It is a bit risky to do that especially coz sometimes the person is probably charging you twice the rent. The other problem is the person can not be paying the rent and you find yourself on the streets. The biggest problem is usually the fact that you cannot call the regie if you have problems with the apartment. it has to be the holder of the lease.

Maybe I formulate the question in the wrong way:

what’s happen to the person who has the contract with the Regie if the Regie get to know that this person is subletting the appartament?

Thanks

The landlord can terminate the lease even with immediate effect .

III. Care and consideration

3 If, despite written warning from the landlord or lessor, the tenant or lessee continues to act in breach of his duty of care and consideration such that continuation of the lease becomes unconscionable for the landlord or lessor or other persons sharing the building, the landlord or lessor may terminate the contract with immediate effect or, for leases of residential and commercial premises, subject to at least 30 days' notice ending on the last day of a calendar month.

http://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classified-compilation/19110009/index.html#

Really? Apartments in Geneva are already very expensive. Do you think that somebody is going to pay twice a rent? it would be so obvious than unrealistic.

People who sublet apartments are not all criminals.You should  know that there is a lot of other reasons than the bait of gain to subleting.

Such: to keep an address in Geneva and there is many reasons for it, specially for swiss people. Other reason, To keep the apartment itself as it is so difficult to find one in Geneva.

You should be more careful before launching hasty comments that may be prejudicial to somebody who is acting honestly.

OK, if subletting is legal then how do you go about making it official?

I am about to sublease an apartment from a friend of my sisters - it was a lucky find. I've met the guy, and my sister has known him for years, so it's all pretty legit. He says the regie has approved the arrangement, so all good.

But what do we do to make it official? The guy says he will draft up an agreement that mirrors his lease with the regie. He wants me to make the 3 month deposit to him, to match his deposit with the regie. Does all of this sound reasonable? It feels like I'm taking a lot on trust.

It’s just because the person who’s renting me the room is acting a bit as an asshole so now knowing the fact that this person can lose the apartment ....I have  the opportunity to be an asshole too!!
(this person clearly told me that can’t sublet - fool)

in my case the regie do not know anything, apparently MUST not know anything. If the regie has approved that to you, there'are no problem.  I think it's already official.

That's a similar situation to us and it has been fine.  The only downside is, as mentioned earlier, you tend to have go through the proper lease holder for any problems which can slow down resolution.

In the interest of balance though, although you are taking somethign of a gmable and working mainly on trust, in the UK i was ripped off by a letting agent who tried to claim i hadn't been paying rent as the agent i had been paying had kept the money, this was from a big letting company in leeds - luckily i had recipts so told them they could choose to give me back my deposit or deal with the police.  So an 'official' agreement is not much more of a guarantee

First I would want to see the written approval of the landlord.

Then I would sign a contract. At least on the German page of http://www.mieterverband.ch/ there is an example of such a contract (http://www.mieterverband.ch/fileadmin/alle/Dokumente/Broschueren/brosch_f_mitglieder/form_f_mitgl_untermietvertrag.pdf)

http://www.unil.ch/webdav/site/sasc/shared/Logement/Exemple_de_contrat_de_sous-location_de_chambre_meuble_e.pdf

I wouldn't pay the deposit to him. Usually, a "dépôt de garantie" should be in your name.

like this one: http://www.ubs.com/ch/fr/swissbank/clientele-privee/paiements-et-epargne/accounts/rental_surety.html

Thanks for the advice.

It's a hard one - the apartment is fantastic (location is perfect, rent is cheaper than elsewhere we looked and who else in Geneva gets a private rooftop?). We really don't want to quibble too much and risk losing it.

If we pay the guy who is the lessee through online transfers, that we will have records of everything paid.

I guess the main thing is to make sure the regie approves of the contract.

If it's legit then you should have something from the regie with your name on it. Some sort of bail a loyer (spelling?) . This both makes it completely legit and also may help you later, certain 'official things' may want to see proof of your address, if it's all in somebody elses name then you don't have it.

I have heard from a few people that they wrote a contract between themselves and sent a copy to the regie. After that I think the rent is directly in your name though the lease remains in the name of the lease holder. That way you end up in pursuit if you dont pay.  But I think this kind of agreement has a time limit of max 2 years (not sure about it though worth asking)

@ Marcy S: As far as I am aware, there is not timelimit for subletting.

Interesting. In our case, the deal is supposed to be that he keeps paying everything - lease, additional electricity charges, internet, even the TV licence (not sure what this, no such thing in Australia!). We just pay him for all of that.

I can see the risk - if he stops paying, then we stop getting those services and have some authority hounding us. But I'm not sure how to mitigate the risk short of demanding to see his payment receipts each month. Yes, it's all based on trust...