Expats arriving in Geneva or on temporary missions and participants in international conferences often find temporary accommodation thanks to home owners or tenants willing to rent their apartment for short periods.
A ruling in a Genevan conciliation procedure shows now that tenants can successfully dispute the validity of a contractually fixed rent, despite that fact that Art. 253a and b of the Swiss Civil code stipulate that
“the provisions governing protection against unfair rents ….. do not apply to holiday homes hired for three months or less.” Then rent maybe fair or unfair for a furnished accommodation, but in a dispute, the landlord will not come out unscathed.
AirBnB, TripAdvisor, HomeAway and other websites, among them glocals.com, offer such offers such « holiday homes » which are very appreciated by temporary staff, conference participants or expats in search of a permanent accommodation.
The Genevan court ruling now tells me that if a temporary tenant is not on holiday but gainfully employed, the « holiday home » ceases to be what it is and becomes a furnished apartment whose rent can be disputed even if the tenant has signed a contract.
The discussions during the conciliatory procedure clearly showed that the court does not appreciate AirBnB accommodations. In my case, the package I offer is an independent accommodation of 42 m2 with garden, parking, bicycle and lots of amenities, plus Geneva Transport card and tourist tax.
The tenant – a consultant from Africa working for an international organisation and twice Glocals member under two different family names and two different origins – left the cottage in a dismal state with rests of vomit on the floor and other disgusting things I am not going to enumerate. On top of it - since I refused to accommodate any longer this drunkard with an alcohol consumption of 5 bottles of wine and two 1-litre bottles of 47° spirit per week – I was called “the spawn of Satan, a liar and a thief, in need of God!” and threatened with a law suit for racial discrimination!
Asloca (the renters’ association) asked for a rent reduction of 1400 CHF and pretended that the place only had 15 m2. The conciliation authority understood the situation, but since in such a procedure, both sides have to make concessions, the rent was reduced by 200 CHF.
I lost hours for research and preparation of the case. If I had not made a concession, the case would have dragged on. The conclusion? If you rent your apartment to people you do not know, make sure that they are tourists, charge the tourist tax and give them a Geneva Transport Card. The conciliation authorities said that I should ask potential tenants if they had a gainful employment in Geneva, or risk, after the fact, a request for rent reduction in a Genevan court. Nice perspectives for landlords willing to accommodate expats on a temporary basis, and for honest tenants in search of temporary lodgings.
