I am writing this post to reassure myself if I do something incorrectly or it is a normal way how it works in Switzerland. The story is I got written acceptance by email from one regie and I confirmed the conditions. I told them I am waiting for written contract. I wait since Thursday and I called them back that I didn't receive any contract yet. They told me they sent with A mail ( normal, not registered ).
So I am in doubts, I will try to go to their office tomorrow but I am now in doubts if it's some sort of joke or what. I won't name the regie but if you like i can send it by pm. Anyways, there are few strange things to me:
- signing contract is not in person but through post, never saw them,
- I didn't send any money yet, they didn't ask about them ( maybe its not scam, sent rent application through qr code in flatfox with the regie profile),
- email domain seems to be correct, phone I took from moneyhouse so it should be good,
But how I am supposed to be sure that they either own the flat or they are allowed to be legal representation of the landlord. I checked it at notary in Thalswil ZH ( I couldn't check it online it's not Bern). They can be only legal representation as the owner is a private person.
So question to all living long enough in Switzerland:
Is sending contracts through post not seeing them before normal in CH?
How can I be sure at least 99% it's not some sort of joke or scam?
Did you visit the apartment? Did you submitted an application with proof of income, residence status, document from debt collection registry?
If so, all the contract signature process by posts looks normal. After you sign the contract and send it back (via post), an account will be open for the rent deposit and you'll get by post a notification from the bank.
Yes, I did sent proof of income, my legal status ( residence ), no debts certificate. The only thing I am missing is the written contract which they allegedly sent on Thursday with a normal mail, not the registered one. I didn't get it yet, so it doesn't add up to me :-|. This is Switzerland after all, parcels and mail don't disappear I guess
Oh they do. In my first year here, I was for four weeks in one address before moving to a permanent address. I set up mail forwarding to my new address for one year.
Nine months later, I got a letter from the tax authorities in the UK asking for money. It had been sent six months earlier and got lost somewhere in Switzerland. I ended up paying £45 in interest as a result.
Although... the Inland Revenue (as it was then), had had notification of my new address just after we moved, but someone changed it back to the first address. I couldn't be bothered to argue -
Get the tax man off my back - £45
No communication with them for nearly 20 years - priceless.
So far, it looks normal. You may contact them telling you're worried because this delay triggers a delay of whole process of opening blocked account for rental deposit, getting notification from bank about this account, paying, getting proof of payment....all that.
Hopefully the letter is delivered by tomorrow and everything's clear.
Hi all, Many thanks for all replies. I didn't get a letter yet but I did go directly to then and signed a contract. There was there owner and proxy ( regie ) so it did look pretty well from the legal side. The owner was matching the name of the one I got from the notary.
However, to my surprise I did get qr einzahlungschein with the name of regie when I ask about the mietkautionkonto. They told me that they will wire it then on the real caution account when they open the caution account after I pay on the given slip.
First, yes that's my experience of the norm here, you visit an apartment, you apply, they send you an offer which you accept/decline/negotiate
Second, go with the procedure (unless it's about some crazy money) as you have the prove of payment, etc. there won't be any big problem recovering such money. As a side note, by mistake I went a different route and it's a pain to fix it. I set a future transfer as soon as I got the pay slip from the agency, but then I forgot about it and close to the handover I opened a rental guarantee account at UBS, paid the money and handed the confirmation to the agency... now I'm dealing with the paperwork to get the money back 𤦠as in the end it was made twice, these accounts have special rules to follow to get the money out if it
So what happened to the rental contract that they mailed. Did it ever arrive?
Paying the rental deposit initially to the rental agent is often done when timing is tight and they don't want to wait until the rental deposit account to receive the deposit is opened. Most agencies will transfer the money to the rental deposit account once it is opened.
Private owners are more likely to accept deposit payments and not transfer them to the correct account, even though they know they should. If they get away with this, it is because a tenant doesn't understand how things work. Often the deposit sits in the landlord's account for years and only when the tenant is moving out does this information come to light.
No, it's strange but no, I didn't get the mail. Not sure also what they thought not to send the registered mail.
I got mails on VAP mailbox even not well addressed (wrong flat number from the previous address in Bern) from my employers, official agencies and so on, not sure what to think.
By the time I got an offer it was 24.11. I waited until 29.11 and went directly to them to sign the contract (address from the moneyhouse matching official records).
We shall see in on 15.12 :-/
Yes, this seems to be the rule valid everywhere in the world