I'm trying to figure out whether or not we are responsible for gardening maintenance before we sign a lease.
The lease states (via google translate!)
ensure the regular maintenance of the garden or terrace of which it has exclusive use. These include lawn mowing, watering, weeding, hedge and shrub cutting and, where appropriate, maintenance of plantations (except trees) and collection of leaves. In the event that the maintenance is not satisfactorily ensured, the lessor reserves the right to involve a gardener at the expense of the tenant;
We are only renting one of the apartments (2nd floor). I'm not clear on who is renting the other apartments. ie. Are they seasonal, or long term?? (We are in a seasonal area).
The fact it states *exclusive use* would lean me to thinking that we are not required to perform any maintenance, but then why state it in the lease? I doubt that the lease is just a generic one, as other clauses do seem pertinent to the property in question, such as garage and tent canvas references.
With regards to the garden, since it is a largish property, there appears to be a lot of garden area, multiple hedges, and a rock garden. This is based on limited pictures. My thoughts were that in such a rental situation, the landlord would be paying for the gardening.
We're trying to be careful here, as we are moving from abroad to a rural area in Switzerland. Any help much appreciated!
It may be that the garden is exclusive to that property in which case yes, you’d need to maintain it or pay for a gardener to do it for you. If the cost is shared between all the properties the garden will be for the exclusive use of all tenants and again you have to decide between you whether to do the maintenance yourselves or pay a gardener to do it.
Basically you’ll be responsible for keeping the garden as is and if you don’t do it to the landlord’s satisfaction they’ll hire a gardener and charge you for his costs.
We had exactly the same clause when we rented. We were responsible for all gardening needed except for the trees on the property which were the landlord’s responsibility.
It would be difficult to be any clearer i think....
Do you have direct access to the garden ?
Is it stated anywhere that there is a part of the garden that is exclusively reserved for your use?
Since you are going to be renting a second floor flat unless there is specific mention of a garden for your exclusive use I would think that you are only responsible for the maintenance of your terrace.
I would imagine it's pretty difficult to have direct garden access from the second floor.
I would clarify that point with the landlord before moving in if I were you.
Not if the flat is built into a bank, like many are here
The lease does not mention any exclusive access to the garden, and neither was it mentioned in the original listing. I'm a little wary, as I know that the gardening costs are steep here. We have contacted another agency about a different property, and they state that the gardening is covered by a concierge as that apartment is on the 2nd floor.
There are a couple of other odd things about the lease, such as the lack of mention of the apartment number, and a lack of clarity on whether we are responsible for damage to the property outside of our specific apartment... Ahhh, the pleasures of navigating legal documents.
Congratulations on being the first person every on English Forum to read and understand a contract before actually signing it. We could use a few more like you.
Normally this forum is full of people who complain about getting screwed by a contractual clause, then admitting that they never read the contract or knew what they were signing up for. [sarcasm]These sorts of posts are usually given the friendly, helpful commiseration that the poster is seeking. [/sarcasm]
Nice to see the opposite for a change!
With regards to the lack of apartment number, it's not unusual to have it stated on the lease as:
Mountain Street 1
2nd floor left (or right etc.)
7.5 rooms + parking spot
As long as theres a primary house number and a specific floor and location, that's sufficient for the lease. Unless each apartment has its own floor. In which case, it would just say 2nd floor.
Hope that helps.
Zen
It's a standard clause in the contract and simply says that you're responsible for maintenance IF you have the exclusive use of the 'green area'. In multi-storey buildings that normally wouldn't be the case and the costs are included in your maintenance charge and split using the same percentages as heating and other shared costs.