Showing prospective tenants round apartment on termination -- what is reasonable?

Accomodation, House and Garden
1
Sorry that this is quite long but I need to get a few things off my chest.

Can someone offer some advice please? We are leaving Switzerland soon and have submitted our termination. The landlords asked us to nominate 2 dates for showing possible new tenants round, which we did.

For the first viewing (2 days ago), the landlords told us they'd had 16 registrations to view. More than we'd expected, but fair enough. In fact we had about 26 different parties turn up (about 40 people in all, not including children). Fortunately the visits were staggered but across the viewing period we worked our socks off, showing everyone all the rooms + the washing room downstairs, the Keller, even the underground garage if requested. (We are on the 4th floor.)

We ended the day feeling utterly stressed and wiped out from all the walking, talking, explaining, translating, and advising. We're in our 60s, retired, and I've not been well recently. It was like doing a full day of manual work but at least it was quite rewarding as so many of the people seemed to love the apartment and were very keen to apply. (We had printed out, at our expense, the application details.)

Once I'd crawled out of bed next morning I emailed the landlords and reported the successful day, and requested that they cancel the next viewing due in a couple of days from now. From the positive feedback we got, they will get at least 15 applications, perhaps more, and from the conversations we had, many of these will be professional people working at the local hospital or with a good job in Zurich.

The landlords said no. They said we should only have allowed in the 16 people who had pre-registered, even though we had no idea who these people were. The landlords said they'd sent us a list but they hadn't! I later saw that in the online advert they'd published the full address of the apartment + visiting dates so anyone was able to turn up.

At first I refused to agree to a second viewing but they said they already had 4 bookings and couldn't cancel. So I relented and said OK, we would see the 4 people. I've asked several times for the list of 4 people so that I can turn away the others (as they said we should have done) but they are not answering my emails anymore. I have a terrible feeling that the day before the viewing, they will say that actually, there are now 25 registered people (and that twice that number will turn up). Honestly, we can't cope with such a thing.

What are our options here? I don't want to become a pain as they may punish us on the final inspection. But really, what is the point of showing an apartment to dozens more people when you know full well that loads of dependable people will have already applied? It's a massive waste of everyone's time. What's so annoying is that the landlords are treating this process as if they have multiple units to shift, and the more people who see it, the more units they will be able to sell. No! There is one unit only! When it's gone it's gone!

What would be reasonable for me to do here? We have bent over backwards to assist the landlords when they should be doing this themselves. (We've asked them to attend but they said they couldn't, and that it's our responsibility.) The thought of going through this all again is a nightmare.

Thanks for any pointers.

2
The idea is that you allow the LANDLORD show prospective tenants around the apartment, you don’t even need to be there, never mind put in two days work on their behalf.

3
Refuse to do the walk arounds - tell them they must have a representative from their agency present. Tell them this is on medical grounds.

4

Excellent solution !

Alternatively, tell the landlord as he doesn't provide a lite, the 1st four will be allowed in, the rest will be refused.

5
No list. No people let in. Personally, I'd stick a notice outside saying the flat has gone.

6
Is it a private landlord or an agency?

Are you terminating the rental contract outside the official dates and are responsible for finding a replacement tenant? If the answer to this is no then I would tell them they are welcome to show the flat to those people on that day but you won’t be there to do it for them.

7
Whilst there is absolutely no obligation for you to show people around, if you are too inflexible the landlords tend to get their own back at the handover.....

You need to find a balance somehow.

1) Tell the landlord clearly that without a list of pre-registered people you cannot show various unknown people around you flat

2) This should be limited to no more than 10 people

3) If something gets stolen or broken, who pays ?

4) Due to medical reasons (which you have no obligation to disclose) you will need a representative to do the visit.

8
depends on the contract, there might be such an obligation.

9
There's an obligation to open the door and let people visit the apartment. No obligation to do the sales job.

10

If you give notice normally and within contractual obligations, then it is more of a courtesy than an obligation.

Refusing the courtesy can have an impact on how the handover goes, though

11
i've seen contracts where there are specific clauses that you have to make time before the end of the tenancy and show people around.

12
The obligation can be found in the Art. 257h Code of Obligations under the section heading: Obligations of the tenant or lessee, Duty of tolerance.

While you do not have to make a whole tour with the gift shop in the end you still have to make the visit possible.

13
I believe there are laws in this country to protect people from blackmail.

In this case it doesn't sound like a courtesy but a hellish amount of work for the OP - and without a list there's a big security issue too.

14
But if you still have your stuff around you'll end up following them anyways... it's a burden.

15

It's never blackmail Tom, far more subtle ways of doing it

Landlords/agencies are usually far too smart to resort to crude blackmail.

16
Thanks for all the responses. There are too many to answer individually but in general, yes, we have a contractual and perhaps moral obligation to be cooperative and helpful in finding a new tenant. The question is where the line is between reasonable and p1sstaking. We've been helpful so far but don't want to be taken advantage of. We can't just open the door and let people wander round for obvious reasons. We asked the managing agents to come and supervise but they said this 'wasn't possible'.

Anyway, I spoke to the Mieterverband this afternoon. I've been a paying subscriber for 5 years or so, and should have thought of them earlier. They advised (like some people here) that we should ask for the names of the 4 who've registered, and let them in -- but leave it there. I've still not had a response from the landlords/agents so they're either sulking or preparing to hit us with a list of 20 people. If the latter, we will stick to our guns.

Thanks again.

17
Good move, and as others have said: no list = no entry.