We are moving back to London and have given 3 months notice to landlord who have said that our contract can't be ended then and have increased it to 4 months! We are now looking to advertise our apartment to find someone to take it over earlier, but unsure of best place to do this? Homegate seems to be expensive (125/ad?!) and since moving out will cost thousands anyway, not keen on paying a premium for this.

Any help muchly appreciated!

Paying 125 for an ad to save a few months rent sounds like a bargain to me. In the French speaking part there is anibis.ch or the wrg classified sections. Don't know if anyone from Zurich reads those. What about you your work bulletin board or at the local Migros/Coop.

Good luck - 125 seems a bargain to me. Shame we never 'met' you here on t'Forum during your stay in CH.

Why not put details and photos here in the appropriate section (after your initial 10 posts - 1 being an introduction) - you never know lots of people are looking here. Most areas also have a free newspaper- like here in NE it is called 'Le Courrier Neuchatelois' and is excellent for accom.

How long have you been here and where are you headed?

An apartment in Zürich if well located and with a sensible rent shouldn't stay on the market long. The notice period you are required to give is whatever appears in your contract. The landlord cannot change what is written in the lease agreement. Perhaps you misunderstood the terms. It may say 3 months notice to the end of March, rather than 3 months notice to the end of any month. If it is the former, then yes, you still have 4 months rent to pay.

Homegate is the number one website for rentals. Before you advertise you have to send the notice to terminate your rental contract by registered mail to the landlord. The notice has to be given to the next notice period, for example, end of March. However, you can say in the letter that you want to find someone to take over your lease as of when. The landlord must acknowledge receipt of your letter. Sometimes the landlord will want to run the ad, sometimes it is your responsibility. The landlord should provide you with rental application forms.

Homegate has a pretty cool feature you can activate where interested persons can sign up for a viewing. This is less chaotic than a general visit.

You are going to have spend some money if you want to find someone to take over your rental contract. Do you not think a few hundred francs is money well spent?

I would recommend Homegate. My wife and I listed an Apartment there while we were looking for a "Nachmieter", I think it was 125 for placing the ad, and 2.50 per day with a minimum of 15 days and you need to delete your add when no longer needed so they stop charging you. After some hours (maybe 1 day), don't remember exactly, the Apartment was showing on www.Comparis.ch too.

We received several calls and messages in the next few days, and found someone that moved in the first day of the next month.

I've used this company twice: http://www.max-immo.ch/

They do all of the advertising for you on homegate etc., but they won't take your apartment if you've already had it listed on homegate. There is no charge for their services, they charge the person moving in a percentage if they found the apartment via them. You will need to agree to give them the name of the renters and then they deal with the bill. Both times I had no issues, highly recommended.

Homegate or comparis are good but what about local papers and shops eg Migros
Also school notice boards
Im in Lugano and know of a good website but depends where you are living I may know people in your area and see what they do for you

ps
can u advertise it on here ???

Try placing an ad in your local Coop? I know it sounds lame, but its free and you never know...Could be worth a shot

Thank you everyone for your replies - it turns out that they will place the ad, and at no charge (go figure!). We will also place ads in Migros and Coop, just in case nothing comes through Homegate - just hope someone falls in love with it like I did!

There's also RonOrp.

Homegate is the most used search engine for appartments im afraid, it will increase your chances of renting it out so i would suggest paying it. You can also advertise in sites like Gratis Inserat but you will be unlikely to get the message out to a large amount of people.

If you do decide to advertise on homegate, be sure to take the advert out immediately after finding somebody. I made the mistake of not bothering and got charged for the extra time it was advertised although i had somebody already

As said before, advertise it here with all the details, costs and hopefully photos and it might just be what one of the EF'ers is hoping for.

You'll have to post a few times before you can though. Check the posting rules for the Market Place - which is where Advertisements belong. Posted in the wrong place you'll have it deleted by one of the watchful Mods; it seems to me that at least one of them neither slumbers nor sleeps!