Yes, so you should calculate with lease start in April 24 and not from July 2020. The price level should be from April 24 (or maybe Jan 24 when the increase was announced… but I’m not sure about that).
Interesting.
Maybe that’s why the landlord mentioned a disclaimer in the original rent increase and mentioned the amount specifically they are not passing on (but could have)
You mean the price level is unchanged from 2020? IMHO, the “new” contract should state this… but I’m layman in law here.
No I mean that they wrote in letter than price increase allowed is 9.4% and they are only increasing 5% because they thought it would be too much
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In that case, I don’t know… anyway, you don’t know the exact price index the landlord refers to. This will be difficult to predict.
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So just what I wrote above. 
In cases where a landlord didn’t decrease the rent before 2020 with all those reductions of Referenzzinssatz, they weren’t allowed to increase it in 2023 when it went up for the first time (inflation aside).
So it would only be logical, that it works just like that the other way around (which is your case now).
If I were in your shoes, I’d be happy to have such a friendly landlord that didn’t push for the max. profit by increasing twice. Therefore I wouldn’t request a rent change.
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If it is written clearly what he has not passed on, then you can’t “forget” it. It can and will be taken into account if you ask for a reduction
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Was anyone able to confirm this? This would be my only hesitation since if it’s reduced to 1.25% in June I wouldn’t want to have to wait a full 18months to request the full difference from 1.75% as my contract is Nov1 for renégociations with 3 month delay (july30 latest reception of recommended letter)
Why wouldn’t you be allowed to? They raised it twice in a year. So you can lower it twice in a year. Don’t see any reason against that.
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Why not? I don’t see how it is binding in any way, it’s just an unilateral decision from their part.
In my case, I ended up in a similar situation after the arbitration hearing (lower increase than “entitled” (actually not since the yield was/is abusive)), and my lawyer was rather clear that it meant we could go back lower than before.
Now, you can of course decide not to push for the whole thing, just like they did, but legally speaking I don’t see how it blocks you.
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Thanks.
I think once something goes through arbitration, it is different thing
But for my case - I decided to wait for the next drop (which might not happen soon) to send a letter
I understand all the legal stuff but I also think I can act in good faith and it wouldn’t mean I will get burned
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Probably you’re right. We would need to have the detailed text in the letter regarding the last rental adjustment to be sure, but if the landlord was clever enough, he formulated it in a way that he did not yet give the whole cost increase to you (inflation/other costs). Then he can still claim those with the current reference rate reduction and you wouldn’t get a reduction in the end.
However, I think at any timepoint he would still be allowed to increase your rent by whatever inflation/other costs he didnt give on to you. But nothing you can do on this front anyway.
Example:
- You ask for reduction now, he adjusts inflation/other costs and you end up paying the same (or even 1-2% more). 2 years later it gets to 1.75% again, he increases rent since your basis is now 1.5%.
- You don’t ask for reduction now and pay the same. 2 years later it gets to 1.75% again, he increases rent because of inflation as increasing because of reference rate wouldn’t be possible (your basis is still 1.75)
- You don’t ask, but he wants to increase anyway (changed his mind), so he could claim now inflation, but would also need to calculate in the reduced ref. rate from 1.75 to 1.5. So he couldn’t increase it to the full extent that was possible until last month.
In any of those scenarios you’re better of being silent if:
- MV calculator tells you, you are still better off than allowed since 2020
- and your landlord made his job right in the letter declaring the last increase
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My rent got reduced from CHF 1’800 to CHF 1’745 (excl. NK of CHF 200), so a 3.06% reduction.
Doesn‘t seem like a big difference, but those CHF 660 are my gym abo.
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Nice!
Still waiting for a response from my agency. Radiosilence for 3 weeks 
Thanks
This means the ref rates wouldn’t come to 1.25% so fast because recent mortgages are not really going to that level yet.
Correct. The average mortgage has a duration of a couple of years. This is why the index lags behind
I just got this letter back after inquiring (made a picture and let it AI translate from german to post):
We confirm receipt of your request for a rent reduction dated XXX, 2025, in which you seek a reduction in rent due to the lowering of the reference interest rate to 1.5%.
The ownership has always been committed to keeping rents at a very socially acceptable level. This is despite the fact that significantly higher rents could easily be achieved in the currently tight market. As is well known, the demand for our apartments is correspondingly high. And accordingly, our tenants are also very happy about the low rental costs.
If you research the prices of comparable apartments on the internet, you will find that your rent is already well below the usual local and neighborhood levels. In light of this, we would like to suggest keeping it unchanged.
We greatly appreciate it if you can understand this and thus contribute to ensuring that our apartments can continue to be rented at such affordable prices.
We sincerely thank you for your support and understanding.
This is ridiculous right? Granted my rent is still pretty fair I think.
But what pisses me the hell off, is that the last two times after the reference interest rate was increased, not even three days later I had a letter in my post box to inform me about a rent increase…
I don’t want to spoil my good relationship with the Verwaltung and the rent is ok, but I’m really pissed off by this one way thing here.
I know I have my rights and could force them to lower it, but I’m unsure…
What would you do?
I would reiterate on this fact with them.
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How would you go about it?