How do you find a solvent replacement tenant?

This is the condition that holds up the most applications. Not because solvent candidates are rare, but because outgoing tenants screen badly and find out too late that their candidate will not get through.

What “solvent” means

Being solvent means being able to bear the rent reasonably over time, given your income and your situation. Nothing more mysterious than that. It is not a question of wealth or of social standing: it is a question of being able to pay, month after month.

The important word is “reasonably”. A candidate whose rent would swallow almost all of their income is not solvent, however sincere they are.

What a managing agency looks at

• Income: the amount, but above all how regular and how lasting it is.
• The employment situation: permanent contract, probation period under way, self-employment, retirement, studies.
• The debt-collection register extract: ongoing proceedings weigh more than old, settled matters.
• The number of occupants against the size of the apartment.
• The move-in date wanted, which has to match your move-out date.

These checks are customary. They must stay proportionate to what the landlord needs to know in order to decide, a point we come back to in the guide on the application file.

“A third of income” is not in the law

Many managing agencies in French-speaking Switzerland apply a rule of thumb: the rent should not exceed about a third of income. It is a widespread practice, and it is useful to know about in order to plan ahead.

But no universal ratio appears in art. 264 CO. The law speaks of solvency, not of a percentage. A candidate slightly above a customary threshold is not automatically insolvent, and one below it is not automatically accepted.

One is enough, several reassure

Legally, presenting a single valid candidate can be enough to release you. That is no reason to present only one.

A candidate pulls out, finds something else, changes their mind about the date. An application turns out to be incomplete. Presenting several, serious and documented, cuts the risk of starting from scratch three weeks before you leave, and shows the landlord that the search is being run properly.

Screening mistakes to avoid

• Arranging a viewing before asking a single question about the candidate's situation.
• Settling for a “yes, that'll be fine” about income, with no document.
• Overlooking the move-in date: an excellent candidate available two months too late solves nothing.
• Forgetting to check that the candidate accepts the apartment as it is, with no works and no renegotiation.
• Ruling out an unusual profile straight away (self-employed, early retiree, expatriate) when the application may well be solid.