Mar, Ene 16th 2024
Rent War: Tenants’ Battle Cry Against Rent Hike Laws!
The people are likely to have the last word on softening the protection against dismissal in the case of subletting and owner-occupancy. An alliance led by the Tenants’ Association submitted around 76,000 signatures against each of the two bills on Tuesday.
The Federal Chancellery will determine whether the referendums have been held. 50,000 valid signatures are required for each referendum to be held. It is very likely that the double referendum will be put to the vote, probably towards the end of this year.
The referendums are backed by several left-wing parties, the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions (SGB) and organizations such as the Association of Swiss Student Unions (VSS). Representatives of the alliance spoke of a “frontal attack by the real estate lobby on tenancy law” when the referendum was submitted.
Tenants are under severe pressure, rents are rising more and more and parliament has pushed through deteriorations in tenancy law, said Tenants’ Association Vice President and National Councillor Michael Töngi (Greens/LU) in an interview with Keystone-SDA-Video. “We want to stop this – it can’t go on like this.”
In the autumn session, Parliament decided to make adjustments to tenancy law in favour of landlords. Firstly, landlords will now have to give their explicit written consent to the subletting of premises.
In addition, landlords are to be given an extraordinary right of termination if tenants do not comply with the conditions for subletting. One of the reasons given for this was the proliferation of subletting via the Airbnb platform, particularly in cities.
The second change concerns personal use. Specifically, it should no longer be possible to terminate a tenancy if the owner has an “urgent” personal need, but rather if the owner can assert “a significant and current personal need based on an objective assessment”. Proponents of this change hope that it will speed up proceedings in the event of disputes.
©Keystone/SDA
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