Heater not working and HOT water issue

Accomodation, House and Garden
1
Dear Friends,

I live in Zurich and we have been having repeated problems with Heater not working leaving the room cold. Its not the problem with my apartment but the entire building.

With our 2 year old kid it has become a HUGE problem for us. Also the HOT water was not working for 4-5 days.

We also complained the property agency they send the Hauswartung but still the problem persist.

I want to know from the experts that in such a scenario, I have decided not pay next month rent because of the hardship we are facing.

Can I do this legally by giving them a writing letter? If not, how can I make the property management company realize the there are people living in the apartment and that they should fix the problem ASAP.

What can I demand as a compensation from them?

Thanks for the inputs!

2
Don't do this wtihout expert professional advice- so join your local Mietverband, renter's association, who have huge experience with this kind of issue.

Write a diary with the temperature of each room several times a day, with dates.

Old post here with great advice from Dorofiz. Membership is currently free till the end of the year

''The Mieterverband ist not to be confused with the much more recently started competitor (imitation?) organisation, Mieterschutzverband, also sometimes known as Mieterberatung (EDIT: see the warning in Mica's post immediately following this one... in that TV report it says that the Mieterschutz helpline is an expensive minute-cost call, and that anyway in many cases no-one answers, and that the mail responses do not seem professional), of which latter I have never yet heard any good report, although I'm open to hearing otherwise.

To join the Mieterverband:

https://www.mieterverband.ch/mv/mitg...iedschaft.html

With membership, you have free access to legal advice, i.e. you can go to their open legal clinic, wait your turn, have someone look over your papers, and then they tell you how you can go ahead and solve the problem. I think this begins immediately upon joining.

For a small extra fee of about Fr. 15 p.a., you can add on legal insurance that is restricted specifically to issues with regard to rental. With this, a lawyer will act on your behalf, if need be. As far as I can recall, for this there is a 60-day waiting period, and the event must have occurred after that period.

Similarly, some medical insurances offer a top-up module for legal insurance related specifically to issued to do with medical matters, service providers and insurances.

Those are two relatively inexpensive ways to cover the two areas of life in Switzerland which are said to cause the most disputes, for an ordinary individual or family.

Separate from those, personal liability insurance costs more, but is well worth having, for your peace of mind. Some rental agencies even require it of their tenants. And legal insurance for advice and disputes in any area of life, can sometimes be tacked onto the liability insurance. ''

3
You can't just not pay your rent. That would be a breach of contract.

You have to warn your verwaltung that unless they fix the issue by such-and-such a date, you will take it to mediation (Mietschlichtungsstelle). If they do not fix it, then you pay the rent into a special account until the case has been heard.

I suggest you contact the tenants association (Mieterverband) to find out how to do this in detail.

But do not, just not pay the rent. That would put you in the wrong.

4
What Snoopy said.

You'd be entering into a whole new world of pain if you went down that route. Totally recommend Mieterverband. We needed their services earlier in the year and can highly recommend them. It feels such a relief to have someone with clout totally in your corner giving sound advice.

5
Thanks for the valuable feedback! I tried to register, and it says annual membership fee of CHF 100. Registering at https://www.mieterverband.ch/ .

Is this correct?

thank you!

6
If you don't pay rent you are in serious breach of contract and will get kicked out in 30 days and lose your rental deposit.

Meaning : You save 1 rent but lose 3 !! (Not a good deal for you)

What you can do is pay your rent to an escrow account and to do this pay Chf 100.-- and join the https://www.mieterverband.ch/ and all will become crystal clear as to what you can and cannot do, but more importantly, it should get your heating & hot water fixed quickly.

7
The information is available even to non-members of the Mieterverband.

Links to articles in German - you will need your favourite translating tool.

This article lists fault-based rent reductions following court decisions:

https://www.mieterverband.ch/dam/jcr...entscheide.pdf

This article advises on how to raise and follow up on complaints such as OP’s

https://www.mieterverband.ch/mv/miet...-schaeden.html

HTH.

Nick

8
Yes that’s correct. The membership for the rest of 2021 is free, when you buy a membership for 2022.

9
I'm sure it's pretty much a breach of law not to provide heating and hot water.

10
Did the Verwaltung give you an idea of how long it will take to repair the heating system when you spoke to them? Did you speak to them?

11

It is worth every penny- great value in fact. And not just now for this current heating problem, but all sorts of other issues in the future.

12

and if the boiler breaks down unexpectedly, or the system springs a leak.......

