Hello all,

First of all, sorry if this topic has been discussed before The "search" option has not helped me much for this topic...

I live in a beautiful flat of 5 rooms in the city center of Lausanne, and I am looking for something smaller (3 rooms would be fine) and cheaper. So, a flat swap ("échange d'appartement") could be a good solution.

But how does it go? If I agree to swap my flat with a tenant of an other flat, can the agencies ("régies") refuse...? Do I have to be at some point in the situation of having canceled my current rental agreement, while not having signed the agreement for the other flat? Can the agencies demand the flats to be totally empty for checking the conditions after departure ("état des lieux"), although the moves would obviously have to happen at the same time?

Has anyone experienced a flat swap in Switzerland? Or does anyone know how it goes, or where the pits and tricks are hidden?

Thanks in advance
/Paul

May I ask how much rent you pay? What is the building like? We live in a 3½ piece in the center, and so while I'm not sure about the legality of swapping I'm at least curious.

Thanks for the answer, and I hope some other answers in the thread will convince you of the legality of a flat exchange

From what I was told, it's perfectly legal to do a flat exchange, as long as it is done the legal way, with both rental agreement broken, and new rental agreements established. I was told that there is a rule "if you announce to your landlord that you are breaking the rental agreement, and at the same time you provide someone-else's application of tenancy meeting all required conditions, the landlord have to take that next tenant." Having said that, it's still very blurry to me, and I am looking for a step-by-step guide "how to do for doing it safe", or at least some confirmation or contradiction of what I heard.

I have read somewhere on the internet (there) that the agencies are a bit reluctant to accept swap of tenants, because they usually want to raise the rent when a tenant leaves a flat, and the tenants of a flat-exchange would naturally fight against that.

/Paul