Leases: the impossible step backwards
Leases: the impossible step backwards
A few days ago, I sent my notice to my landlord. However, the landlord of my future home decided to cancel the appointment when I was due to sign my new lease. So I'll soon find myself without accommodation! I'd like to know whether it's possible to cancel my notice, as the owner of my old flat intends to carry out some work before letting it out again.
A. Geneva
Theoretically, the lease terminates without notice at the end of the agreed term, but contracts generally provide that if the parties fail to give notice by the end of the agreed term, the lease will be tacitly extended for an indefinite period. Unless there is a contractual provision to the contrary, art. 266c of the Swiss Code of Obligations (CO) stipulates that a residential lease may be terminated by giving three months' notice for the end of a lease term.
If the notice is given in bad faith by one of the parties, it can be contested by the other. As the tenant is legally considered to be the weaker party to the contract, he enjoys greater protection. Article 271a of the Swiss Code of Obligations sets out a list of situations in which a notice of termination given by the lessor may be set aside. These include the aim of imposing a unilateral change unfavourable to the tenant or retaliation against a person who asserts claims arising from the lease in good faith; this is presumed to be the case of a notice of termination given during conciliation proceedings or legal proceedings relating to the lease.
In this case, you voluntarily terminated your lease and moved to a new property. Once your landlord has taken note of your notice, it is too late to retract it, and it is not possible to take action to cancel it, or to oblige the landlord to reallocate the accommodation you have decided to leave if he refuses to discuss this uncomfortable situation amicably.
On the other hand, the question may arise of the pre-contractual liability of your new landlord. This liability is based on the idea that the opening of negotiations already creates a legal relationship between the partners and imposes reciprocal duties on them, in particular the duty to negotiate seriously and in accordance with their true intentions. For such liability to be accepted by the courts, four conditions must be met: negotiations have begun; one of the parties arouses in the other the hope that the deal will be concluded; this hope is illusory because the party who aroused it acts contrary to his true intentions; damage is thereby caused. However, these elements can be difficult to prove and case law is very restrictive in accepting such claims.
