Frankly my dear if you find yourself in this kind of situation I would say you are in twilight zone     lucky you

This being said the answer is no

Well, if your dossier is selected, and you say "no".... yes, there's a fine in there. in most cases, this is written somewhere in the application (something like 200-300 francs).

but the truth is that 1) the regies first will call back to ask if the person is still interested, and if you say no, they just go to the next; 2) you are not going to get an avalanche of positive answers.

In any case, always good to read the small letters on the application form....

No.

Be moderate. Avoid excessiveness. Should you be in a position to say "No thanks" to a regie, make sure you inform BEFORE they write the new lease with your name. When forced to cancel, announce your withdrawal the soonest possible.

Now if you turn undecisive with same regie again and again... they might be less cooperative to give you a chance when short listing various bidders. Remember regies spread the word  so be selective and analytical at first when submitting dossier.

Thanks everyone for the kind responses.

For those finding this thread via search in the future -- the answer is indeed no. I've had to reject a couple of places over the phone. I applied for 7-8 apts and got three offers, including my #1 choice. Others' mileage will vary, but maybe this can serve as encouragement to other seekers that the situation is not always quite as bleak as some of the above contributions seem to indicate.

This seems to be a sticky situation here in Geneva. We were offered an apartment that we'd applied for last week, and we didn't say yes on the phone but we said 'we want to see the apartment and we'll let you know right away' (we hadn't managed to get ahold of the tenant yet to see it but have been getting desperate as it's been hard to apply in time before someone else is chosen at this time of year). We went and saw it the very next day and then told them we didn't want the apartment, but it was too late - we received a bill for 200 CHF ! We're still working with the regie to try to avoid the bill, but goodness it felt harsh to me. :(

Regies assume that you've seen the flat before applying - if you explained that you hadn't seen the appartment yet and applied anyways, knowing the regies, they probably bill the 200 CHF as an ignorance tax for breaking their rules.

As other people wrote, until they get back to you and say you've been selected and THEN you give a 'final' yes, thus drawing up a lease and starting the official admin process, that's when you will be charges an admin fee for changing your mind.

I've heard that some regies, though, are starting to change their policy, as a lot of people are applying for loads of flats at the same time and then not cancelling their other applications once they've been awarded a lease. When the regie calls a week later and they say they don't want the flat, the regie is obviously a little confused and feel like their time has been wasted and will think about charging an admin fee. Personally, I haven't seen this - does anyone have any first hand experience?

It is frustrating, it seems the regies have too much latitude on charging the bill at their discretion.

We have also noticed that some regies' applications forms now state that if we are offered the apartment and refuse it we automatically incur the bill. We have avoided applying for these apartments, because we've applied and been refused for five apartments now (the reason for refusal is usually someone else got their application in first, or the regie was Italian so he chose the Italian applicant, etc) so we don't feel that we can apply one at a time for apartments. Especially because it often takes a week for the regie to get back to us. We could be looking till next Christmas at that rate. *_*