Geneva: tenant compensated for having lived in an office

It is the story of a tenant who for six years lived in an office with his daughter in Geneva. On the lease contract that Ascanio Giuliani signs in 2015, the property is nevertheless presented as an apartment of 3.5 rooms. It is actually a “commercial area”.

The case took a judicial turn Following the intervention of the State which decreed a ban on living. She found her epilogue this spring. The tenant will receive 80,000 francs under a sealed agreement in court.

Seated behind a cappuccino in this August morning, Ascanio Giuliani confides his “satisfaction”: “It was a question of principle. There are rules. When you don’t pay your rent, you get it outside. Why should I have let this irregular situation pass? ” Questions this sixties, a former business banker converted into compliance.

Inconveniences

Located on the sixth and last floor of a building in the heart of the Pâquis, the accommodation had a reasonable rent for him (2,200 francs per month for 74 m²). Some incongruities are obvious, however,: a row of lockers that line the walls (ideal for storing binders), a new but which does not heat up and velux built -in at 1.80 m high, offering only a low light.

It was not until 2020, between two confinements, that Ascanio Giuliani ended up soliciting the state. The observation of civil servants of the territory department (DT) is quickly established: the apartment was rented as accommodation without authorization-just like the neighboring 4-pieces, also occupied.

Double legal proceedings

Ascanio Giuliani then made the decision to record the rents until his departure, at the end of 2021. A procedure was initiated with the court of leases and rents. It was his lawyer who suggests this to him, a friend who will make him “a flower” by agreeing to wait for the resolution of the dispute to be paid.

In the meantime, the company owner of the building (since 2014), represented by the Zimmermann Régie, files a building permit application in order to regularize the situation. It will be refused.

In the eyes of the DT, the proposed work does not offer “sufficient quality in terms of habitability”, health and safety. The State decrees a restoration of the inventory, accompanied by an “immediate” ban on residing there.

The owner and the management dispute the whole before the administrative chamber of the Court of Justice – while continuing to rent the two apartments. They put forward different arguments, including a tacit authorization to live in the attic after the construction of the building, in the late 1950s.

The appeal was swept in the summer of 2023. As soon as it was seized, the Federal Court will not be more good at a year later, believing that the argument of the owner and the “False” Régie.

Contacted on Wednesday for a reaction, the Zimmermann Régie was unable to respond within the time limits. In a previous articleits founder, Pierre Zimmermann, had estimated that this tenant simply did not want to pay his rent anymore and that he had “an idea” to achieve his ends.

In the end, the amount negotiated under the amicable agreement is equivalent to three years of rent for Ascanio Giuliani.

Complex and expensive operations

Another winner in this case: the state. “The judgment of the Federal Court confirms that the transformation of offices into housing must be done in compliance with strict rules to ensure both security and the comfort of tenants,” insists Rafaèle Gros-Barras, communications officer at the DT.

Nevertheless. This type of operations remains marginal, despite the softening of the law voted by the population in 2015. Since then, the State has only authorized only fifteen files per year.

Office conversionsame empty, remains expensive, with profitability that is slow to come for the owners. And when the surface has been designed as a work surface, technical constraints are often unacceptable, such as creating water descents for bathrooms or new stairwells.

Last year, the Grand Council adopted a law requiring that any new construction be convertible into housing. But Justice recently canceled itdeemed it disproportionate.

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