So the tenant for my studio flat has stopped paying rent. This is the 2nd month in a row when he hasn't paid so far.
There is no deposit to cover the arrears + no Swiss Caution.
He has been a tenant for close to 2 years and with some delays, he has usually paid the rent. I have been lenient, as I wanted less stress to replace the tenant.
I know, its my fault to not have gotten the deposit. He seemed a decent person and I trusted him.
What are my options?
- Lawyer? ==> Any recommendations? (I live in BL)
- Registered letter ==> Already sent, which got returned as unclaimed.
- Give notice to the tenant ==> Do I need to give 3 months (I believe not), considering he has not been keeping his end of the deal?
From what I understand, even if tenants are not paying rent, it still can be very difficult to evict them. I think neighbors of ours spent about a half a year evicting a tenant who wasn't paying. I would recommend immediately finding a lawyer who can assist you with this. I assume, like anything else involving real estate and law, that you will end up costing yourself a lot of time, money and aggravation, if you go about this the wrong way. The lawyer will be quite expensive, but I'll bet trying to do this without proper help will be a lot more expensive.
Also - you already know you made a mistake by not getting a deposit. Don't beat yourself up about this anymore. Take it as a lesson learned and put it behind you. Concentrate on fixing the problem you have now.
First, I'd make sure that he is OK. And if it is only for your own sake; it could be hard to clean an apartment, where a dead body was for months. It may also be that he is at a hospital somewhere and willing but unable to pay.
Once you found out, what's going on and it is a non-emergency, I'd immediately file for betreibung, and also send him a notice as per contract. Then take it from there. You can always consult lawyers later, once you know all the facts.
May be a silly question to ask, but do you know the tenant is still in residence? Could be they’re ill, in hospital, dead, moved out without telling you. I would think most people wouldn’t ignore getting/picking up a registered letter.
It's not so difficult, you need to know exactly what to do and if you don't, it is far better to employ a professional agency to handle the letting of the apartment or to know somebody who is in that business.
The Hauseigentümerverband recommends these steps (translated):
"The tenant is in arrears with the payment of the rent if he does not pay on time; according to 257c CO at the end of each month. A reminder is therefore not necessary, he is automatically in default. For this reason, the landlord could pursue the tenant immediately. However, in order to terminate him, the landlord must observe various formalities:
Variants
a) Warning and threat of termination
If the tenant is in arrears with the payment of due rent or ancillary costs, the landlord may set him a payment deadline of at least 30 days by registered letter and threaten him that if the deadline expires unused, the tenancy will be terminated (257d CO). If the tenant has not paid by the expiry of the deadline (if necessary, taking into account the postal delivery period of 7 days), the landlord may terminate the lease with a notice period of 30 days to the end of each calendar month. The notice of termination must be made by means of an official form (266 l CO). The form must be sent or delivered separately to all tenants by registered letter, and a countersignature is required in the case of personal delivery. In the case of family apartments and apartments occupied by registered couples of the same sex, the landlord must send the form to both (spousal) partners by separate mail.
b) Enforcement
In addition to the extraordinary termination, the landlord can claim the rent due by way of debt collection by having a payment order served by the competent debt collection office.
Those were my thoughts as well. When he did not response for first couple of weeks, I almost went to the police, to make sure he is fine. He then responded. He was out sick for couple of weeks and has been out for a while. According to social media and his status updates, he seems fine now.
Next what Mullholander has posted from the Mieterverband, here the procedure as descripted by the rental court. It is paramount that you follow the correct procedure or you will not get rid of your non-paying tenant.
Your local rental court can also give hints how to proceed in general.
By filling a Betreibung. No evidence needed. Everyone can file a Betreibung against anyone at anytime.
You will have to provide evidence that the payment is due once the tenant lodges a Rechtsvorschlag and you wish to proceed with the Betreibung. If you have a written rental contract it should be rather easy to show that a payment is due, and if you have a good bookkeeping it also should be easy to proof that the payment is overdue.
You don't necessary need a lawyer to engage the judicial process in this matter.
By law you are required first of all to attend to a conciliation audience. In your case the conciliation audience will be handled by a juge of the leasing court. If this audience fails to convince your tenant you will be able to file a claim for payment and/or to evict him.
First thing: Communicate with the tenant, showing concern for their welfare. Find out why the rent is not being paid. Do your best to reach an agreement on paying the overdue rent. Be willing to help and compromise.
Rental law is (mostly) federal law (as you can see by all the links to the code of obligations). For cancellation the procedure is the same, the mandatory form however is different. Here the official termination form for BL: https://www.baselland.ch/politik-und…iten/formulare
Mostly, as for example in Zurich a landlord must disclose the previous rent (see other thread on EF), or in Vaud where there is a standard rental contract.
Send him a warning letter with registered mail that his payment is overdue and that if he does not pay within 30 days after receipt of the letter you will terminate and issue a Betreibung (a sample letter below, just fill out the missing information): https://www.gerichte-zh.ch/fileadmin…ungsverzug.pdf
After waiting 30 days (check the track & trace when he received it. If he does not pick it up you need to add a further 7 days, which is the grace period after which the letter is deemed received) you can issue a termination notice on the official form (here for Baselland) and again send it by registered mail: https://www.baselland.ch/politik-und…kuendigung.pdf
The termination is effective after 30 days as of the end of the calendar month. In other words, if the 30 days lapse in the middle of the month, then the termination is only effective as of the end of the month.
If the tenant still does not leave the apartment after that, things become a bit more interesting with eviction proceedings (which are better left for another day).
In any event you can file a Betreibung for the overdue rent. Either you go to the Betreibungsamt at the place where the tenant lives (presumably where the appartment is) or you can fill out the form yourself and send it by post (pay the fees) and it gets served on him: https://www.baselland.ch/politik-und…gsbegehren.pdf
He can stop the Betreibung by simply objecting without reason, and then it is for you to file an actual claim, which is then a bit more complicated.