i'm getting various opinions on this and hope to maybe get a definitive answer tomorrow but thought i'd ask if anyone has had a similar experience.

we filled in an application form after looking briefly at a flat handled by FONCIA.

the woman from FONCIA who showed us the place said it would need to be painted.

we were accepted and received a contract. we then re - negotiated a later entrance date and got sent a second contract.

we never got anything in writing about it getting a fresh coat of paint, we were only told on the phone to sign the contract first and then the place would be inspected again since the woman who showed us it originally had a nervous breakdown and doesn't work for them any more.......

the day we were going to sign it and send it off, my missus says she just heard about something else that might be interesting.

it was interesting and we signed the contract on that last week with a really uncomplicated and very generous owner.

the next day i called the agents and said sorry, found something else.

later the same day the boss phoned me and called me all sorts of names.

the next morning we get a letter with a bill for Fr.250 for showing us the flat and sending the contract.

this is from the mieterverband website:

Fragen zum gewählten Thema:

• Kosten für Bewerbung?-Ich habe ein Anmeldeformular für eine Wohnung ausgefüllt. Darauf stand: Wird aufgrund dieser Bewerbung ein Mietvertrag ausgestellt, der infolge von Ihnen nicht unterzeichnet wird, ist für die Umtriebe eine Entschädigung von Fr. 100.- zu zahlen. Ich erhielt dann den Mietvertrag, hatte aber in der Zwischenzeit bereits eine andere Wohnung gefunden. Muss ich die Fr. 100.- bezahlen?
  
  antwort:
  
  Der Mietvertrag kommt nicht zustande
  
  Grundsätzlich sind die Parteien erst an einen Vertrag gebunden, wenn dieser auch zu Stande gekommen ist. Beim Mietvertrag geschieht dies in der Regel durch die Unterzeichnung des Mietvertrags. Kommt der Mietvertrag nicht zu Stande, weil man sich beispiesweise bis zu letzt nicht über die Höhe des Mietzinsen oder über die Nebenkosten einigen konnte, ist dies ärgerlich, gehört aber nun mal zum Geschäftsleben.
  
  Wer Vetragsverhandlungen führt, muss auch damit rechnen, dass diese Scheitern und der Vertrag mangels Konsens nicht zu Stande kommt. Da bleibt kein Spielraum, das zu tun, was Vermieter immer wieder tun: Vom Mietinteressenten Geld zu fordern, weil der Vetrag nicht unterzeichnet wurde, aber die Umtriebe trotzdem entstanden sind.
  
  In wenigen Fällen ist es aber tatsächlich möglich, eine Partei beim Scheitern des Vertrages auf Schadenersatz zu belangen.
• Die Anforderungen in der Praxis sind aber so hoch, dass eine Partei fahrlässig oder vorsätzlich das Scheitern der Vetragsverhandlungen zu verantworten hat. Dies ist beispielsweise dann der Fall, wenn man sich auf Vetragsverhandlungen einlässt und Offerten erstellen lässt, ohne die geringste Absicht, überhaupt den Vertrag abschliessen zu wollen.

Fined CHF 200 for declining rental offer

If you agree to take a place & then back out your charged the costs associated with drawing up the contract. Quite reasonanble as it keeps time wasters at bay.

This is one of the reasons that the Swiss do not like renting to foreigners, which makes it more difficult for the rest of us.

and you need to remember too, that any advertising that would have been made by the company was probably withdrawn when you said you would accept the appartment.

They then need to re-advertise at a cost of course

just as an example, to insert an advert on homegate costs 125CHFs, not to mention the time to enter it in etc.

They are allowed to charge you for the cost of drafting and sending the contract. It is legal so just pay it and move on.

If he called you names, make a complaint to the police.

