We are moving this week to the larger apartment next door. Funny, Brian and I swore off moving for awhile when we packed our bags and came here five months ago. Yet, here we are again.
But this time, we are subject to the Swiss rules of moving.
First of all, in most rental contracts, there are two times of the year when the renter can get out of contract with only a months notice. All other times of the year you are responsible for giving three months notice. Or, if you move out before those three months are up, you can find someone else to take the apartment. If you do not, you are responsible for those three months.
As luck should have it, we are not moving during one of those two acceptable times during the year. And, unfortunately, we have not found a tenant to take our current apartment. So, as of November 1, we are responsible for rent for both of the apartments. Great timing by us.
Additionally, renters are not allowed to leave an apartment at the end of the year due to the Christmas holidays. Double whammy.
We are still hopeful that we will find someone. Otherwise, Christmas is going to be small this year.
Another Swiss rule of renting is the state of cleanliness required for the apartment. Each renter is entitled to a clean apartment when they move in. And by clean, they mean spotless, eat off the floor kind of clean. I've been told the cleaners actually take off the handles to the stovetop and clean each individually.
This results in a multitude of businesses willing to clean your apartment for a hefty fee. Our apartment has been listed on a popular rental website for almost two weeks now. We have received two phone calls as a result of the ad from men who only spoke German. Once I found someone to translate I found out that both of them had cleaning companies and wanted to clean our place. Talk about frustrating! I was hoping for apartment leads and I get cold calls. Pfft.
Anyway, we had the walk thru for our new apartment today. They've lived there for four years so it needs some sprucing up. The management company is going to paint the place and recaulk some things and then it will be ready for us.
We will start moving in tomorrow evening and finish up on Thursday. Next week, we get to do the whole thing over again for our old apartment. And then we will definitely be swearing off moving for awhile!
5 comments:
Those are a lot of rules. And a high degree of cleanliness. Reading your blog, I've come to the conclusion that I am simply too untidy and disorganized to ever, ever live in Switzerland.
have fun hauling stuff all the way....next door!
haha, i love that.
i want to see pics too :)
One good thing...you won't need to hire a moving van ...
It will be worth it to have more room. So enjoy as much as you can.
NO lifting Megs.
Big hugs and kisses,
Mom
Enough of this Swiss way nonsense! You need to move the gypsy way and just squat on the property you want. When challenged over this overt act of aggression just start rambling with a fake Turkish accent.Trust me, they’ll back off.
Oh, and I hope your placenta is feeling better.
We moved on Oct. 1 and cleaned our apartment ourselves with help from *SWISS* friend (tip: have your Swiss friend start with the bathroom!! They are very thorough!!). I did most of everything from head height down, my husband did stuff that required a ladder (tops of windows, shutters, etc), and my neighbor cleaned the oven so that I wouldn't have to smell the dangerous chemicals (pregnancy has it's pluses!). It took a couple days, but once all the furniture is gone it wasn't actually as bad as I had feared! Good luck!!
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