Interview with Patrick Kurtz in Blick: “How This Private Detective Tracks Down Brazen Tenant Nomads”

Brazen tenant nomads bring chaos, costs, and despair to landlords. Often, the situation seems hopeless, and the horror tenants are untraceable. Yet private detective Patrick Kurtz knows how to find those who have disappeared – and helps property owners succeed in court.

Patrick Kurtz Locates Disappeared Horror Tenants

Tenant nomads – the nightmare of every landlord. Tenants who wreck apartments, simply disappear, leaving nothing but outstanding bills and rubbish behind. The property owner is left to cover the costs – unless the horror tenants are found. Patrick Kurtz is a private detective, a real-life Sherlock Holmes, and he specialises in tracking down exactly these nightmare tenants.

 

About twice a year, desperate landlords approach the detective. During his career, he has successfully resolved 15 tenant nomad cases with his agency. “Often, it was simply a matter of documenting the current state of an apartment’s destruction, recurring unacceptable behaviour, or similar, in a legally admissible way,” says Patrick Kurtz.

Detectives Document Evidence for Court

“That is not difficult. Obvious issues can easily be documented from the outside. But how does a detective proceed when the tenant nomad behaves less obviously? A brief look from the doorway into the apartment, balancing the tenant’s personal rights against the landlord’s economic interests, is also permissible,” he explains.

 

It becomes trickier when the horror tenants really need to be located – “when the target individuals are living completely under the radar.” For example, when they are not registered with authorities or utility providers with correct personal data. That is when the detective begins deeper investigative work.

How a Private Detective Finds Those Who Have Disappeared

“You have to be creative,” says private detective Kurtz. “Often, questioning former neighbours or friends, family, and acquaintances helps.” Once the tenant who caused the damage is located, they must cover the costs incurred.

 

Even the detective’s fees can be charged to the tenant nomad. Recently, several cases in Switzerland made headlines. Entrepreneur Rolf Steiner rented his chalet in Hohtenn VS to an artist – when the tenant left, Steiner found only destruction. Another case occurred in Trimbach SO. Landlord Dino Rossi (66) had rented his apartment to social welfare recipients. They caused damages worth tens of thousands of francs, leaving a complete mess – and disappeared. The social welfare office was not allowed to provide their new addresses.

Even Social Welfare Recipients Can Be Located

Private detectives can also help in such seemingly hopeless cases. While the social welfare office may not provide new addresses of recipients, Patrick Kurtz says: “If a fleeing tenant nomad is a social welfare recipient and has provided correct address information to the social welfare office, they effectively become transparent to us.”

 

This also applies to disappeared employees who are properly registered with pension and health insurance providers. Even if the affected landlords consider the case entirely hopeless: “Legally compliant private detectives know what evidence they must gather to dramatically improve the chances of success in court.”

Note

The original article by Helena Schmid and Celina Euchner was published in 2020 in the Swiss daily newspaper Blick and is now finally being reproduced here. Emphasis (bold) and links on this page may differ from the original.

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