Hmm... this court decision (in German) says that there are no legal grounds for such a charge.

i just wrote a lengthy reply and somehow it's disappeared when i had to log in again to post it.............

maybe i'll elaborate again later if this thread continues.

mega many thanks to snoopy for posting a link to exactly what i was looking for:

http://www.mietrecht.ch/documents/Do...mp_1_97_23.pdf

it was over a year ago so i don't suppose that the general level of TF contributors german has improved very much and it will still be gibberish to the majority.

he posted it at the bottom of page 1 of this thread:

Fined CHF 200 for declining rental offer

if i was liable to pay i would cheerfully do it, but i'm afraid i can't understand the attitude of so many people on here who seem to be all for supporting the rich get richer and the poor get poorer society that is so popular with a large percentage of the natives here.

i'm starting to ramble again, better post this before i lose it again.

absolutely.

tis the same thing snoopy posted over a year ago, but the majority here can't read it or choose to ignore it.

if i had recorded the conversation i'd be sending it to kassensturtz and the beobachter.

In this Canton they are allowed to charge for the drafting and mailing of contracts if you verbally authorize them to create the contract

Drawing up a contract should not take more thank 10 minutes, as the templates are ready to just insert new dates and names and in any case it did not cost the agency CHF 250! I don't think the OP backed out of the deal because he is a time waster as you imply, renting an apartment is a big decision specially with all the limitations regarding moving dates and deposits that have to be put aside upfront, so you want to try and get it right the first time, even if that means that someone wasted 4 sheets of paper and the time required to type a name and a new date!

yes, the cantonal differences in a lot of things are quite famous. but are you absolutely sure of that and can quote the relevant paragraphs?

when me met i didn't enquire into exactly what you do, maybe your the top legal advisor in that company!

the 1993 thurgau judgement might have been overruled in the last 19 years and it might have absolutely no relevance to the FR legal situation since it's not a federal court decision.

we will see. tomorrow i plan on visiting the local mieteschlichtungsstelle:

http://www.fr.ch/pj/de/pub/gerichtsb...rden_miete.htm

and see what they have to advise.

they have been advertising it for nearly a year and have now saved a months charges on that....
. are you a marketing manager and have a feindish new plan to get the customers legally responsible for paying for the advert?

if you live in zug i can well imagine that you have a hard life.

"the swiss" have no problem with renting to "foreigners" in my personal experience, provided they are reasonably pleasant and reliable people.

i can certainly understand that even in zug there may be some scepticism from landlords of exclusive villas when they see some young foreign whizzkid in a new jaguar and wonder how long he'll be able to keep up that obviously recently acquired lifestyle.

That's terrible! What kind of names did he call you?

You might also want to try the tenants association in Fribourg.
http://www.asloca.ch/asloca-fribourg

ETA: I've been trying to find the legal articles mentioned in that PDF but since I don't speak german I've been having a difficult time piecing them all together. If you want to try to parse our the legalese: here is article 160. From there you can probably find the other relevant articles mentioned in the article and figure how they are relevant to each other.

Art. 160

C. Clause pénale

I. Droits du créancier

1. Relation entre la peine et l’exécution

1 Lorsqu’une peine a été stipulée en vue de l’inexécution ou de l’exécution imparfaite du contrat, le créancier ne peut, sauf convention contraire, demander que l’exécution ou la peine convenue.

2 Lorsque la peine a été stipulée en vue de l’inexécution du contrat au temps ou dans le lieu convenu, le créancier peut demander à la fois que le contrat soit exécuté et la peine acquittée, s’il ne renonce expressément à ce droit ou s’il n’accepte l’exécution sans réserves.

3 Le débiteur conserve la faculté de prouver qu’il a le droit de se départir du contrat en payant la peine stipulée.

I wont debate about the contract, the unfair or fair fee, whatever...

But i'm surprise the guy got 2 offers for a flat at the same time!!!

Not you then, obviously.

To be honest, although I think the OP was a "princess" by choosing something else when they kind of agreed, I still think the agency are abusing.

Honestly, how many request they have for 1 flat? the cost of advertising, etc...? It's spread, does not matters if 1 person or 100 person applies. Visits? they organize visits anyway and it's their job.

I bet they've already many other possible applicants, for the same flat.

And as they signed nothing they've no agreement...