A woman in Zurich has been convicted of charging illegal high rents. The local Tenants’ Association has hailed the verdict and hopes the story will encourage more victims to come forward.

Woman charges 42 victims illegally high rents in Zurich

According to a ruling published by the Federal Supreme Court in Lausanne, a woman has been given a two-year suspended prison sentence for charging illegally high rents in Zurich. She had been accused of subletting homes in the city and the town of Spreitenbach to a total of 42 victims.

In one example, the woman began to rent one of two apartments in Zurich in 2016 for a total rent of 3.850 francs a month. While it only had seven proper rooms, she used her own partition walls to create space for nine people.

She then sublet the rooms out for between 900 and 1.260 francs a month. In the ruling, the court noted that she was charging between 25 and 158 percent more than the average rent for the area. Her tenants also reported mould, cockroaches and rats in the home she sublet. Most of the victims were asylum seekers or refugees, many of whom could not speak German.

Illegal rents are rife in Zurich, says Tenants' Association

Though there are no official statistics on the matter, Zurich Tenants’ Association legal head Larissa Steiner told the Tages-Anzeiger that so-called “rent gouging” is common in the Swiss metropolis. "In the city of Zurich alone, we estimate that there are several hundred tenancies that constitute the criminal offence of usury," she noted.

Other groups of international people are also common victims of illegally high rents. Those who take up jobs in Switzerland and need a place to stay quickly to register for a residence permit often end up paying too much for sub-par accommodation. This is made worse by the fact that Zurich has both an acute housing shortage and some of the highest rental costs in the world, making it difficult to spot the line when high rents become illegal.

Association hopes the conviction will inspire others to come forward

Speaking to the Tages-Anzeiger, association director Linda Rosenkranz said that "with this ruling, the Federal Supreme Court makes it unmistakably clear that it is a crime for landlords to exploit tenants' hardship." "We hope that the ruling encourages tenants in similar situations to file a complaint."

For their part, Swiss Homeowners' Association director Markus Meier told the newspaper that the case showed that stricter rules on subletting are needed to prevent rent abuse. He concluded by arguing that the Tenants’ Association’s claim that illegal rents are rife in Zurich is “plucked from the air” and “entirely unfounded.”

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