Your situation
Your situation, and what it changes for your lease
Whatever is taking you out of the flat, the question underneath is the same one: how do you leave without paying rent until the end of the contract?
Different reasons, one obstacle
People leave a Geneva flat for reasons that have nothing to do with the flat. A posting comes to an end, an employer moves you, a household becomes two households, a flatshare runs its course, or the country itself changes. Those reasons are personal and no two are alike. What follows from them is.
A Swiss lease runs to a fixed term, and left alone it keeps running. Handing back the keys does not end it. Until the lease is released or the term arrives, the rent and the running costs stay with the person who signed. That is the obstacle every situation below runs into, whatever brought it about.
There is a way through, and it is the same one in each case: present a solvent successor willing to take over the lease on the existing terms, and the landlord cannot unreasonably refuse. What changes from one situation to the next is the practical detail around it — whose name is on the contract, who is still in the country, what the contract itself says, and what has to be settled before the door closes.
Find the one that matches yours
Moving abroad before your lease ends
For tenants leaving Switzerland for good, who will not be in the country to run the handover themselves.
Relocated for work
For tenants whose start date somewhere else has been set by an employer, and whose lease has a calendar of its own.
End of an international assignment
For international civil servants and NGO staff closing a posting in Geneva, often on a lease written with that in mind.
When a flatshare breaks up
For shared flats where one person is leaving, or where everyone is, and the names on the lease decide what happens next.
Separation or divorce
For couples on a joint lease who need the housing question settled while other matters are dealt with elsewhere.
On a short-term or furnished lease
For tenants of furnished or fixed-term flats, where the contract sets its own rules and the inventory carries real weight.
The route out is the same, the preparation is not
Every page above ends at the same procedure, set out step by step on ourlease takeover page and summarised onhow it works. If you are still weighing the alternatives, the guide to three ways out of your leasecompares giving notice, handing over and subletting side by side.
No fee for the outgoing tenant when we find the successor, in exchange for two weeks of exclusivity. The full arrangement is set out on is it really free.
Hand over your lease with a team that does it every week
Tell us about your flat and your move-out date. We handle your file within 24 hours. When we find your incoming tenant, the service costs you nothing.