No majority for business rent law
After the National Council rejected the Covid 19 business rental bill on Nov. 30, 2020, by a vote of 100 to 87 with 7 abstentions, the Council of States did not even take up the bill on Dec. 2 - so it is definitely off the table.
After detailed deliberations, the National Council rejected the bill in line with the previous Legal Affairs Committee, which had already requested that the bill not be adopted. An alliance of SVP, FDP, the majority of the center faction and some GLP representatives prevailed against the votes of the SP, the Greens and the EVP, which belongs to the center faction.
The Federal Council's bill provided that tenants and leaseholders who were affected by an official closure or severe restriction in the spring would only have to pay 40% of the rent for this period - 60% was to be borne by the landlords. The law would retroactively interfere with private contractual relationships, the conservative majority justified its rejection. In addition, the solution now on the table would lead to legal uncertainty and would not take account of the different ways in which individual businesses are affected.
After the rejection in the National Council, the Council of States came to the conclusion on December 2, 2020, not to take up the business at all. This means that the law is now definitely off the table.
By the attempt of left-wing politicians to interfere with the freedom of contract with a law, the negotiations between tenants and landlords, which had started well according to the monitoring of the Federal Council, had been stopped, as everyone had to wait for a possible legal solution. "This unfortunate state of affairs is now over," comments SVIT Switzerland on the rejection of the law. SVIT Switzerland, the Federal Council and the Federal Office of Housing call on landlords and tenants to resume negotiations. (bw)
