This is your right –
Damage or normal wear: what work is the responsibility of the tenant?
Each week, lawyers from ASLOCA Geneva and the Geneva Immobilière Chamber answer your questions.
Your columnist: Pierre Stastny, lawyer, Asloca Geneva.
GEORGES CABRERA
Ask your questions about votredroitimmo@tdg.ch.
Question from Stuart T. to COLOGNY: “At the end of the lease, after the inventory of exit, my management asked me to pay for damage to the entrance. What to do? “
At the end of the lease, the tenant responds to the damage exceeding normal wear and tear, and not degradations following use in accordance with the contract (art. 267 CO). The lessor must verify the state of the thing rented during the restitution and immediately notify the tenant of the faults which he responds (art. 267a CO).
When the Régie manifests itself to require the payment of repair work, it is in principle by a letter. It is then advisable to act as follows.
First, the tenant must request the detailed invoices of repairs to the Régie. He must then quickly notify his RC insurance of the claims of the lessor, by transmitting the documents received from the Régie and the input/output input states, even if we do not admit his responsibility. If we had signed a document indicating that “the tenant admits being responsible for damage”, it must be invalidated without delay, by registered mail for the Régie.
In order for the tenant to pay, he must emerge from the inventory of exit or a letter addressed later what is the reproached degradation and the tenant must understand that he will be responsible for it (default notice). General formulations are not enough. Example: “Painting damaged accommodation”. This does not say precisely the room and the part concerned enough, or that the outgoing tenant is held responsible.
The default notice must be given in time, namely in the inventory of all or by mail shipped within two to three working days.
The tenant has the right to use, and therefore of “user”, the thing rented. For example, a children’s room is experiencing accelerated wear; It is normal for the painting to be damaged after six years. The small holes in the walls to hang a table are normal in the dwellings; Just bite them. No need to repaint everything. On the other hand, the cleaning is to be done by the outgoing, even if the places were taken dirty.
Finally, an installation is aging and it is to the lessor that the maintenance costs have. It is therefore necessary to charge depreciation on the sums claimed. Thus, a new painting (dispersion) must be redone after eight years. The outgoing tenant owes nothing as such if his lease has lasted nine years and, if he lasted four, he owes only half of the costs.
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