I'd not care much about the absolute value of apartment rental price. I'd just look at the prices in the area for similar rooms, that's what determines if someone arrives or not.
PS. You'll probably be cheaper than any airbnb rental, so bury those worries about fairness. There's worse people out there.
Of course it's a LOT of work and eats up time and energy.
OP if you keep living room closed then just divide by 4 (number of rooms) with you paying 50% and the others 25% each. To this amount, say it's 500 CHF, you can add a little if furnished, say 100 CHF a month?
PS: The "no profit" only means that landlord could refuse if a profit is made (this includes covering its own rent). I think, if profit is made (including covering part of their own rent) it should be declared in the tax declaration as income. Be aware that the sub-tenants have the right to challenge the rent.
For the rules: This is up to you. But if they are plain bonkers and unusual you will only find tenant which are as plain bonkers and unusual as the rules, as anyone else of sound mind will walk away.
Here some tipps and tricks:
Tom
Then the adding of internal walls etc. this would be a major sticking point, and though it seems minor it's definitely not, and further could turn your rental from a residential one to a commercial one. If I did allow, which I wouldn't, I'd also want a substantial deposit to ensure the flat was put back into it's original condition.
Then you say it's a no profit situation. But it definitely is. The taxman will look at this as income and you'll be taxed. Further, should you need to claim unemployment, sickness etc, the AI will also count this as income and reduce your benefit accordingly.
If I found you doing this, and I suspect your landlord will think the same, I would ask the court for an immediate termination of the contract and eviction. You could then find yourself being sued by the tenants for not fulfilling the contract they have with you, and all the cost and expense that will incur.
The landlord can refuse on only some specific grounds: if the sub-let would bring about a specific disadvantage to the landlord, such as over-occupation (too many people for the space), or a band of musicians are moving in as sub-tenants when the main contract was to one librarian if the main tenant does not reveal the terms of the contract between tenant and sub-tenant if the tenant sub-let without informing the landlord (OP, beware! This is a valid reason for the landlord to termination of the rental contract immediately!) if the tenant requires terms/money from the sub-tenant that deviate from the tenant/sub-tenant contract shown to the landlord if the tenant charges more than the reasonable share/percentage of the rent, per sub-tenant (= "makes a profit") the tenant has left, leaving the sub-tenant in place, and will not be back.
The landlord's inconvenience or worry alone do not qualify as grounds for the landlord to prohibit sub-letting, nor to refuse a tenant permission for a sub-let.
Having said all that, OP, I still think you haven't understood enough of how things work here. So I'm going to try your Fr. 1'000 example.
Tenant T rents an apartment from landlord L.
The monthly rental is 1'000.
T paid a deposit of 3 months' rental = 3'000.
This deposit is in a blocked account, in T's name, but neither T nor L can withdraw the money from this account until they both give permission for it to be released. The deposit stays there, and is the security for L, in case T damages the flat or leaves it changed or dirty. In that case, at the end of the contract between T and L, L's costs will be covered from that deposit, and T will get the rest released.
Sub-let contract
T then lets out to sub-tenant S. (Okay, I think you've understood about getting the landlord's permission.)
Let's say the apartment has 3 rooms (two bedrooms and one living-room).
The living-room, bathroom and kitchen will be shared equally. This means that each person will have space to put their own things in these rooms, kitchen cupboard space, shelves in the fridge, etc.
Let's say Bedroom 1 is double the size (in m2) of Bedroom 2.
If T lives in Bedroom 1 and S in Bedroom 2, then T should pay 2x the rent that S pays.
1'000 is divided by them according to the m2 of their respective rooms.
T (in big Bedroom 1) pays 667 and S (in small Bedroom 2) pays 333.
Responsibilities and Deposit
T, now as landlord of S, has all the same responsibilities and duties towards S as L has towards T. In the same way, T collects a deposit from S (and places it in blocked account in S's name), to cover any damages S may make while living there.
Extra costs
In addition to the 1'000, there will be other costs, and these are usually shared not in proportion to the room-size, but 50%-50% (if there are two persons). Such costs include
- electricity
- gas
- water (although this is often included in the monthly rental).
