Easier to vacate, more barriers to subletting, higher returns: the Chamber wants to abolish tenant rights

• Easier firing: Today, an owner can only terminate the lease if he has a claim for urgent personal needs, ie he or close relatives absolutely need the apartment. The National Council has already declared itself in favor of relaxing this arrangement. In the future it should be easier and, above all, faster to evict tenants from their apartments. While the president of the Tenants Association, Sommaruga, sharply criticizes this, middle-class parliamentarians such as Andrea Gmür (58), member of the Central Council of States, consider it “absolutely legitimate” for an owner to use his apartment himself. Given the clear middle-class majority in the Council of States, the relaxation should be all but decided.
• More hurdles with subletting: Anyone who wants to sublet their apartment – ​​privately or through services such as Airbnb – will have to obtain written permission from the landlord in the future. This is to prevent abuse, according to the majority argument. However, the left side warns that the landlord can now terminate the lease almost immediately – even because of a small formal error. Here too, acceptance is almost certain with the Yes from the Legal Committee. “This and the personal use change only serve to make it easier for low-rent tenants to be given notice to raise the rent,” claims Sommarugas.
• Too high rents: Owners cannot simply determine the rent by the wrist. Three years ago, the federal court ruled that a landlord may earn a return no more than two percent higher than the reference rate. The problem – apart from the fact that many landlords don’t comply: the 2 percent rule only applies as long as the interest rate is below 2 percent. What if he climbs higher? The Legal Affairs Committee now wants to create legal certainty. The decision was unanimous, even as leftists fear that the real estate lobby in parliament will try to enshrine higher returns for landlords in law, driving rents up further. However, unlike the others, this business is just getting started.

“Many of these changes also benefit tenants,” said Andrea Caroni, 43, councilor of Ausserrhoden. But he also admits it’s a matter of strengthening landlords’ rights in general.

Association threatens to vote

Sommaruga, on the other hand, speaks of a “scandal”. Further steps to weaken tenancy law are already in the pipeline. Tenants’ representatives in particular are concerned about a demand submitted by Hans Egloff (63), chairman of the Owners’ Association and former SVP council member. If it were up to him, new tenants should only challenge an allegedly too high initial rent if they are in need. And that while the thresholds are already very high. Only 0.2 percent of the original rent is disputed.

The tenants’ association has already announced a “double referendum” against the weakening of tenants’ rights in case of subletting and own use. In Switzerland, the land of tenants, the real estate lobby has to dress warmly.