Oh, I just know I am glad (through a friend there) to have found my little furnished apartment in Basel...no hassle, OK rent, looks nice in the pic, not a question or bit of paper changed hands, and the landlady seems nice. Might only be for 3 months and I might have to go through the same dramas as posted here but for 3 months I will relax and enjoy!

I am sorry to hear about the OP's experience - it must have been disconcerting to say the least. We too had a bad experience with an estate agent when we were viewing an apartment. On a positive note, however, we could not wish for nicer landlords now. They are a young Swiss couple, who are sub-letting to us, and have bent over backwards to help us settle in, deal with any queries and have always sorted out any problems (heating) immediately. In fact, we go out drinking with them now too.

Because you might want to build a minaret of course!

In my opinion, asking if your wife is pregnant in this context is simply unacceptable.

I can understand the landlord's position as well here, having lived next to a screaming baby and under two toddlers, who spent most of their days bouncing cannon balls, playing with their pet hippos (I guess, from the sound of it) and holding yelling competitions. The landlord is simply worried about having the rest of the house calling him daily complaining about the noise - kids will make noise, after all, and there's little you can do about it..

If correct, if find this interview process you were the object of quite outrageous. There clearly is inappropriate and discriminatory content in it.


To react to it, I'd do two things :


- look for owners' directly-posted opportunities, such as the ones you can find in classifeds section of the Tages-Anzeiger and other newspapers. You won't have to go to agencies anymore.


- go get the contact details of the owner of that place you liked, and directly contact him. Nothing prevents him from directly dealing with you.


take care


B.

Switzerland ... IS nice WITH paper (cash)

CK

Some people don't want kids ore maybe can't have kids or maybe have a painful memory from kids and if they have live in close contact with kids it may not be what they want.

They own the appartment, surely they can chose a little who comes in ? Is not "a house and Englishmans' castle ?" I think the same applies here and if the landlord doesn't want kids around, well so be it.

Move on, find somewhere else !

Okay, I have no idea what bankers make.. it was just an example...

I haven't been asked that one yet *lol* I guess maybe they are afraid in your religion you have to shout at the top of your lungs 5 times a day... or something like that

I dunno... I see all of the people around here with little kids and wonder every time how they were able to get an apartment

Its called praying

The questions she asked are all legal.

here is the supplier's market, one apartment they got 100s of applications. my teacher is from sweden and her apartment is no children allowed but dogs.. ... that's why many people say to find a apartment you really like here and get it on the end is like winning a Swisslotto!

prob not for too much longer

guess your walls are thin. Glad i bought our apt. kid can make as much noise as she wants. Even though she really doesn't often. But guess what we all screamed and made noise at that age.

This part is normal. I also doubt very much that she takes the decision alone, so an big round of tenant comparaison is the normal case in the boss' or halfboss' office.
I had to wait for three weeks. Impossible to do anything until then, the answer was "the application is being processed". It was true, it was just slowly processed.
I know about the kid/pregnent question being asked to Swiss friends in Geneva, they claimed the 4 rooms were for two people only. The smiling policy did it, they live there now. I don't think logic has anything to do with it.

Is that really the case or are you just guessing because it is normal practice?

Not Swiss kids. They are sitting in their room quietly coming out only for meals :P

You just have to be what they're looking for. But usually without knowing what is. My landlady told me afterwards they were specifically looking for a family with young children, as the other two renters in our small block also had little ones, and she thought it would work out better that way for everyone.

It helped that I was happy to use a little bit of school French, so she felt comfortable that she could at least communicate with us at a basic level until my language skills picked up. And when I asked her where the recycling place was in our village, she practically signed the contract on the spot!

Good luck with the application.

kodokan