young lady. I recogiste this as the biggest mistake of my life Online she was kind, she accepted my dog and said that the agency agreed in giving me the main tenancy after this period of subrent. When I arrived here, the nightmare began: the very first day when I arrived here after 20h by bus, she decided that it was the right moment to go for jogging for one hour (with me waiting at the door with luggages), that’s the last time I’ve seen her doing jogging. Other problems: in these months I have never seen her cleaning the house, and she never throw the trash. Then, some months ago, she told me that the agency chose another guy to take the apartment, so I need to search for a new one. But these things are “light”. Now, near the end of my contract as a subrenter and her contract as a main tenant, she is writing to me basically every day asking for money. She wants me to share with her the ending profesional cleaning (around 1000 CHF) saying that it is required because of the dog - that she accepted - but I’m pretty sure that she has it by contract. Then, she said to me that everything the agency will find damaged she will address to me and she is asking me to pay two sofa because of the dog hair. Is true, there are hair sometimes that I always clean, but the sofás are not damaged and one was already broken, it stands because she put books under it, while the other has dirt on the very top (where the dog can’t arrive) which seems to be there since years! Now, I have been here 3 months and I feel like she wants to address me the damages and dirt of years of usage of this apartment (With another guy, maybe her ex partner). She is a lawyer and always use her knowledge of swiss law as a weapon to scary me, and she succeed because I’m afraid of what this lady can do, and causes me a lot of anxiety. She’s making the quality of my life very poor and I don’t know how to behave. If you have any suggestion, experiences or moral support, I will be happy to hear from you!

Welcome to the Forum. Hopefully someone will be along shortly with some suggestions.

what is stated in your contract?
and I assume she says she is a lawyer?

Do some maths. Take the time that she lived there and the time you lived there and split the cleaning costs in that proportion.

Dog hair does not damage a sofa beyond repair plus she knew the dog would live with her.

Pictures of the dog and landlady would help.

Hi and welcome to the forum

How long was she living in the propery before you arrived?
To whom do you pay your rent? The agency or the main lease holder?
If you pay the main lease holder, is the agenyy aware that you are living in the property?

So let me get this straight if I can.

You moved here as the sub-tenant, but will be taking over as the main tenant in the near future. If that's correct what is she going to be doing? Moving out? Becoming the sub-tenant?

Who's furniture is it? Hers or is it a furnished place that she's rented?

Hoo Boy, I knew this was going to be a great thread.

Hey giuspiaco, I understand your frustration but a few things need to be clarified first.

• Did you have a valid subrental contract? This means your signature, the signature of the main tenant and most importantly the signature of the rental agency.
• Did the rental agency was informed about the dog? If the rental agency did not accept pets and the main tenant accepted, she's breaching the contract.
• Is it a furnished apartment? Is it rented with furniture? Who owns the sofa you're talking about?

In general, the person in troubles here is the main tenant because the rental agency will never talk to you, ever. They simply don't care. Repairs, money, whatever is needed is asked to the main tenant and this person may or may not go after the subtenant.

Also, being a lawyer does not mean you are right. it means that you make a career out of winning arguments.


There are plenty of places you can go for advice and support. Do you know where you are moving to and when you can move out ? She cannot control anything. When do you need to be gone ? I suggest you move as quickly as possible, and then once you are out of there, tell her to put any demands in writing.



You should not need to pay anything to leave - basically as a subtenant you just move out, give her the key and walk away. Take a series of photos of the state of the place the day you move out.... for your own evidence.

Thanks everybody for your answers! I am here as a sub-tenant and I pay the rent to the main tenant. The agency knows that I live here and that I own a dog, it was a must for me. The main tenant told me initially that the agency agreed in giving me the main tenancy, but some times ago told me that for ‘renovation si we had both to leave the house (Actually, it is not true because I called the agency and they told me that they just have the house to someone else). For the final cleaning fees I applied to my insurance and they accepted to pay part of it instead of going on with possible problems. Now, the only open issue is the sofa: I contacted a cleaning lady to clean it deeply but the main tenant still wants new sofás for her new house (As I said, the sofa is cheap, old and broken and ti me it sounds ridicolous to ask for a brand new sofa for some dog hair). I think that she basically wants me to finance her new apartment. I will leave this nightmare the 30th of September and I would like to interruptor any contact with her, but I really think that she will come after me for any damage the agency will find here. Moreover, the 30th of September she wants to do a sort of “protocol” to check eventual damages, but we never did this when I arrived! The situation is becoming quite stressful

Sorry for the typos guys but I forgot to change the language of my keyboard 😛 Hope you understand everything!

