I’ve tried to find this information by searching but had now luck as it pertains to my circumstances so here goes.
Does anyone know what the Swiss laws are regarding the handling of C/O mail?
Is it legal for the intermediary to open the mail without my consent or knowledge?
Here is some background info in a nut shell.
I have a company domiciled with a reputable law/accountant firm here, or so I thought. The company mail is addressed to my firm name c/o their firm name and address. Essentially they are a third party that acts as my domicile holder for the corporation. I pay them an annual fee for this service and they forward my mail to me at my home address.
They intercepted a registered letter and unbeknownst to me opened it and decided they needed to do some legal and accounting work on my firms behalf. We do not have a contract for any legal tax or accounting purposes.
Months after the fact they sent me an invoice of which I have queried. Despite my objections they are insisting that I pay them the fees associated with opening that letter.
Before I decide if I want to get a lawyer involved and fight this I was hoping someone could answer the questions above for me.
I imagine the Swiss post office would be the place to start your quest...
but when you think about it you receive the letter "Care of" or "Zur Hand von" both of which implicate that the law/accountancy
firm is instructed to work with your interests in mind.
If a registered letter arrives, they could claim they are acting in your interest as it could contain very specific important information,
such as a final demand for a payment, a court summons, a speeding fine, etc etc.
Good suggestions, thanks Sprinz. I will go to the post office tomorrow and ask them for some clarification.
The point I've made to the firm handling my mail is that I was totally, 100 % contactable to verify any concerns or answer any questions. They opened the mail but made absolutely no efforts to bring the facts to my attention. If they were truly working in my firms interest, why did they not bother to call me or send me an email? Instead they clandestinely started an investigation into the matter ringing up their invoice along the way. The first I even heard about this was only when I received the invoice many months later.
Had they called me they would have been told not to bother with it because the matter fully resolved, no fines, no summons nothing. In fact I learned their investigation concluded that the letter had been sent in error, which I could have confirmed without any charges. To settle the matter and in good faith I've offered to pay them for 1 hour of their time but they insist that the invoice with just a very small deduction of 75 CHF should be paid.
It's not really about the money although we work hard for every franc/rappen. It's the principal of the matter.
Looks to me like I'm being Switzerlanded!