Hello everyone,

First off, I sincerely apologize for this being the nature of my first post on this otherwise (as far as I read it) excellent forum. However, given the combined urgency and delicacy of the matter, I hope you will forgive me.

Here is the deal: My girlfriend and I may be facing a break-up. That is bad enough as it is, and a rich subject matter in itself, rife with all kinds of emotional things, and one I would not like to discuss in this thread. What I would like to discuss, is how this affects housing.

We are both foreigners, and we currently rent an apartment. Both our names and signatures are on the contract. So what happens when we report the change in our numbers to the rental agency? Given the tight housing situation, we of course would like to search for only one new apartment, rather than two. The salary of either of us would more than pay for the rent, so does the rental agency have the right to kick both of us out when one leaves, or does one of the two parties become eligible as a "Nachmieter" party? Are there general rules for this? And how would I find out?

Thank you very much in advance for your advise,

Alexandro

in theory, you can get the apartment signed over to one person. This will also involve the security deposit if split between two people on paper (in theory)

It should be quite simple, you inform the rental agency about the moving out of one party and ask them to provide the remaining person with a new contract.

I know that in some Cantons the number of ppl living in a flat can sometimes be relevant , so if you are in a 4 bedroom flat all alone and they have a ton of families on their waiting list,then it MIGHT be possible that they ask you both to leave.

Other than this reason ,they have no reason to kick you out,if there were no complaints and no problems.

The moving out person also writes a resignation letter,as you would if you were moving out of the appartment,but state in there that the remaining person will take over the contract in full.

About the deposit money,they need to draw a new contract with the bank where it is placed and thus will need the person who remains in the flat to sign it, easiest would be ( less red tape and complications) if the remaining party pays the half of the deposit out of their own pocket to the leaving party,so that only hte contract needs to be altered .


This is how we do it in Ct.Bern and in regards to our appartment block,and it's how i did it when i left someone many years ago.

I've just been through this situation and my ex paid me half of the deposit and we then wrote a letter that we both signed stating the date I would leave the apartment and when it would transfer into his sole name. This was sufficient for our landlord.

Good luck with everything and I hope it all works out for you. It's not easy breaking up but you'll be ok

Hm. When my fiancee and I broke up, we had a decent amount of trust. He agreed to help phase out over 3 months (very fair of him), but we have not removed him from the lease. Low ROI on hassle, if you ask me. So, if you don't plan to stay there forever, maybe do not stress about changing the lease? Just finish it when you're ready?

Great advice - I guess. But the OP was from 2008 so if they have not sorted this by now, they have probably left the country, are in jail or are happily married....