Within a short time, it’s hard to believe, but imagine your own apartment suddenly becoming a brothel.
The Swiss Lorenzo M. placed an advertisement online for renting his apartment for three months, while he travels for three months. As the time was running out and he had only one offer, a single woman from abroad, he decided to rent the apartment to the unknown lady, she was also sounded friendly over the phone and made a good impression.
“The worst thing I could imagine was that the subtenant was not diligent and would smoke in the apartment.”
Smoking was not her vice
Lorenzo M. was hoping that the women will stick to the no smoking rule in the apartment, but he could not imagine what the women was planning to do in the apartment. The subtenant was already organizing to open a brothel while renting the apartment. The Swiss man wanted to get some things from the apartment shortly before leaving and this was his first red flag. When he arrived at the apartment, he notices that the address on his door was changed, a strange man opened the door, and the entire apartment was darkened. As the journey was near and he had to follow his schedule, Lorenzo had no time to clarify the situation after seeing all these facts. Time was pressing and the rental agreement was signed.
“There were used condoms, tissues and lube everywhere.”
An email from property manager was received
Lorenzo received an email from the property manager two days before his journey, he found attached numerous emails from his neighbours. They stated that quite a few men went into that apartment every day. Some of the residents found a lot of sex ads that were targeting Lorenzo’s apartment. He should report it immediately.
Lorenzo was powerless as a landlord
After receiving all the complaints, Lorenzo went to his apartment and found used condoms, lubricants, and handcuffs everywhere. The entire apartment was full of cigarettes and weed, the terrible thing was he could not do anything about it because of the contract. “I can’t evict the subtenant. I didn’t explicitly declare in the contract that the apartment could only be used for residential purposes.” The contract was made for a three-month period, so his hand was tied.
The “purpose” of the apartment must be defined
“If you don’t define the purpose, you open the conduit to the subtenant. It is important that you contractually state that the purpose is residential use. Then you can warn the people and give notice outside of the deadline” says the managing director of the homeowners’ association HEV of canton of Lucerne.
Source: Sex Vienna