I am not sure about leaving Switzerland, but my situation has become such that I would like to terminate my apartment contract and not have to pay the rest, but I am spending most of my time at the moment quite far away (15h by train). I plan to empty and clean my apartment but then what should I do? I could give the keys and ask a favor of a neighbor to do showings once in a while? I could just terminate the contract and tell the building owners that it is empty and clean and ready to rent and hope that they are motivated to find a new tenant earlier rather than later. Or can I hire some sort of real estate agent or Nachmieter service that handles this? I would do the showings myself but it is just that I am 15h away so maybe at best I could offer predetermined showing days or timeslots. But it would be a big time investment this way, especially if no one rents it after one series of showings.
In other words, I would be willing to pay a commission if someone could get it rented for me, because it would save me the cost of the rest of the contract, and it would save me making these 15h (one way) trip(s)
Probably easiest if you contact your landlord. Anyone else may not act for the landlord and if they act in your stead, you´d need a contract.
Do you still have your permit? Because that - and insurances - are linked to a Swiss address, which you then won´t have any longer.
I don’t understand how it would be acting as landlord. It would just be showing the place to potential Nachmieter, getting them interested enough in renting such that I can put them forward to the landlord with high chance of success of getting out of the contract.
Yes my permit isn’t going anywhere, I plan to still live in Switzerland, and will find another residence. It is just a personal situation which is requiring me to be so far away for the time being.
If you live here, you have to keep the apartment, unless you can register with a friend or something similar. You cannot be homeless in Switzerland, at least as long as you are not Swiss. You can sub-let the apartment instead (but check with your landlord, or your contract, for permission).
Let’s assume you’ve already moved to a new place on the other corner of Switzerland. In such case you should send a resignation letter to your former landlord, which will take effect on an earliest date according to your contract. Then it’s best to talk to neighbors or hauswart to show the apartment to potential viewers. You should discuss with them the availability to do so, then post an advertisement with a few time slots. Of course you can also return the apartment earlier, hoping that the agency is efficient enough, once they find a new tenant they’ll inform you about it, releasing you earlier from financial obligations.
I will not attempt to be unregistered, I will just wait to rent a new (smaller) place until I succeed in getting out of the current one. I will deregister/register at that time. I don’t see any way that this makes me homeless; there is no law saying I can’t live in an empty or near-empty apartment.
And yes my contract has a typical Nachmieter paragraph.
I hadn’t thought about asking the Hauswart to do it; Thanks.
Oh I see; you mean if I gave the keys back to the landlord. In that case yeah I would register elsewhere, maybe actually already rent a new place, but it would be some additional cost to consider.
Does the building have a Concierge?
And why not post the details here? Anyone interested could pm you.
No concierge.
It is basically the large picture as well as pictures 1-5 in the gallery here: https://www.bali.ch/referenzobjekte-detail/wehntalerstrasse-424-432-8046-zuerich.html
I will have it empty/available on Jun. 7 so it would be ready to rent immediately thereafter.
Here is the floorplan. The blob in the corner is where I drew in a possible location of a piano; it is not something on the original floorplan.
https://imgur.com/TUQnnDX
It was Neubau so I was the only tenant, nonsmoker, no pets, and I will also have it professionally cleaned.
The rent is 2800chf / month.
You can establish a few visiting days when you can be there; and if other inquiries may pop up you can delegate a friend or a neighbour or even the Hauswart (though they’re not obliged to do this sort of job by any means)
As everything in Switzerland, there’s not much that can’t be done for the right amount of money. If you call around the local estate agents you will find someone to do the job. Estate agents are often combined with property management companies that do all kinds of jobs for owners that are away etc.
But as others suggested, if you can come to do the viewings yourself that could be easier - only you can balance the costs. It might be sufficient to set up a “open day” or line up all interested renters within one day, two if you are unlucky. You can do weekends, etc. If this flat was in the center of Geneva, you’d get 20 viewers first date no problem… Just advertise everywhere and screen/plan all requests to the dates that work for you
I find flatfox to be the best in recent years, for searching and for advertising your current one