Hi there! 

You can do a few things:

1. Get in touch with your Assurance Ménage (which you mandatorily have contracted if you've signed an official lease). If there's indeed a defect, they may be in a position where they'll cover for the repair. In any case, they will be able to tell you whether or not the regie should indeed fix the defect.

2. Contact ASLOCA: https://www.asloca.ch/. It's a member-based association for individuals renting across Suisse romande, and they will then give you free legal advice on what to do. It may take some time but they'll accompany you through the procedures and are very much knowledgeable on the topic.

3. My personal take: régies are bad, but not as bad as building owners. Big renovation works is to be paid by the owners themselves, and they'll always seek to postpone for as long as possible to make sure they can do work all across the building when they do (rather than on an apartment-by-apartment basis).

If you're desperate, you can find the name of the buildings owner on the registre foncier (https://ge.ch/terextraitfoncier/adresse.aspx) and try writing to him/her directly. It's bold but hey... may work if the régie is deaf!

Hope this helps and is clear enough! 

Don’t waste any more time, make an appointment to see someone at ASLOCA as soon as you can and take all relevant documentation with you.

They are really good and well worth the moderate fee.

All the best!

R.

Yes, as Ritchie says, ASLOCA is the way to go.  

Sorry, I should have written “take photocopies of all relevant documentation …”

Always hang on tight to the original copies of your papers.

R.

ASLOCA all the way.

So you know, in Switzerland there is a proceeding called "cautionnement de loyer". If your flat suffer from a major deffect, you can give your rent to an escrow instead of the regie. They will hold it until the deffect is fixed ; and you are protected during the process (and for a few months after), as you legally paid your rent. ASLOCA will guide you through it ; but regies magically become very responsive when they hear this word, I had the experience in the past.
And as far I remember, Tribunal federal ruled that a temperature staying below 19° is inappropriate, so you likely have a case.

Document as much as you can. Have a thermometer and take pictures of it next to an image of a newspaper showing time and date for example. This way you can document that this is not a one time event. Keep a chart of temperatures by date (inside temp vs outside temp). 

Photos and documentation like this was very helpful when dealing with Gerofinance Dunand (horrible régie). With help from ASLOCA we took them to the tribunal and obtained a major rent reduction and thorough repairs. 

From that experience I also learned the importance of having legal insurance. They will cover any costs associated with a long legal battle with ASLOCA's help. The initial consultations are free and part of your membership, but if goes to the tribunal they will charge a fee that can amount to thousands. 

Good luck!

If your neighbours are having the same problem you can write a letter to the regier signed by all of you.

Forget everything and go to ASLOCA. They will telle you your rights, make sure you take a copy of your contract with the regie.  You have not mentioned which regie but they know which are sort of good and which are crooks. Joining is around 50 francs per year and then their advice is free.  If you go on to their site they even have list of whatreductions you can demand for certain defects.

Thank you all for your response. I've called my Regie and told him that this time i'll go to ASLOKA.

With in 2 hours, the manager of the apartment has arrived my building and made arrangements for the work. The work is in progress. Manager had called me couple of times in between to check if the concerned person has arrived and if it is progressing.

He confirmed me that all the work will be completed by end of this week.

Fingers crossed.

Once again, Thank you all for your suggetions and inputs. 

Regards,

Rakesh

Thanks for keeping everyone updated rather than just asking questions and disappearing.  A follow-up in a couple of monthsconfirming that everything isstill OK  in order would be nice