this is an official statement that you have no official debts owing, or something to that effect (if you don't pay a bill, and continually ignore the warnings etc. it gets serious when it gets reported to the authorities and is called a 'Betreibung' - a big black mark against your name. The debt can be small or large, such as not paying your phone bill, through to defaulting on mortgage payments...)
You can get this statement (Betreibungsauszug) from your local community office, who have a register of them (Betreibungsregister). For Zürich in general, try this website (sorry, in German). If you live in a suburb you will need to go to your local one - try googling to find it.
hope that helps!
Both these things have a nominal fee (around CHF 20 ish).
On the subject of register entries, you want to avoid these like the plague. Especially if you are non-EU seeking a C Permit or citizenship, you want to keep this as clean as a whistle. Christoph Blochers son-in-law was refused the little red book because he had too many betreibung registrations. Working in many financial or security related positions will also require a clean slate on this one.
Personally I pay mine to do exactly what Lob said - keep everything in order and correct. There are threads here about the merits and moriality of paying Billag
Failing to register, or incorrectly registering with Billag Failing to pay a Billag Bill. The former is punishable by a fine. A Betreibungsregister entry will only be issued for the latter, or failing to pay the fine for the former.
There is no question of morality; it's a duty paid by you for the right to receive TV [and radio] signals - nothing more, nothing less.
In fact the money raised by this not-so-stealth tax keeps my mother-in-law in D&G
I simply meant to reinforce litespeed's post (not Lobs)
Cheers
Go to the Gemeinde and check if you are actually at fault. You will then have a set number of days to pay the Gemeinde directly (debt plus administration fee) or reject the bill. If you reject the bill then it is up to the other person to prove that you are at fault.
I received two Betreibung. The first was incorrectly sent to me by my insurance company who willingly pulled it back when I pointed out their error. The second was my fault and I paid the Gemeinde directly.
I discussed the issue of black marks with them at the time and they assured me that it is only usually an issue if someone is regularly demonstrating an unwillingness to pay bills. In other words, it will be difficult to rent another apartment if you are constantly not paying for your current one.
A bit of a different angle here to the other posters. I see in your introduction that you recently arrived in Switzerland - so there will be no record of your financial history here in Switzerland. Therefore getting such documentation is pointless.
My advice would be to tell your landlord or the person handling your application that you've only just arrived, but would be happy to provide other references (like a letter from your landlord in Amerinca) on request. But something seems a little odd here - do you actually HAVE the apartment, or are all applicants being asked to attach their documentation - if so this would seem a little rude since each one has to be paid for..
Most likely the person handling it will not really know what to do and just tell you not to worry about it. They do love pieces of paper though, so offer to shower them with things like letters from your employer saying how great you are. Most likely they'll take your willingness to provide paper as sufficent evidence that you are well behaved and tell you not to worry about it.
You are quite right that a Betreibung can be sent by anyone who has provided you with two warnings for non-payment even if you reject both with good reasons. You will then get a registered letter which if you are not in will be available at the post office for the usual 7 days. Thereafter you will be invited to collect from the town hall. As you point out you will thereafter be in default.
Furthermore, your Betreibung is in the form of a letter that outlines the reasons for the Betreibung but is not in great detail. The Betreibung letter and the actual betreibung are uniquely (Swisswide) allocated a number and all the numbers are then placed on a register. These entries are only ever removed by betreibung retraction or court order which does not often occur. This means that even if you are completely innocent you can have your name on this register...
You are then given I think 14 days from the date of receipt to answer the betreibung. The answer is basically guilty or take me to court ie I reject this and plead innocent. If the former you then pay the town hall the outstanding money plus an administration fee. Note here that the claimant can claim for interest and nominal administration in addition to the outstanding amount but that is all. Note nominal administration ie not 100 + Francs.
If you take the court route and the amount is small you are likely to be left stuck. This means that the person giving you the betreibung says I do not want to proceed. This mark is left as unresolved on your record and that shows up to all searching. The only way to get this removed is to go to court and ask for this to removed. Even then banks can still see the complete records with very few exceptions so this system is actually evil.
I have had two run ins. One was with the forerunner to Sunrise who had no idea about billing. I had even a fax from their accounts department telling me that they had made a mistake and please ignore the bills. I did and then sent me a betreibung. Thankfully they did this with quite a lot and the court threw them all out and order the numbers for everyone guilty or not to be erased. The second was with Orange again I won here but lo and behold I now have a credit limit imposed on my mobile phone
Any idea how long does this stay on your record?
Interesting that you mention the 400 fee - what was/is this for as the court would with 99.99% certainty through that out.
This is actually one of the fair points of the system. It is designed to allow the small man to stand up to the big bully and therefore is relatively cheap to dispute without the big bully slapping you with 10K in legal expenses... all that is allowed is nominal administration
Unless they are real bstards most companies or government agencies will remove the debt. If its a personal vendetta then I have no idea whether they have to justify their position for not doing so.
Therefore unless you have an outstanding debt, it is very important to ensure that the Betreibungsamt has received a certificate or confirmation that the debt has been resolved.
dave
My HR people called on my behalf and said I'm a nice guy, reliable etc, as well as giving me some letter of reference. I think it helped...
Sorry to give you bad news but all that happens is that the entry is flagged as closed... It still does appear on your printout for all to see... And as I said even those that have been removed are visible to banks... I know I got my bank to show me a copy that they see. Helps if your bank manager is a personal friend .
dave