Flat hunting

...is somewhat different in Switzerland. There is no such thing as three weeks notice and you are out of your flat. Here, you need to tell your landlord three months in advance that you want to leave. Which, of course, also means that you need to start hunting early. Very early. Which we, uhm, forgot. Plus, we are looking for a flat more or less close to Zürich. And flats in Zürich are rare and expensive. And around Zürich its the same.

In our case, we are looking for a place to live in Baden. Which is a beautiful little town, a real castle overlooking a medieval centre, an old gate that guards the entrance of the town, small alleys, old houses with very elegant facades, cobblestones, a little bit of a maze-feeling, really nice. Flat-hunting starts with homegate.ch, and there you look for flats to rent. In Switzerland people rent flats, they would never buy them. And there is no such thing as number of bedrooms. Here, it is number of rooms. Kitchen and bathrooms are not rooms, so you just count things like study rooms, bedrooms and living rooms. So as a couple, you look for three or four rooms. And the rent is paid monthly. Be aware that there is the rent and then there are the "Nebenkosten", which are listed separately but which are actually just added to the rent. Never mind. The rent includes the heating but usually not the water and the electricity. And whiteware is always included. Well, if you know all that, you can start hunting.

When you find something that you like, you ask the landlord whether you can have a look at it. You and five other couples. It's a strange situation. Slightly competitive, every couple tries to be the nicest one, laughs about all the stupid jokes of the landlord and repeats again and again how nice the flat looks and how well one would fit in. It's true! E actually pushed me "go on, talk a little bit more to the guy!" and so I did... Once the tour is finished, forms are handed out where you have to list addresses, employer details and references and then it's just praying silently at home. Actually, no, it's more. There is the Betreibungsregisterauszug. Roughly it's an official piece of paper which says that you have no current financial prosecutions against you. Well, we don't, but because we haven't lived in Switzerland during the last two years, this form doesn't say a lot. But the prospective landlord calmed me down, it's not the first time they have dealt with those things. Phew.

I will not tell you which flats are on our list, but I will tell you once we got one ;-)

Fingers crossed.