Hi,


Can anyone provide input or guidance here. We are hosting family and are trying to help them find an appartment. They have s-status and funding from the gemeinde. The son is in school, the mother is a lawyer and is looking for work. We are finding some apartments on comparis.ch, homegate.ch etc. and are doing visits and then applying.


In our postzahl many of the appartments are managed by a particular rental agency. So if there are 5 apartments on homegate for my postzahl, 4 of them are managed by the same agency (I dont want to name the agency). This agency have written to us saying that for now they will not rent to ukranian refugees. I spoke to this agency, I explained that we would provide references for the family, that the agency can use us as a point of contact in german etc. Sent them the qualifications of the family and how they will hopefully find work soon. But a solid no, they wont rent to ukranians.



I am not sure what to do here, because about 70% of the appartments coming up are managed by them.



I think the right thing to do is to talk to the gemeinde. Any guidance from people here?

You rent the appartment and provide the necessary guarantees and then sub-rent to your Ukrainian friends

Which they would need to inform the agency about. Who will then probably terminate the rental agreements on all the properties. Good thinking.

Thats very risky, what if the family suddenly decides to leave for whatever reason?
The rent from the gemeinde is only guaranteed as long as the family stays.

I would speak to the Gemeinde and ask if they would would be willing to step in and rent.

Well the Gemeinde arent a rental agency, they provide financial aid to Ukranians but dont find the appartments or rent out the appartments.



However this is discrimination (I believe), its one thing choosing family A over family B because family A are local and family B are not, but the agency are saying "dont bother applying if you are ukranian".



I suppose I want the gemeinde to speak to the rental agency about unfair businesss practices but maybe Im being naïve.

Renting to locals over foreigners has been the practice for many decades. Although few regies would ever admit to doing so.

If I had two candidates, one with a job and one looking for work I'd likely go with the one already employed. (and having a legal degree doesn't assure me they could work as a lawyer in Switzerland)

But to blatantly state they won't rent to a particular category of people telling them not to even apply is discriminatory.

Do you have a local journal who you could alert to this discrimination? Peer pressure is often the best. If not local try 20heurs they are always looking for scandal stories.

__________________
Они лгут вам.

It doesnt hurt to speak to the Gemeinde, you cant get more than a no.
It would be useful to know why the agency is beeing so awkward about renting to specifically ukranians.

Yes. I could do this. And this rental company have put that statement in an email to us with their corporate signature (idiots) so we have it in writing.That said, I maybe shooting myself in foot as they still rent out the majority of the apartments here. I don't want to turn them into an enemy - we may still need to rent from them, they seem to have a bit of a monopoly in this postzahl.

I will start with the gemeinde.

You could provide the information anonymously.

We have asked them this (we have had an email thread with them and a phone conversation) on the phone they said "they have already rented to ukranians and have now decided not to rent to anymore". They didnt say they had a bad experience or anything. They were polite with us but very direct. Maybe this is where the gemeinde should step in and find out what was the trigger for this decision.

No, not if you are up-front about it, The agency just wants security.


Sure if you try and pull a fast one you could get kicked out but if it is agreed in writting where is the problem.



Providing you don't profit from the sub-rent, a lot of Regies accept.

Yes......wasn't their a recent post about somebody who gave shit to their regie and after the agreed period of i think 3 years, got there marching orders and had to move to a smaller more expensive flat ?


DIALOGUE !! Speak to the regie and see if they would acept you as the renter with an agreement to sub-rent. Their only interest is to be sure of receiving payment for the appartment and it being returned is a suitable state (make sure you get household insurance cover)

As I said above we have had a dialogue with these people, it was brief and direct. They dont want to rent to ukranians and told us not to bother going to the viewings. Regarding me renting the property. Honestly, I dont want to become a landlord. I have been one. I didnt like it, I sold the property. I don't want to assume that risk. We are hosting a ukranian family the idea is to get them on their feet, not become their longterm landlord. But even if I do accept the risk, what about all the other Ukranians that arent being hosted by people like us?

It is discrimination. I will speak to the gemeinde.

It's not discrimination. The landlord can chose who he wants in his property, it's the landlord protecting his interests in the way he thinks is right.



When you were a landlord, would you have rented to somebody who easily could have problems paying ?

It is (probably) illegal to state "we're not renting to Ukrainians". It is not illegal to happen not to offer a rental contract to Ukrainians.

Since they've already rented to Ukrainians, maybe they're wanting to keep some of their stock for non-Ukrainians? Maybe Afghan refugees?

Doesn't matter if it is or not, contractual freedom prevails. And very rightfully so.

Discrimination is one of those words Anglosaxons have been trained to absolutely avoid, perhaps even avoid at all cost, as if they described a taboo.

Prepare to be disappointed by the Gemeinde's reaction.

Switzerland does not have the same anti-discrimination laws as EU countries have. The legal situation is the same, but the bar to proof it a bit higher.
Here is the legal help website of the federal anti-discrimination office: https://www.ekr.admin.ch/rechtsgrundlagen/d264.html

In you case, a discriminatory refusal to make a rental contract... happens often enough to get its own page:
https://www.rechtsratgeber-rassismus...che/d261.html#

Here is the todo-list in case the rental agency is a private business (which I assume based on your posts): https://www.rechtsratgeber-rassismus...che/d269.html#

I think it is totally fair to ask the Gemeinde to give them a call and a quick update on the legal situation. Long story short: you have a case, especially since you got it in writing can you proof it...

Not true. See my EKR links.

Very interesting.

That makes look the real estate agency employee look dumb. They could have agreed for a visit, request the application and then just answer a few days later "another person with higher income or no pet showed up"...or whatever came to their minds. However, the answer by email to OP ("we don't rent to Ukrainians") portraits a very lazy employee, too lazy to cover his own ***.

Not sure bringing up the discrimination card will yield something. Real estate company would receive an application and then put all their effort in finding something to reject it. If someone cares about justice it would be OK put more effort. From a practical side, start looking somewhere else.

The interesting part is that it states that if asked the "not allowed" questions about religion or nationality, you can give a false answer. "Ansonsten darf man sie auch falsch beantworten."


So perfectly fine to say that you are not Ukrainian but Swiss