Damage after an earthquake

Accomodation, House and Garden
1
Hi,

First I would like everyone contributing in this forum and taking time to answer questions, this has been very helpful (at least for my to settle here in Switzerland).

I have a question related a very weird situation I am in, a couple of weeks I was laying on my sofa as usual reading random stuff, when my sofa started moving apparently because of an earthquake, I never expected to see that, but some cracks on the wall started opening, honestly I was shocked but then things calmed quickly, then looking everywhere on the sides that are facing the externally many cracks started becoming visible.

I contacted the landlord via email, first their reply was a little off, by stating that this is weird and they asked in the building and no one else had damage (not sure they did there 80+ apartments in the building and pretty sure people will not be quick to reply to this request as he replied next day).

Anyways I sent photos and they sent someone to look at the damage, it was clear to the person that damage cannot be done by me and is all rooms of the apartment only from the outside section, all is good and he told me that he will talk to the administration and coordinate with me on a later appointment.

Today he sent me a simple small text message if I am available Wednesday, I said I can be free from 12-15 (I have meetings all day long otherwise).

Then asked just to make sure what the plan for the appointment (they need more details?) because was not detailed and I got no follow up from the landlord via email on what their plan on this, he sent a message saying that he will need to start from Wednesday and needs two 2 days for work...

I have no idea what work is this, can I still be able to do my work while he is doing his? noise ? who is covering this work ?....so I asked him to ask the administration/landlord to coordinate with me via email and send me plan of what work is planned and if I should handle the furniture for this....

Should I worry about something here? is this a normal interaction ? should make sure who is paying for the work? how much head up time I can get so I can manage my work time (we are on a very intensive work time these weeks), if there is too much noise I will need definitely to take time off for this.

Some extra details:

- I live in a tower building in a high floor, I guess that‘s why there was some damage to it

- Currently I do not have content insurance, because the landlord did not provide all the keys when I rented (last tenant only confirmed having 4/5), I give them time to manage this, but then a couple of weeks ago I asked also for them to replace the locks and provide new keys as I waited for a year and they couldn‘t find the missing key (insurance will require that we identify all apartment keys otherwise I am not covered if something happens AFAIK).

Sorry for the lengthy post, I wanted to provide as much information as I can, also please pardon typos, my eyes become blurry writing this.

2
If you are in zürich then such damage should be covered by the compulsory cantonal insurance paid by the building owner

3
Content insurance only insures your own stuff. As none of your stuff seams to be broken it is not needed. However you can get content insurance w/o having all the keys.

The damage to the building are non of your financial concern. This is the landlords problem.

4
Since the "inspector" says it's clear that this is none of your doing, the cost will be paid for by the owner.

You've been given a broad idea of the work, any details beyond that (daytimes, noise, dust, type of work) can probably come from the tradesmen only, in particular from the guy who did the initial inspection. Your landlord should be able to provide his contact details.

Remember to make sure the tradesmen clean up their stuff. Inspect the result, check for negative sideeffects like drops of color or plaster elsewhere. And perhaps have them help you get everything back in place when they're done.

5
Thank you everyone for the replies, very helpful.

The landlord confirmed that they will take care of the expenses, not much details on what the work involves though, at any rate I asked them to plan this at the end of month as I cannot take any time off on short notice, and to inform me when they plan this so I can take time off.

6

Just a reminder to “home-owners”. Earthquake damages is - depending on the canton your house is in - not covered by any insurance (check your policy). Moreover, also for those cantons which do cover earthquake damage in the mandatory insurance (e.g. Zurich, https://www.gvz.ch/hauptnavigation/v…ungsleistungen ), the overall coverage is limited (i.e. there is a cap on the amount that can be paid out to all the insured in the canton) and the amount homeowners need to bear is quite high. So if it is a really strong earthquake causing significant damage across the canton, you might not be fully covered.

So private earthquake insurance might be helpful.