Time to ask for a rent cut, says tenants group
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – You could be due for up to a 10 percent reduction in your rent if you haven’t asked for a cut since 2008, says Asloca, the Swiss tenants’ association, 1 December. It won’t come to you: you have to ask for it.
The Swiss rental reference interest rate has fallen from 2.75 to 2.50 percent, which means it can be applied to rental agreements. The rate is calculated quarterly, based on the average of banks’ mortgage rates. Today’s lower rate gives tenants the right to ask for a 2.91 percent rent reduction, but it’s the fourth since the start f 2008 and in total the reductions come to about 10 percent. The law changed in October, making it easier to apply the reference rates to real rent reductions.
Asloca says tenants are often afraid to ask for a reduction on an existing lease for fear that the landlord will try to use that to end the lease, but the opposite is true: tenants who insist on reductions because the law gives them the right to this lower rents overall in the country, and they are better protected when the landlord tries to increase the rent.
Guide to how to ask for a cut in rent, Bon a savoir (Fr)
