Alliance hands in over 150,000 signatures against rental reforms
Voters are likely to have the last word on the softening of the protection against eviction in the case of subletting and owner-occupancy. An alliance centred around the Tenants' Association submitted around 76,000 signatures against each of the two proposals on Tuesday.
Some 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 Trade Union Federation and organisations such as the Association of Swiss Student Unions (VSS). Representatives of the alliance spoke of a “frontal attack by the property lobby on tenancy law” at the time of the submission.
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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 parlamentarian Michael Töngi of the Green Party in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency. “We want to stop this – it can’t go on like this.”
Own use and subletting
In the autumn session, Parliament decided to make adjustments to tenancy law in favour of landlords. On the one hand, landlords will now have to explicitly agree to subletting premises in writing.
In addition, landlords are to be granted an extraordinary right of termination if tenants do not fulfil the conditions for subletting. One of the reasons given for this is the proliferation of subletting via the Airbnb platform, particularly in cities.
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The second change relates to personal use. Specifically, it should no longer be possible to terminate a tenancy if the owner has an “urgent” personal need, but if the owner can assert “an objectively significant and current personal need”. Those in favour of this change hope that it will speed up proceedings in the event of disputes.
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