Dear members,

I am looking for some advice for a apartment handover issue.

we're moving out of Switzerland in June. We let the Verwaltung know about this in January in an orderly manner. We let them also know that we'll have the final cleaning + handover of the apartment in end of June and the apartment is available to whomever starting in July. We are aware that we are responsible for the rent until the end of the renting period (end of September) in case there in no new tenant. All is well, until.....

... we / they haven't been able to find a Nachmieter and the Verwaltung states now that NO - we cannot have the final cleaning done in June (unless there is a Nachmieter), and we need to be available to show the apartment until the end of the rental period or until we find someone and do the handover only when there is a new tenant.

We have some problems:
first - we are not here to show the apartment, second - we do not want anyone to mess with the apartment and do possible damage to it while we're already out of country, third - we want to be in the handover as we want to make sure they do not make us pay for things that we shouldn't be paying for.

Has any of you been in this situation or can you give me any advice?

there are cleaning companies that guarantee that the apartement will be accepted by the verwaltung (cleaning mit schluesselabgabe guarantee), these companies are also present for the key handover. Maybe it's ok to let ONLY the cleaning company be present for the actual key handover ?

Hi BasP72,

good point, but my least worry is that they would not accept the cleaning (and that is the only thing that the cleaning company can be responsible for) of the apartment. We already have a professional company scheduled and they do guarantee.

We did a few years ago one apartment handover here in Switzerland and learned the hard way not to leave anything to the chances.

What I am unhappy with is that I assume that according to the law the Verwaltung can decline the handover in June but it will cause a major inconvenience for us. I am still looking for a solution....

I did a search in 'mieterverband.ch' and exactly your situation pops up in a FAQ:

http://www.mieterverband.ch/fragen/f...?id=366&shbe=1

cost for advice: one box of 'saku laka' :-) just kidding, my GF brought a box of 50 from finland and I'm almost through ... :-)

Hello again -
and thank you very much for the link. I think it gave me some hope. I joined the Mieterverband a few days back but did not get my German together to send them my question yet.

Btw - are you talking about sukulaku? I ate my share when I still lived in Finland (have lived more than 15 years outside). They are the best!

I try to work this out, thanks for your help!