Honestly, it sounds to me like she's just very greedy and is using your situation as a means to try to get some new sofas for herself. As you said, one of the sofas was already broken. And if she didn't want dog hair on her sofa, she shouldn't have allowed someone to live with her who has a dog. Also, dog hair doesn't usually ruin a sofa. That can be cleaned with a Karcher upholstery machine (which you can rent for very cheap), etc.

If I was in your position, I wouldn't worry too much about her being a lawyer and trying to threaten you with that. It would probably cost her too much to take you to court about it anyways, and especially when she would most likely lose the case. I think any objective judge would probably see for themselves that she's trying to take advantage of you and the situation.

With whom do you have the contract? The agency or main lease holder?

Thanks, and what about the “final protocol”? Is this a standard procedure? Should I do it even though we never did something like this when I arrived in the apartment?

@Sigh I have contact only with her (the main tenant). I called the agency 2 times, one to ask a document to prove to the Gameinde that I was living there in a legal way, and one to find out that she lied about renovations and that the apartment was just rented to another guy. She told me that I “betrayed” here and that I have no right to talk with the agency (Being a bit racist by telling me ‘here you are not in Italy’... And she’s not even swiss or european &#128580 so I avoided any contact with the agency

For how long was the contract made? Also does it mention anything about your responsibilities?

I wonder if she already knew that she would have to vacate when she sighed with you.
As Pancakes said dont worry to much.

The main tenant is her, so the take over will be between her & the agency. You have nothing to do with it.

If she indeed is a lawyer she will know better than to try to come after you for items that do not concern you, such as sofas....

Just make sure to leave your room in a good & clean state.
Have you already found something new?

Sorry for jumping in here again, but it sounds to me like she has an ulterior motive for NOT wanting you to talk to the rental agency and was trying to psychologically manipulate you by trying to make you feel bad for having done so. You have to stand your ground with those types of people because otherwise they will just take advantage of you and continue to try to manipulate you.

I think the main rental agency is exactly who you need to speak with, and they need to be made aware of all that she's been doing. From what you've said so far, it sounds like she is going to try to push a good percentage of her own responsibilities onto you even though you have only lived there a few months while she has been there for much, much longer. I agree with Sigh... One is forced to wonder what her real motives were for even finding a subtenant in the first place.

I believe there is also some kind of renter's association here in Switzerland that exists to help inform renter's of their legal rights, etc. I can't remember the name of it, but I *think* is the mieterverband (which translates to "tenants association)? Maybe they could also be of help.

https://www.mieterverband.ch/mv/miet...t/glossar.html

Good luck!

The contract is another funny story. She sent me one contract, then I signed but asked for another one in which she states that I will take the main tenancy. She sent me this other contract but only sent to the agency the first one (Adding a signature of a guy). The subrent is limited to October because also her contract is terminating in this date.

What should I tell to the agency? Every time they have been really impolite answering me as if they were doing me a favor. Yes, there is NOTHING in this hell on earth that goes smooth But fortunately I have another accommodation for October

The contract that she sent to the agency, is it an official contract from the agency or something she put together?

I received an official “confirmation” from the agency that they know that I’m here. It doesn’t mention the dog (as well as my sublease contract), but they visited the apartment while the dog was here so I suppose that they know about its presence.

My sublease contract is something she made. Is a standard form that can be found online that she personalized.

Assuming I understood you correctly, I'm not sure (and I doubt) that she is allowed to hand over the main tenancy to you without first getting the main rental agency's permission and then having them draw up a new, formal contract and having you sign it.

It really does sound to me like she's done her best to try to avoid responsibility with moving out of the apartment. Is it in a pretty bad state? Lots of cleaning or repairs, etc. needing to be done before moving out?

I would seriously consider contacting the mieterverband to learn about your legal rights, etc., especially since the main rental agency is being difficult.