rent reduction?

Accomodation, House and Garden
1
Hello,

I have been living in the same app for long i.e. +6 years.

Recently I received a letter from the renting RS agency saying that my fix costs had increased and that if I wanted to have such increase in the fix monthly payment I should sign such letter and send it back. I found this a bit weird but having little time other than to study and work I threw the letter straight into the garbage.

Last weekend I saw a TV program from Ticino very interesting (I understand italian). What they showed was that as tenant I have a few rights I wasn't aware of: Ask for a reduction of the rent, specially under such notice of having increased fixed costs Ask for a revision of my rent with the "tenant protection office" which is a dedicated set of goverment lawyers looking after any kind of abusive pricing of housing etc. They mentioned that ever since 2003 the federal housing or mortgage tax or something like this has been decreasing and I have not seen that reflected in my rent ever ... the RS agency has never reduced my rent. According to what they explained in that TV program I can have all this checked but effectively don't know where to go or call in Zürich or the name of such "tenant protection office" in Zürich?

Any clues what are the odds of getting help? and a fair price reduction from the RS Agency? I currently pay 1470.-Sfr for a 70m^2 flat nearby Adliswil. If they have been ripping my off all these years, will they have to pay me back historically? Of course I don't want to be kicked out from my flat for this ...

Many thanks in advance,

Best regards,

TapiroLee

2
Er, first point is don't go throwing letters from your landlord away if you don't know why they sent them. Second: search here for Mietverband, after joining them for a modest fee they'll inform you when interest rates change and when to bother your landlord for a reduction. Third, it's usually preferably to have an increase in monthly rent than to receive a bill at years end with the additional expenses to be paid in one go - usually within 30 days, which is always a pleasant surprise at Christmas.

3
http://www.mieterverband.ch/

4
Addresses of all the cantonal tenant arbitration authorities:

http://www.schweizerischer-mietersch...Mietsachen.pdf

5
you actually have to ask for the reduction yourself (in about 90% of cases). the landlord rarely offers it himself, it s a nice way to get in extra money. i asked for it and got it, but you have to ask within a specific time period etc etc. so do the research on that mieterverband website, that helped me a lot and they also have sample letters.