13
If you have renters' insurance you may be covered for such an emergency. Give your agent a call.

Otherwise, if more than a day, rent a hotel room until its fixed and send the bill to the management.

Priority is your child's health.

14
I’m pretty sure they have to provide an alternative within a reasonable time frame.

15
Not true.

But yes, OP, mieterverband.ch is your go-to organisation.

Very bad advice.

This is no emergency, you don't die from an unheated apartment. Of course it needs to be fixed urgently but you need to give them enough time nonetheless. And you may have to announce your intent, the Mieterverband will advise on the proper procedure (or follow the links provided above, but with a language barrier likely in place personal guidance seems the better route).

16
Ever heard the expression that "Two wrongs don't make a right"?

Also, it's not good enough to be "sure it's pretty much a breach of law". What law exactly?

The Mietschlichtungsstelle is the only way to go, by law. It is what it is there for. Once you inform the landlord that you will be paying the rent into the special account and he will not be getting it, it tends to focus the landlord's mind.

17
https://hausinfo.ch/de/recht/wohnen-...ht/heizen.html

Short - there is clear temperatures set when apartment is below required level and when 100% costs of the rental could be requested.

There is no rent-a-hotel-room option there - that would be insurance that OP would have to have for such cases

18
I would also recommend getting thermometers for your home. They are very cheap and basic. Then you can report the actual living temperature.

Hot water sounds like a breakdown, and if it's substantial then yes, it may take a few days to fix.

heater 'not working' could mean absolutely no heating (temperatures dropping below 10 or 12 degrees) or working minimally (room temperature 10-18 degrees)...

Actual 'living room' temperature could be between 18-24. My workplace had a minergie system that kept the rooms absolutely 24 all day. It was almost too warm to work actively at that temperature, but very lovely for sitting in an office or living space. our home temperature at the moment is around 19-21. I find it a little cold but my husband finds it perfect.

Contrary to traditional belief, children do not get sick from being cold. We have had the germ theory of illness for more than 200 years but traditional beliefs go on.... . It is clear that we get sick most often from germs. There is a link between vitamin D which requires sunshine, hard to get right now and your child needs to be outdoors to get sunlight - and also of course general nutrition. If they are in group care, they are more likely to catch plenty of germs, especially right now as the kids spend most of the time indoors. If your child is not being vitamin D supplemented, this is something to talk to the paediatrician about.

In Norway children routinely sleep outdoors in below freezing temperatures during the day. The key is good clothing.... my kids 'expect' to hang around the house in shorts and t-shirts. So much so that when the heating is running 'full' they don't think they need layers to go outside. When they were younger, I would tell them to open the door and go outside for a moment in their 'indoor clothes' then decide how many layers they needed...now they are older they check the meteo-swiss app.

On the 'upside', less heating is a substantial cost saving.

Oh, and typically if there is an autumn cold snap the heating goes on but it might take a few days for the heating to catch up.... and ours is also on a timer so it only runs at certain times, not 24/7.

Hope that helps.... I'd be curious to know 'how cold' your apartment really is...

If the heating really fails, then it's an emergency, and a quick call to the owner or their agent should activate a solution.... and all apartments would be impacted so they should get multiple calls and know immediately that it's an emergency.

Our landlord is *tops* and keeps us fully informed. We communicate directly via whatsapp and he replies promptly if it's an emergency, or quite slowly (within a week) if it's not essential.... but I definitely know about crappy landlords too...

19
Indeed, thermometers are 5-10 CHF at OBI or similar stores.

I moved to a new building back on 2018. During our first winter 2018-2019, the hot water and heating system had troubles. I only noticed that I had to use only hot water to shower, wife complained about the living room a bit cold and I just switched from shorts to pants to be comfortable at home.

But, I guess my neighbors were more concerned and made a lot of pressure because 24 hours after the shower water was not hot enough to cause skin burning, I noticed a something like this was parked next to the building and some pipes connected it to the building. It's called heizmobil (mobile heating) or notheizung (emergency heating). Couple weeks later I received a letter from the building management that the heating system had some troubles because it was a new installation and people in charge of it need to do some debugging, and that the mobile heating will stay until the end of the winter parked in the sidewalk obstructing a bit.

The Mieterverband/Asloca has info somewhere in their website explaining the minimum temp is 20°C during the day and 17°C during the night ( https://www.mieterverband.ch/mv/poli...rme-stube.html )

So, get a couple thermometers, and if temperatures are lower than the limits send registered letter to building management. If the problem has not been solved on 2-3 days, talk to neighbors and push together for an emergency heating system.