Property management

Repair reports that arrive complete.

A property manager loses time to follow-up questions: which flat, which fault, which receipt. We build websites, portals and email that collect the details completely the first time, and run them on our own servers in Switzerland and the EU.

Where the time goes

Repair reports without the details

A tenant calls or sends a short email: the heating is not working. Missing are the building, the flat, since when, and when someone is at home. The property manager calls back, reaches nobody, writes an email, and only then passes the job to the tradesman. Each report takes several contacts before anyone repairs anything.

Applications on paper and in the inbox

For a vacant flat, application forms arrive with income details and a debt enforcement extract, on paper or as PDFs by email. The Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) states in his guidance that once the lease is signed, the forms and enclosures of the other applicants must be destroyed unless there is a specific justification. Only the people deciding on the letting should have access. Whoever keeps papers in a folder, the inbox and a shared drive rarely deletes everything.

Questions about the service charge statement

Landlords who charge service costs on the basis of a statement must prepare a statement at least once a year (Art. 4 VMWG), and tenants may inspect the receipts on request (Art. 257b Code of Obligations). Today each such request means fetching the folder, copying and posting.

What we build instead

A website with a repair report form.

A form that asks for building, flat, type of fault, urgency and availability, and lands in the admin area and in your inbox. You maintain vacant properties, texts and images yourself. CHF 6,000 fixed price, then CHF 300 a month.

A tenant portal.

As a mandate: receive applications digitally, visible only to the people who decide, and delete them after the letting; make the receipts behind the service charge statement available for inspection. Sign-in runs through EAuth, with a passkey or a password and a second factor.

Email for every building.

EMX (Beta) with shared mailboxes, for instance per property manager or for lettings, at no extra licence, messages stored encrypted in Geneva. CHF 4 per mailbox and month.

What you can expect from us

Applicant data.: The FDPIC allows questions that are suitable for choosing tenants, such as income or a copy of the debt enforcement extract. Questions about leasing, hire purchase or small loan agreements are not allowed. We build a portal so that it asks only what is permitted, and so that deleting after the letting is a button rather than a task.
Form requirements.: A rent increase must be notified on a form approved by the canton, or it is void (Art. 269d Code of Obligations). A portal does not change that.
Data location.: Stored data sits on our own servers at European providers in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and France. Notification mails, for example about a new repair report, are sent by Resend, a US service.
Contract and export.: A data processing agreement under Art. 9 FADP is part of our legal texts. You export all data in full at any time, without asking us.
What is missing.: No ISO 27001 or SOC 2 certification, no independent security audit.

Questions we hear

Does the portal replace our property management software?

No. Accounts, leases and statements stay in your software. The portal takes in reports and documents and shows receipts. How data flows between the two is settled before the offer.

Are we allowed to collect applications online at all?

Yes, if you ask only for what is suitable for the selection, applicants know what the details are for, and you destroy the papers of those not chosen once the flat is let. That is what the FDPIC's guidance says.

Can we send rent increases through the portal?

Not the notice itself without the approved form. The form may carry a mechanically reproduced signature (Art. 269d para. 4 Code of Obligations), but it remains the prescribed form.

What does a tenant portal cost?

There is no list price. You receive a one-page offer with goal, period, price and what will be measurably different at the end. That page is the contract.

Tell us which report causes the most follow-up

A short message is enough. Within two working days someone from the team that would build it replies. Write to us at elchi.dev/en/kontakt or call +41 58 513 63 11, weekdays from 8 to 18.

Talk to us

+41 58 513 63 11 contact@elchi.dev

Sources

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