Zurich - Flat Viewings

Lounge

As I’ve mentioned before, the rental market in Zurich is completely different from the UK as there’s a shortage of properties and people are competing to get a flat (at least on the lower end of the scale). In the UK, you want to leave your rental property? Well, you hand in your month’s notice and then leave. Easy. In Zurich, you usually have only one or two days a year where you are allowed to leave your flat (end of March and end of September, or maybe end of September only, depending on your rental contract). From my UK perspective, this is madness, since everyone then needs cleaners, removal people, electricians, etc at the same time and they are always fully booked.

It is possible to leave your flat outside of the two dates (and many do), but then you are responsible for finding the next tenant. Well, you have to find three potential tenants and then the rental agent has to decide if they are suitable or not and which one they will take. You are obliged to keep on paying rent until a new tenant moves in.

Anyway, I was planning to leave my flat at the end of September, so I gave my three months’ notice (which you still have to give) and got the letting agency to do all the advertising. In retrospect, it seems almost as easy to leave outside of the two standard dates as in my case it appeared that if you leave at another time, the letting agency simply asks you to pay for the advertising but they still put it up on the website for you. However, at least I knew I wouldn’t have to pay rent beyond September this way.

Two viewing dates were duly organized (I was allowed to choose the date and time, but I had to be there for the viewings). Obviously, I tidied up and cleaned beforehand (always a chore!) and I also got a price list ready of all the furniture I wanted to sell. I asked the agency if they could put in the advertisement that I would give away all the light fittings to the next tenant (this would save me from having to block up all the light fittings only for the new tenant to pay to have them all reinstated), but they refused, since this was basically my property and they weren’t advertising anything that wasn’t theirs. I thought this was a bit crazy as it would surely help rent the flat out more easily, but hey ho.

One evening, a couple came round asking to view the flat outside of the given hours since they were going to be on vacation at the time of the viewing. I let them in, but wasn’t too sure of the rules. The Swiss can be quite strict at times. Moreover, I wasn’t really quite ready as I didn’t have my price list available yet and hadn’t decided what was going and what was staying. After they viewed it, I gave them an application form, they thanked me, and left. I have no idea if they’re allowed to apply before the first official viewing has even taken place.

On the day of the first viewing, five minutes before the allocated time, I opened my door ready for people to come. To my astonishment, there was a queue of people from my door, down the stairs, and out the front door waiting to come in. I told them to come in and within 5 minutes all 20 application forms were already gone.

It was a confusion of people and I was like the light to the moth as people clung to me asking questions – twice I was asked if there was mould (? I think they must have got confused with another property?), could I put a word in for them so that they could get the property, was the flat going to be renovated, could I put in a word for them for the property, was the building going to be torn down soon, what were the neighbours like, could I put a word in for them for the property, how long had I lived there, was there a basement…

One thing I hadn’t thought about doing was finding a secure place for my valuables. With so many people everywhere in my flat, it was impossible for me to keep an eye on everyone; besides, people were grabbing me to ask questions and taking my attention away. And then they wanted to see the basement, but if I showed them the basement, there was nobody at all in my flat and anything could happen. I got quite stressed, but I had to show the rest of the building. Fortunately, people are generally honest in Switzerland, so I didn’t have any bad repercussions, but it was a lesson learned for my next viewing.

One couple explained that they’d already failed to get several properties and they’d tried applying for my apartment before seeing it. Apparently, they were told it wasn’t possible to apply for a flat without seeing it first. They showed me their completed application form and asked if I could put a word in for them. Another girl explained that she was pregnant and getting married soon. She wanted to buy all of my furniture, the flat was just round the corner from her family, so the flat was ideal. Could I please put in a word for her? Another woman said she’d let me stay in the flat until I left (I’d booked an airbnb studio flat for my last week) if I would put in a word for her and let her have it.

It was exhausting. A few days later, the pregnant girl came round with her fiancé asking if her fiancé could see it quickly. Again, I wasn’t sure of the rules (and was not really prepared for it), but I let her in. She asked if I could put a word in for her. Then I bumped into her at the bus stop and she asked again. At this point, I was desperate to get rid of my furniture, so I asked the agency if I really needed a second viewing and could I recommend the pregnant woman since she would take my stuff.

To my surprise, they made a note of this and noted that I must have had quite a lot of people round already (so I assume quite a lot of applications were on their system). However, they said the second viewing still had to take place. Ugh.

The second viewing (two weeks’ later) wasn’t quite so busy, but all application forms were taken. One guy tried to buy my laptop, which wasn’t for sale, and wanted to take the TV with him straight away (which I wasn’t prepared for). One woman came round and passed judgement on each room (“typical Glattbrugg” to my spare room, which I think was not a compliment, and “now this is a pretty room” to my lounge…), another guy wanted me to start up my printer and print him out some application forms.

It was a bit of culture shock and I was glad when it was all over!