Good morning,
I gave notice to my landlord because I signed a new rent contract and I intended to leave in 2/3 months.
I thought giving 3 months of notice was enough, but I've been told instead:

"Vous devez donner 3 mois à l’avance pour les échéances correspondant à votre contrat à savoir 30 avril ou 31 octobre, et non pas juste 3 mois dans n’importe quel période."

Therefore I am obliged to find someone else or pay until 30 or April.
Is this legal?

Where in France do you live?

At least in Switzerland, such a clause is often included in rental contracts. What does your contract say?

thats not really surprising if you are renting in Switzerland, some contracts require to use the "official moving dates" when you leave the apartment. Just need to find a Nachmieter/ someone to take over the apartment.

What do the rental laws specify in France (where your contract is presumably) ?

I believe you might have already answered your own question if is in regard to Switzerland in your previous recent post:

https://www.englishforum.ch/3501795-post1.html

I don't natively speak French so I didn't understand the contract very well.
It's probably not a huge deal, as hopefully I will find a replacement, but it looked weird to me not to be able to give notice and bye

Not knowing the language is no excuse - one thing you will hear on the forum is "Never sign a contract that you do not fully understand" - even one in your native language!

But yes, the simple solution is to find someone willing to take your contract over.


But, this forum is only about the living in Switzerland. Your profile says you live in France.

There seem to be various forms of the notice period in Swiss rental contracts. My previous one had 3 months from end of March/June/October; my current one is 4 months from the end of any month. Presumably these are all legal.

Yes.

We had one that required 6 months notice, with June 31 as the only leaving date.

Tom

Yes they are, and ir varies not only from Canton to Kanton, but within too. Which is why it is massively important to make sure you understand your contract- and get the support of someone, friend, colleague or professional, or Asloca, the tenants' association, to help. As said on previous threads, not even death releases one from said contract.

But are you in France or Switzerland?

Did you rent an apartment in Hotel California?

What not to do:
Ask for advice and ignore the potential helper's questions, they'll tend to reciprocate.

SR 220 Art 266c

and note also Art 266a

i.e. a notice period longer than three months and/or different exit dates is valid, although less than three months is not.

Here's a post of OP's on another thread:
https://www.englishforum.ch/3427865-post5.html

OP, yes, please do update your profile to show that you now live in Switzerland, not France. Thanks.

Thank you for all your replies.
I updated the location, I live in Vaud.

I started finding people to come take my place in my current apartment. Probably is easier and better than pissing off a Gerance trying to bring in laws and lawyers

Good morning.

I re-take this thread to understand if I can consider myself "free" from the current apartment.

3 People sent me their applications: 1 of them is fully solvable, 1 has a guarantor, and 1 gets money from the canton.

I am still making visits and I hope to have more applicants.

I sent everything to the agency, but they are not replying to my emails, and the applicants clearly said that if the reply takes too much time, they will have to take something else.

At what point I can legally and safely say to the Agency "I stop pay, byeee"?
I don't want to ruin my relationship with them, but I will as well not keep paying an extra rent for months until they move their a**.

I will leave the house free on the 15th of November.

Your obligation to pay the rent in full ends at the end of your contractual rental notice period, irrespective of whether or not you are still living in the premises, unless you supply a replacement tenant. To prove that you can supply such a tenant, you need to send the landlord/agency the documentation of a tenant who wishes to take over your rental contract. This bundle should include copies of the following:

1. of you

• identity document
• rental contract
• the written notice you gave to end the contract

2. of each adult who would become the prospective tenant(s)

• identity document
• permit, if not a Swiss citizen
• statement of no debts
• signed declaration from the tenant that he/she/they is/are willing to take over your rental contract at the same conditions as you have, specifying a starting date.

plus
3. a covering letter asking the landlord for acknowledgment of your submission of prospective tenants and, therefore, a formal release from the contract.


If you have more than one tenant interested, so much the better. In that case send the full bundle for each of them.

It is recommended to send all of these on paper, in an envelope by registered mail, and by e-mail merely as a copy of what you sent them by registered mail. Alternatively, you can phsysically take the whole bundle to their offices, and get a signed receipt from them, acknoweldging that they have received your documents of the prospective substitute tenants.

If it the landlord's right to decide freely whether or not to accept any of the tenants you propose and, if so, from when. You cannot influence this. But the landlord must let you go if you can prove (by having kept copies of all you submitted, and proof of your registered letter sent at the Post Office, or their signed receipt from when you took the bundle to their physical offices) that you supplied them with willing substitute tenants, such that they would not suffer any damages by releasing you from the contract early. The actual date from which the landlord must release you is the same as the date from which the prospective tenants would be willing to take over the rental contract.

Since you've given notice the contract is to end by the appropriate date. Based on the regie's reply earlier that's April 30 (though that looks like a typo, April 1 would be an official date for Vaud however that doesn't seem to apply in the entire canton - check your contract).

Unless the regie agrees to an open-ended contract those applicants will have to move out by the end of your contract. However the contract conditions may well change if they agree to open-end, which in turn may piss off the applicants. This is the thing you need to clarify first.

Oh, yes, that's a different situation from what I had understood.

OP, your applicants will be either of the following:

• substitute tenants, i.e. take the place of OP in the contract so OP is set free (that's what I had thought)
• sub-let tenants in which case their sub-let contract must be submitted to the landlord for approval, and then they can live there, paying rent to OP, who in turn pays rent to the landlord, until the end of the contract, when the sub-tenants must move you (what I think Urs Max is saying).

Either way, your next step towards liberation is to get this all in writing, and either post it by registered mail (on paper, in an envelope) or take that physical bundle to the landlord's office, for signature of a receipt.

Thank you for the many replies.

I underestimated the task I thought it was easier.

Up to now I just sent the dossiers by e-mail, asking the Agency if the candidates were good.

I will be writing a full envelope with the full list of dossiers plus my documents and attempting to send it in a more official way.