Hi Everyone,

I havnt been on for a while as we have had our second little girl recently and time seems to go so quickly nowadays!

I have seen a few adverts in the papers to exchange a rented appartment in one area for one in another.

I was wondering how this works. Does anyone have any experiences of doing this?

We rent a three bedroom appartment in Geneva but would like to move out to the countryside either in Geneva or Vaud and have a garden but with the rental market in gridlock, maybe this is the answer.

I'd be interested in your views.

Thank you

slight change to the title and I'd suggest that, in Geneva area, you have a damn fine chance to do this given the housing market.

Thank you for the change of title Lob.

Hi Chester,

Exchanging rented accommodation is pretty straightforward. The procedure is the same as having someone take over your lease, it's just that you need to do this twice: you sign the papers to take over theirs, they sign the lease to take over yours. The trick is finding the right place to trade for.

I guess the main advice is to advertise widely, and be very specific in your advertising about what you are offering and what you are looking for in exchange. I think it's pretty hard to estimate what your chances are of finding a suitable candidate and how long it might take. A three bedroom apartment in Geneva is a pretty good bargaining chip, however, so maybe you'll be lucky.

If you're looking for a place for the long term, I'd also make sure that the place you'll move into will be liveable in the long term. It would totally suck to move out of your old place and into a new one only to discover that the reason the previous lesees were so eager to vacate is because the building will be demolished in a year to allow for the construction of a new high rise.

Happy house hunting! (I know that's a bit of an oxymoron, but let's stay optimistic.)

Best,

Heather

Thank you very much for this HeatherM,

So in reality its like subletting? Only you sublet from each other. Am I correct in thinking like this?

I know the regies are not always keen on this. Did you have any experience of the regie getting involved in the process?

No. You terminate your lease and they sign a new one for your apartment in the city, and they terminate their lease and you sign a new one for their place in the countryside.

I think that so long as you are both good candidates (no outstanding debts, permits, income that allows you to comfortably pay rent) I think the regies don't care who's living there, so long as the monthly payments continue to come it. I summed up my recent experience moving in a recent thread:

Having someone take over your lease is a very common occurrence in Switzerland, and to be honest, I think the agencies appreciate the fact that in handing your apartment directly over to someone else you've done all the legwork for them: they don't need to advertise a flat or arrange viewings.

Really, I think your only concern is finding a suitable 'trading partner'. The paperwork is quite straightforward.

Heather

The only caveat is that the regie isn't obliged to actually rent it to you or the other party. So they may well say no to one of the applications - especially if they're looking for something for a "friend".

Thank you both of you for your advice.

Another issue is that the cost of place you are exchangnig with still has to be within your budget. Even then, the regies may use the change of leaseholder as an opportunity to push the price up. However, any rise may be contested with the help of ASLOCA.

It looks as if I will be advertising my place pretty soon!

Chester