How horrible is it to find and apartment to rent in Geneva? Some stories.

It is not easy to find an apartment to rent in Geneva. It is easy though to learn about experiences of desperate apartment searchers. However, not all of the stories you hear are true! People who are not finding an apartment to rent in Geneva sometimes get creative and invent stories – hoping they would help them to get a place to rent.

In winter time Geneva can get terribly cold. What if the central heating in your rental apartment in Geneva does not work? Obviously you let the landlord who rents the apartment out to you know and he or she should fix it immediately. But what if your complaint is just ignored? What if you had been searching for an apartment to rent for months – would you challenge the landlord and risk that he would use his position of power, come up with some reason to kick you out and replace you? This would be clearly illegal. However I learned from a friend that in his shared apartment in Geneva, they spent the winter wearing gloves and jackets in their rental apartment because the landlord decided not to do anything about the central heating. It shows how hard it is to find an apartment to rent in Geneva if tenants are willing to put up with this! Clearly in such a case it is necessary to take up legal steps against the landlord.

Whereas the above told story is true, I regularly get emails telling horror stories about renting in Geneva which I think are made up. A lady emailed me and told me that her neighbour was a crazy person who is dangerous. The crazy guy renting the apartment next to hers even threatened to kill her, she told me. Conclusion: she needed a new apartment to rent in Geneva immediately and I needed to help her! Hm. May be call the police if this is true, I advised her. Assuming that this story was made up just to convince landlords or people looking for a replacement tenant to choose her as the person who can rent the apartment.

On flatsforexpats.com you can find apartments and rooms in shared apartments from other expats. Know that landlords hear a lot of stories from a lot of people so it’s recommendable to stay with the truth 😉