No, not generally, of course.. but yes, us "expats" (foreigners, not necessarily on expat deals that only a few companies still do) can easily be fooled when we move to a new country and have not yet found out how things really are (instead of the horror stories and exaggeration of the complexity of getting things done we are told about). Just like tourists. And yes, I speak from experience.
In late January we got fed up seeing so many other apartments free in our area with 500 francs less rent and decided to ask our 'regie', i.e. the real estate company that manages the rental of our apartment (on behalf of the owner, a very common way of doing things here), for a deduction in our rent. Few friends said the regie would be obliged to lower the rent to the general level in the area (and also the law says something about it not being legal to over-charge, both of these being rarely known by expats) but since our regie is a very slow, bureaucratic, negative and uncooperative one, it looked unlikely. And because we woke up to the fact too close to our yearly window of giving three months notice (yes, if one does not want to be responsible for finding new tenants, the rental contract can only be discontinued once a year. And with 500 francs higher rent than others in the area, we did not want to be responsible of finding new tenants..). So we decided to simply give notice.
And so we did the crazy thing of giving notice without having any idea of a new home. I mean, completely crazy in Geneva where it is so difficult to find a place to live, rents are high, competition for apartments is fierce, you have to apply for so many before you get a place.. Yeah right. Either things have changed a lot in one year, or these stories that are told to arriving expats are just a load of poop.
After our discontinuation of rental agreement (sent as a signed letter in French by registered mail, a common practice for dealing with all kinds of matters here) was accepted by the regie (sent to us by as a signed letter by mail), we started to spend time on sites such as homegate.ch, immoscout24.ch and anibis.ch. I called, texted and e-mailed (two latter which can be done in French thanks to google translate) those that seemed nice and we went to see a few, deciding to only apply if we really liked the place and the timing was right. We saw places with more rooms and less rent, with fireplaces and even a sauna!
Our possibilities were on this side of Geneva (since we already know and like the area, have friends here and hubby has easy access to work) or a completely new location, a small touristy village up the Jura mountains called St. Cergue which we have visited a few times. The selling points of St. Cergue for us were the access to nature, a real winter with snow, small village community, the views.. and yet easy access down to Nyon, Geneva and the Bernex region (half an hour in the car from here to there). Of course it is again a new place (are we restless or something?) but the thought of a winter with snow instead of mud was so tempting.. and when we visited a two bedroom apartment with two gardens next to great outdoors, we decided to put in an application. I mean, according to all the talk, we might have to apply for many more before we get lucky enough to get an apartment.. Our application was accepted in three hours. (See, a load of poop!)
I wanted to visit the village once more to have a look around and talk to a Finnish neighbour (talk about a small world, the only other Finn I know living in the village lives in the same building!) before deciding, and the visit only confirmed that yes, we want to see what it is like to live in a mountain village. After all, why live among the mountains in Switzerland if your daily life is all about muddy fields? (Love the wine yards though!)
Another myth to bust is the paperwork. So complicated, time consuming, should be done by professionals for you.. yeah, blah blah blah. The application to rent a flat is a simple A4 with all your details. And appendixes are three last pay slips, copies of IDs and permits, a piece of paper that states you have no unpaid invoices (can be ordered online or picked up from an office) and a copy of your home insurance. That's it. No professionals needed. Should you be so lucky to get to deal with a nice regie that speaks English (like the one in St. Cergue) instead of an arrogant and uncooperative one (heh, can you tell I do not like our current regie?), it is easy to sign a contract that is well explained and translated for you.
So we will be moving. Again. Bring out the boxes..!!
In late January we got fed up seeing so many other apartments free in our area with 500 francs less rent and decided to ask our 'regie', i.e. the real estate company that manages the rental of our apartment (on behalf of the owner, a very common way of doing things here), for a deduction in our rent. Few friends said the regie would be obliged to lower the rent to the general level in the area (and also the law says something about it not being legal to over-charge, both of these being rarely known by expats) but since our regie is a very slow, bureaucratic, negative and uncooperative one, it looked unlikely. And because we woke up to the fact too close to our yearly window of giving three months notice (yes, if one does not want to be responsible for finding new tenants, the rental contract can only be discontinued once a year. And with 500 francs higher rent than others in the area, we did not want to be responsible of finding new tenants..). So we decided to simply give notice.
And so we did the crazy thing of giving notice without having any idea of a new home. I mean, completely crazy in Geneva where it is so difficult to find a place to live, rents are high, competition for apartments is fierce, you have to apply for so many before you get a place.. Yeah right. Either things have changed a lot in one year, or these stories that are told to arriving expats are just a load of poop.
After our discontinuation of rental agreement (sent as a signed letter in French by registered mail, a common practice for dealing with all kinds of matters here) was accepted by the regie (sent to us by as a signed letter by mail), we started to spend time on sites such as homegate.ch, immoscout24.ch and anibis.ch. I called, texted and e-mailed (two latter which can be done in French thanks to google translate) those that seemed nice and we went to see a few, deciding to only apply if we really liked the place and the timing was right. We saw places with more rooms and less rent, with fireplaces and even a sauna!
Our possibilities were on this side of Geneva (since we already know and like the area, have friends here and hubby has easy access to work) or a completely new location, a small touristy village up the Jura mountains called St. Cergue which we have visited a few times. The selling points of St. Cergue for us were the access to nature, a real winter with snow, small village community, the views.. and yet easy access down to Nyon, Geneva and the Bernex region (half an hour in the car from here to there). Of course it is again a new place (are we restless or something?) but the thought of a winter with snow instead of mud was so tempting.. and when we visited a two bedroom apartment with two gardens next to great outdoors, we decided to put in an application. I mean, according to all the talk, we might have to apply for many more before we get lucky enough to get an apartment.. Our application was accepted in three hours. (See, a load of poop!)
I wanted to visit the village once more to have a look around and talk to a Finnish neighbour (talk about a small world, the only other Finn I know living in the village lives in the same building!) before deciding, and the visit only confirmed that yes, we want to see what it is like to live in a mountain village. After all, why live among the mountains in Switzerland if your daily life is all about muddy fields? (Love the wine yards though!)
Another myth to bust is the paperwork. So complicated, time consuming, should be done by professionals for you.. yeah, blah blah blah. The application to rent a flat is a simple A4 with all your details. And appendixes are three last pay slips, copies of IDs and permits, a piece of paper that states you have no unpaid invoices (can be ordered online or picked up from an office) and a copy of your home insurance. That's it. No professionals needed. Should you be so lucky to get to deal with a nice regie that speaks English (like the one in St. Cergue) instead of an arrogant and uncooperative one (heh, can you tell I do not like our current regie?), it is easy to sign a contract that is well explained and translated for you.
So we will be moving. Again. Bring out the boxes..!!
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