I rent an old house since 2017, which is obviously bad, because everything is poorly maintained. The landlord is not Swiss.
All electronics are probably 20 years old. One heating is already not functioning in the Stove. The new low quality wood around the wall is already falling apart. Wash machines starts to have small problems. He wants to pay nothing for anything not "broken".
The most annoying thing is the garden. We view the house in winter and after we move in all places without grass already in it are covered by weeds. Many existing trees are tall and on the border. The neighbors are not happy about him already. The staircases are also low quality. A lot of things from landlords are still in the garden.
Now the landlord knows that I want to move away, and he starts to hire people to cut some trees. He starts to compare the garden with neighbors and trying to let me pay and to make his garden good again. Honestly speaking, I have spent a lot of efforts many years trying to fix his garden but the weed roots are already a 2 cm thick wall in the earth. It can only be saved by a full renew.
I believe that my move out will be tough as I know how my landlord is. How can I best prepare in order to not lose millions of money? I have personal liability insurance all the time, legal insurance two years ago. But I don't know if I'm fully covered.
I'm also not confident on cleaning. Part of the wall near the radiator is also apart when we move in. Before we move in the landlord did even remove his carpet rather he covered a layer of laminate on top of it. TBH, the sole purpose of cleaning is to have a good condition report from the landlord.
I guess I need experts in all aspects to assist my move out.
Thank you so much for any advices! I'll also update my thread on the steps I have taken and what is the outcome.
These are recurring advises on this forum, but I think they are especially fit for your case where the risk of conflict with the landlord is especially high:
- become a member of mieterverband.ch (100 bucks or so per year), you will be able to ask them help if needed
- hire a cleaning company that guarantees the success at handover (so will fix cleaning issues if there are any)
- bring a guy from mieterverband.ch to your apartment handover (costs an extra, but with discount if you are a member, I think ~100 chf or so)
The fact that you have liability insurance is good and might help down the road
Also, appliance like the stove have an expected lifetime. An induction stove is estimated to last 15 years. Check this table from the mieterverband for the expected lifetime or parkett, home appliances, paint in the walls, etc. https://www.mieterverband.ch/mv/miet...ertabelle.html
If the landlord cannot show the date of installation of appliances or repairs to the house and the things look really old, it may be argued that everything is already depreciated and he should buy new stuff. But, you pay nothing. Get help from the mieterverband or the liability insurance for this.
Thank you! I think I will hire a guy from mieterverband.ch to mediate. Also to ask for an estimation of the cost.
Liability insurance are besides my control and besides my landlords control, and I don't need to pay for it. I want to seek a smooth move-out but not everything "strict" for no one's goodness.
I may try to ask for a reasonable estimation and see if I can make an agreement to free me from all hassle at the same time offer the landlord to use that budget at his free will, because he can always find a better price than I can.
Not having much fun are you. This, the problem with transferring money funds out of Credit Suisse, and an Audi needed new brakepads, only 7000km into the lease.
All posted yesterday.
Is that all the problems you have, or are you going to reveal more troubles?
The landlord send me this letter to walk away from his responsibility. Should I react now?
BTW he came without our permission through his garage door and put this old stove to replace the broken one. Shall I warn him formally about not coming without permission?
p.s. I am posting my experiences of what life offered me, i.e. my problems yes. I appreciate if anyone could offer valuable suggestions.
Once I received his letter I found that I should ask for receipt of the gardener he hired for which I paid. Now I have paid but I can present nothing except for pictures of the gardener.
How does he know you've not serviced the household appliances?
Not that anybody does that. LOL. Except the heating of course but how long have you lived there? It's normally the case that if renting an entire house the entire regular maintenance is up to the tenant, including chimney sweeper (they bring luck, let them come ), direct payments of sewage etc. etc. That includes keeping the garden in shape.
What responsibility did the landlord walk away from? Sounds he's worried about the value of his house.
Take the advice - join the Mieterverband. https://www.mieterverband.ch/ They also have lawyers and if you don’t have sufficient German they will help you in English.
They are the experts when it comes to all things relating to renting and difficult landlords.