Hello everyone,
I would be happy if you could provide some help here. Early this year me and my partner moved out to a new appartment. As usual, because we were terminating the rental contract earlier we had to get a new solvable tenant to take our lease. Fortunately we got one, signed the lease transfer together with the Régie and new tenant and moved out.
Yesterday, after 3 months of our lease transfer, we received in our new appartment an invoice letter of our old Régie saying that we had to pay a Early termination fee (Frais de résiliation anticipée) of CHF 175.
CHF 175 = 150 (Facture) + 25 (Frais de rappel)
I checked our old rental contract and in fact it mentions the Early termination fee. Is this normal ? Honestly I'm not find much info related to this kind of fee. Did anyone else had a bill like this sent to them after early terminating the rental contract ?
Thank you
"Early termination fees are illegal, and if a clause in the lease mentions them, it is void. Leaving after the deadline is a right provided for by the Code of Obligations: the tenant is released if he finds a solvent replacement. The law does not provide that he must, in addition, compensate the lessor, who has no more administrative work than in the event of ordinary termination. On the contrary, it is up to the lease holder to find him a candidate. In addition, current management and administration fees are already included in the rent: there is no justification for charging them additionally."
https://www.frc.ch/frais-abusifs-pou...ion-anticipee/
To avoid them sending your bill for collection, I would send them a registered letter informing them of the above as soon as possible.
No need to, they can be safely ignored.
They're just trying it on. The agency people know they have no leg to stand on so there's no "Betreibung" (frz. poursuite?) to be expected - not that it would hurt OP in any way, it would just be money down the drain for the agency. If the invoices continue, send them an email advising them that this is considered harassment, with all the legal consequences that can entail.
OP doesn't mention repayment of the deposit, OP make sure you get it in full if that didn't happen already.
ETA:
You could strike your address of the still-closed envelope through next time, write "refusé" on it in big bold letters, and drop it in a yellow Post mailbox of your choice. Usually that costs the sender 30-40 CHF for the Post's handling.