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    150 CHF fee for "preparing apartment rental agreement"?
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    150 CHF fee for “preparing apartment rental agreement”?


    Bonjour!

    So, I’m in the processing of securing a new apartment in Vaud – this is my first time renting an apartment in Switzerland.

    I visited an apartment, liked it, and followed up with the landlord by sending over my file (and documents). On the application form (see image), there is this nice block of text that essentially says "pay me a fee of 150.- CHF to prepare the rental agreement"and now the landlord has asked me to pay the fee before preparing the rental agreement.

    For context, I currently live in France (commuter) and have never in my life of renting apartments (in France and the UK), have I been requested to pay a fee before getting the rental agreement.

    So, I now come to you guys for some seasoned advice:

    1) Is this a common thing in CH? Or in VD, at least?

    2) Should I pay it? My gut is telling me not to.

    The thing is, I need a place to live as I am starting a new job in VD in January, so I’m a little bit worried if I say "nah" that I will scupper my chances of securing this apartment.

    Any insights would be appreciated – merci!

    https://i.redd.it/hpzc04i4if6g1.png

    Posted by SecondaryPath

    View 14 Comments

    14 Comments

    1. marcmaann on

      I have rented multiple appartments in SO and have never seen this. Same as you I am not sure if this is common in other cantons but to me this seems very scammy. As if this guy doesnt have template for that.

    2. jaskier89 on

      So, frankly spoken, I have one sneaky MF of a landlord, but not even that guy would have the audacity to ask for a bill of CHF 150.00 to print a friggin’ form.

      Those whoresons think they’ll get away with anything. If you accept, look closely over the contract. That MF will try to put cost on you that’s his responsibility.

      The bad news is, if you are in dire need of a place, you’ll probably have to comply.

      I don’t know about the people in VD, but no, it’s not normal, and he is exploiting the urgency of your situation.

    3. Laaash420 on

      With our apartment we had something similar but it was more like a a safeguard for the landlord, since we could have decided against taking the apartment at any time. And then the landlord would have had to start the search again. However, the fee would only have been due if we had ultimately decided against the apartment. So I don’t think there’s any legal basis for it, but the market regulates itself… supply and demand… hope this clarifies a little bit

      Ah btw. Happens in Kanton ZĂĽrich

    4. Manicraft1001 on

      1. I have never encountered any fees before I signed any contracts, so not common
      2. I strongly advise against paying, it is not guaranteed that you’ll get the contract after that “preparation”. The landlord might be doing the same with others at the same time to cash in.

      The image you posted is too low resolution to read. I advise looking for another apartment if it’s not urgent, it is a bad sign that the landlord is doing this shady stuff..

      No contact = no apartment

    7. couple_suisse69 on

      This is illegal as those fees should be on the owner and not on the renter. However since it is on a document you sign, there is a grey area so until someone bring a case like this to the federal court so they can decide once and for all. If I were you i would cross this line in the contract and sign it (or if you want to be as scummy as they are rewrite it without this line and sign it)

    8. Impossible-Milk-2023 on

      i only knwo about a fee when you accept and they prepare everythign but then you cancel.

    11. Fair_Age_09 on

      I think people in the comments are not getting the message…

      I have seen this when I was applying for appartments in Vaud, quite often. Essentially you have to pay 150 CHF, IF you accept in receiving the rental agreement to sign and then you give up on the appartment. Only then you pay this 150 CHF.

      This is only in case if you don’t conclude the contract. So basically if you show interest over an appartment and they send you the rental agreement and you don’t sign it then you would have to pay these fees.

      Not sure if this is what you are getting, but looks like it. So for me I interpret this as that if you get the landlord to send the rental agreement and you refuse to sign then you have to pay this fee. But in my case I saw this at least 5 times during my appartment hunt… Out of like 8 appartments that I made contact and showed interest, I got this warning before the papers were sent….

    12. pixmartin on

      I have already paid this twice with two different property management agencies in the Canton of Vaud. Since we really needed the apartments, we always paid. In the last one it said:

      “Lors de la conclusion d’un bail, des frais administratifs de CHF 200.00 (+ TVA) seront facturĂ©s.

      En cas de dĂ©sistement de votre part après l’Ă©tablissement du bail, des frais administratifs de CHF 200.00 (+ TVA) seront facturĂ©s Ă  titre de dĂ©dommagement.”

      This is what you agree on if you sign the “Demande de location habitation” – Rental application. If you do not agree, you do not sign it and you do not apply for the apartment. But someone else will always do it and get the apartment instead of you. I hate it but it is not easy to find accommodation here.

    13. Fun_Staff_7226 on

      Salut!
      I will be short: this is a scam so please don’t pay it. I understand you are in a hurry to find an apartment but being scammed will not help you.

      As some are suggesting, contact ASLOCA (even though from my experience they were not very fast answering so i doubt you will be able to get help before january)

      Edit: i see some comments saying that this happen to them and that they paid because “you signed the document”. Sorry but that is absolutely stupid and it is why we still get scams like this. It is illegal and it already tells you what kind of landlord you are going to deal with. Just to help you out, check this link where it says:

      Frais de dossier, d’établissement et de conclusion du bail

      Ces frais sont souvent facturĂ©s au locataire entre 150 et 200 francs. Or ils sont Ă  la charge du bailleur. C’est d’ailleurs ce que prĂ©voient aujourd’hui les règles et usages locatifs vaudois. C’est Ă  la rĂ©gie de trouver le locataire et d’établir le bail, puis de le lui faire signer.  

      Ce n’est pas parce que quelque chose est marquĂ© dans le bail que c’est vrai.

      https://www.asloca.ch/actualites/tous-ces-frais-sont-ils-vraiment-a-la-charge-des-locataires

    14. MarinatedPickachu on

      This is a big red flag. Some companies will state in their application that you’ll owe some money in case you do not sign the contract after they issued it, but even that is not legal/enforcable