Hi,

my renting contract has 3 months notice written on it, and as such I have given one and the clock has started.
The problem is I am having hard time finding a new place, so I was wondering if I could just tell the landlord I changed my mind and that I would like to stay. I heard he already found a new tenant so it is not going to be as painless as it could have been prior to that. Has anyone here ever been in such situation? Thank you in advance.

I am in that situation right now. I had given my notice back in september for 31st january. Whe i found the dream flat, it was only available from the 1st april.

I called Wincasa and asked to extend my notice period to 31st march, was no problem at all as they hadnt found a new tenant and were happy to extend it giving them more time to find one.

Your problem is however, that he already has a new tenant, you have no chance that he will let you stay longer. He wont want to extend yours when it is clear you are leaving soon when he can get someone in on a minimum yaears contract.

Bad luck im afraid

Well, this does not sound too good, hopefully I'll find something. Being homeless is not something I'd like to experience, especially a self-inflicted one

You will never be homeless, especially in basel, there are loads of flats available.

When does your contract end?

That's the scary part: end of this month, which is also why I start panicking.
The thing is that my career situation is kind of dodgy, and I did not want to commit to staying in .ch before I knew if I would get the unemployment benefit while looking for a new job.
Now that I got it, I would be happy to continue my job hunt but I need a roof over my head.
Anyway, it seems like I was playing it too cautious and ended up shooting myself in the foot.

worst case scenario: you sleep on a friend's floor.

or if you have no friends, you squat somewhere. not the end of the world.

I still have friends luckily.

I have a colleague who was in your situation and had no place to live for about two weeks. He just unrolled his sleeping bag under his desk in the office each night after everyone had left. I offered to let him stay on my couch, but he was a bit of a workaholic and said he got a lot more work done while living in the office!

cool. then relax. things will work out fine.

yeah. i'd be tempted to do the same - would be super-productive, esp. considering the hours i'd have to work to wait until everyone left and get up before the first person arrived

The closer it gets to the end of the month the easier it should be because if the flat is available it means that the landlord has struggled to get rid of it and would probably take anybody so it doesnt sit empty.

Your other possibility is to ask the cheaper hotels around the region if they have long stay appartments, they are normally more expensive than a flat, but means you wont be homeless

Should that be the case, I believe there are many of those aparthotels in the Messe area.

Consider also that many people in Switzerland rent their apartments when they are going on vacation or are abroad for a while, often students. One of the websites where you can search is www.students.ch. Good luck!

or if you dont mind sharing check this out

http://www.wgzimmer.ch/wgzimmer/search/mate.html?