These should be specified in the sub-let contract, and S pays their 50% share to T, each month. Alternatively, the sub-let contract can agree on a flat fee for these.
In addition, the
- so-called "Nebenkosten": this includes the heating bill, which the B will charge an estimated amount each month, and will settle up with the real amount after the heating season is over.
In any event, paying the extra costs, just like paying the main rent to L, remains the full responsibility of T, even if S ever defaults.
The arrangement could look like this:
T owns all the furniture, curtains, kitchenware, etc. and charges Fr. 30 for the use of those.
T and S agree on a flat-rate for extra costs, say Fr. 50.
S pays T 333 + 30 + 50 = 413 per month.
T supplies everything in the flat.
T pays all the bills.
T pays the full rent to L.
Food is often completely separate, but some shared flats end up sharing meals, too, if they all get on well and like each other's cooking, and in that case they set up a separate pot for the household money.
Usually the people sharing agree on a roster for who does which cleaning, and how often, and agree on which cleaning materials to use, and share the costs. Alternatively, some prefer to pay the costs of a cleaner, which they share.
OP, in your specific example, if you and your wife want to use 2 rooms, then just add the m2 of both together for your-and-her-share. However, the extra costs should be divided up as a "per person" charge.
I have rented a two bedroom apartment to several people, in this case students at the same university. Boyfriend / girlfriend and one other person. One of them signed the tenancy and was responsible for the rent, but the other two were mentioned in the contract. No worries with this. Technically the main tenant should have paid me the full rent but for some reason each came up and paid their share to me in cash.
A bit of a nuisance as I then had to bank it so I'd keep it till I next passed the bank which was also fine, as I always enjoy a chat with the teller who lived in Canada for a number of years. Also got to know the apprentices and could give them some advice for their future careers.
On the other hand, those who prefer their privacy or quiet, who need to study or who don't feel like socializing tend to stay out of the living-room and spend more time alone in their own room, or they watch to see when the others are out, and use the living-room then.
No. You can specify whether the bedrooms and the living-room is furnished or unfurnished. You can easily furnish everything for a few hundred Francs. There are many second-hand shops. You might also like to look at www.tutti.ch to see how many household items are offered for free or very cheap. You can search by post-code, Canton and price range.
If the tenant rents a completely empty bedroom from you, he/she will move their own furniture into it. If your contract says the living-room is shared, then you can agree with the tenant whether the living-room will contain only your furniture, only theirs, or a combination.
You can do it in several ways: You can agree on a rotation system. For example:
Clean the toilet and handbasin
- Monday and Tuesday Sacha
- Wednesday and Thursday Alex
- Friday and Saturday Pat
- Sunday nobody, or whoever notices it needs to be done
and so on, with a rule that if you're going away for a few days, you swap your duties with someone else.
Other people have a whole list of housework, but only one person does it all, for one week, and then it moves on to the next person for the next week, giving everyone a break.
Some groups use the same sort of system for the evening meal, if they happen to like each other's style of cooking.
These systems of a roster are the usual way the work is shared.
Each person pays a part of a cleaner's wage. The cleaner comes by say, once a week for two or three hours, and does what you've agreed as the list.
Offer the property fully serviced, which means that you are responsible for keeping it properly clean (and perhaps for washing the bed-linen and towels). This is not usually as an extra fee, but it can allow you to increase the rental just a little.
You need to consider, though, that each thing you do to increase the rent risks making the room you're offering less attractive.
But in principle everybody with a contract is entitled to the use the common spaces and some negotiation will always occur. It can be as easy as "tomorrow I have a night shift so I need the kitchen between 18 and 19, I can cook for you as well" or a nightmare where you try to watch a movie and the other wants to listen to music...
Regarding common duties, we always wrote a tentative schedule, and then we adjusted weekly depending on exams, holidays and so on. It always worked well. From what I see on the internet, sometimes nice people do a little extra just because it is easy to continue, sometimes people do it sloppily so that they are never asked again...
The point is, contracts must be reasonable, but a clear contract is just 50% of the story. Living together is a big thing.