Contesting the initial rent: 30 days, and how they run

Deadline

30 days after taking possession

Forum

The rent conciliation authority

Cost

The conciliation procedure is free of charge

Legal basis

Art. 270 CO

When a challenge is possible at all

Art. 270 CO calls for one of two grounds. Either you were forced into the lease by personal or family hardship, or by conditions on the local housing market. Or the landlord raised the rent substantially over what the previous tenant paid. In cities with recognised housing shortage, the first ground is regularly accepted.

The mandatory form is the decisive lever

Several cantons, among them Zurich, Geneva, Vaud, Fribourg, Neuchâtel, Zug, Basel-Stadt and Lucerne, require the landlord to notify the initial rent on an official form that states the previous rent and the reason for any increase. Without that form the rent is not validly set, and the 30-day period never begins to run. So check first whether you were given one. It is missing more often than people think.

1. 1Dig out the form and the lease, and note the date you were given the keys.
2. 2Establish the previous rent. It is on the form; failing that, the conciliation authority can tell you.
3. 3File your request in writing with the conciliation authority for the district where the flat lies.
4. 4Go on paying the rent in full. Contesting it entitles you to withhold nothing.
5. 5Turn up to the hearing. A large share of cases end there in a settlement.

Fear of being marked down as a difficult tenant is what stops most people. A notice given in response to a challenge can be set aside (Art. 271a para. 1 lit. a CO), and for three years after proceedings a specific protection against termination applies.