Subletting
Sublet your flat in Geneva
A posting abroad, a long field mission, a year of study elsewhere. If you are coming back, you do not have to give up your flat, and you do not have to fill it blind.
Takeover or sublet: the question that decides everything
The two routes look similar from the outside and are entirely different underneath. Gone for good? That is a lease takeover: a successor signs the lease on the same terms, your name comes off it, and your obligations end on the agreed date. Coming back? That is a sublet: your name stays on the lease, someone occupies the flat for a defined period, and you take it back when you return.
Getting this right at the start matters more than any other decision in the process. A tenant who sublets a flat they never intend to live in again keeps a responsibility they no longer need. A tenant who hands over a lease and then finds their assignment cut short has lost a home in a market where finding another is hard work. Our guide to thethree ways out of your lease compares notice, takeover and sublet in detail if you are still hesitating.
You keep the lease, and you keep the responsibility
This is the part that deserves reading twice. In a sublet you remain the tenant of record. The landlord's counterparty is still you, not the person living in the flat. That means:
- You remain liable for the rent, in full and on time, whether or not your subtenant pays you.
- You answer for the condition of the flat, and for any damage caused while you are away.
- You stay the point of contact for the landlord and for the managing agent.
- Your deposit remains yours, and remains exposed to whatever happens in your absence.
None of this makes subletting a bad idea. It makes the choice of subtenant the whole exercise. A friendly stranger with a plausible story and no verified file is not a saving, it is a risk you carry alone for the length of your absence.
Your landlord has to be informed and has to agree
Subletting is not something arranged quietly between you and the person moving in. The landlord must be informed and must give their consent, and the conditions of the sublet must be communicated to them: who is moving in, for how long, and on what terms, including the rent you intend to ask.
Asking properly is also in your own interest. A sublet the landlord knows about and has accepted is a sublet nobody can hold against you later, and it keeps your position clean when you come back. We prepare that request with you, in the form the managing agent expects, and we present the subtenant's file alongside it rather than after the fact. Our guide on subletting rules in Switzerland covers the consent, the information to provide and the questions that come up most often.
What we do to find your subtenant
The work is the same craft as a lease takeover, applied to a temporary occupation. We write and publish the listing on the Geneva portals, a professional photographer visits the flat, and every enquiry comes to us. We then check who is behind each application: identity and residence permit, proof of income, a recent extract from the debt-collection register, and a fully completed application form. Agencies in Geneva generally look for rent and running costs of around a third of gross monthly income and no uncontested debts, and we apply the same standard here.
Viewings are arranged and led by us, so you are not showing your own flat to strangers in the weeks before you leave. What you receive is a shortlist of candidates whose file stands up, with dates that match your departure and your return. From there we help you put the request to the landlord and draw up the sublease agreement. The step-by-step version of the same process is set out in how it works.
When a sublet is not the right answer
If your departure has no return date, subletting only postpones the problem while keeping you on the hook for a flat on the other side of the world. In that case the honest advice is a takeover, and our guides onleaving your lease early in Genevaand Article 264 explained set out how a successor is presented and on what conditions a landlord may refuse.
If your situation turns out to be a takeover rather than a sublet, there is no fee for the outgoing tenant when we find the successor, in exchange for two weeks of exclusivity. The full conditions are on is the service really free. For a sublet, terms are agreed with you before any work starts, and you can put the question to us through the contact page.
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.