# Furnished flat lease transfer - Help us get out of this country!!



## CookehMonsta2

We stupidly moved to Berlin from Australia upon receiving a job offer (I work in IT). I have triple citizenship (IT-DE-AU), but have never lived in Germany before. My wife is Australian

What we discovered:
- Pay compared cost-of-living is about 40% worse compared to Australia
- Bureaucracy is extremely complex and government functionaries are unsympathetic and rude
- It is pretty much impossible for my spouse to find work here as she does not speak German
- German's conception of work-life balance is being able to work from home (but then you end up working 7 days a week because the workload is so intense)

Lucky I found a job back in Melbourne at a 50% pay increase. The problem is it starts in 6 weeks and we have a rental lease on a very nice apartment here in friedrichshain. It took so much effort to furnish and carry heavy furniture and home goods up two floors (we discovered that door-to-door delivery here means literally to the apartment door, not up the stairs....). We just want to transfer the house and all contents over to another potential tenant, and GTFO of this hell-hole ASAP. How is the best way to go about this? Where are good sites to advertise here? I imagine there are plenty of incoming expats who would appreciate moving into a furnished apartment and avoiding all the hassles we went through to furnish the place.

We have both been suffering from depression and anxiety like we've never experienced before, and we just want to get back to a sane country.


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## ALKB

CookehMonsta2 said:


> We stupidly moved to Berlin from Australia upon receiving a job offer (I work in IT). I have triple citizenship (IT-DE-AU), but have never lived in Germany before. My wife is Australian
> 
> What we discovered:
> - Pay compared cost-of-living is about 40% worse compared to Australia
> - Bureaucracy is extremely complex and government functionaries are unsympathetic and rude
> - It is pretty much impossible for my spouse to find work here as she does not speak German
> - German's conception of work-life balance is being able to work from home (but then you end up working 7 days a week because the workload is so intense)
> 
> Lucky I found a job back in Melbourne at a 50% pay increase. The problem is it starts in 6 weeks and we have a rental lease on a very nice apartment here in friedrichshain. It took so much effort to furnish and carry heavy furniture and home goods up two floors (we discovered that door-to-door delivery here means literally to the apartment door, not up the stairs....). We just want to transfer the house and all contents over to another potential tenant, and GTFO of this hell-hole ASAP. How is the best way to go about this? Where are good sites to advertise here? I imagine there are plenty of incoming expats who would appreciate moving into a furnished apartment and avoiding all the hassles we went through to furnish the place.
> 
> We have both been suffering from depression and anxiety like we've never experienced before, and we just want to get back to a sane country.


Sorry to hear that your experience was so negative!

Try ebay-kleinanzeigen.de (formerly kijiji) for a German target group and craigslist for expats.

If you don't mind paying for an ad, then immobilienscout24.de is your best bet.


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## HKG3

CookehMonsta2 said:


> What we discovered:
> - Bureaucracy is extremely complex and government functionaries are unsympathetic and rude
> - It is pretty much impossible for my spouse to find work here as she does not speak German


The top point regarding bureaucracy and government functionaries - these are not only a 'German' problem. Try China or Russia, the bureaucracies are even worse and civil servants there always asked for money in order to get things done. 

The bottom point - if I go to Australia without a word of English trying to look for a job, the end result would be the same. What makes the OP's wife special that she does not need any German language skills in order to get a job in Germany?

The OP's story clearly illustrated the need for people moving to another country to do some research before the move. If the OP did some research prior to the move to Germany, this may not happen.


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## Nononymous

It sounds as if you rented an unfurnished apartment then furnished it yourself. If this is the case, then there are a few things you need to be aware of. Your landlord will almost certainly need to approve any new tenant taking over the lease; you may have more flexibility if you sub-lease but only because you are then still responsible for paying the rent. You might wish to join the Mieterverein for some inexpensive advice. Overall I think you have three basic options:

1. Sub-let the furnished apartment to a new tenant. However, when that tenant leaves, you or someone else would need to come dispose of the furniture if the landlord didn't want to keep it. 

2. Have a new tenant take over the lease, and sell them the furniture and anything else you'd want to leave behind. (Not unlike the old and technically illegal practice of "Abstand" whereby a new tenant twas "encouraged" by the landlord to pay the previous tenant for the cost of improvements that tenant had made, such as a built-in kitchen or appliances.) This would be easiest for you but probably the least likely scenario, because potential tenants will either have their own furniture or just be looking to stay temporarily in furnished accommodation.

3. Sell all your worldly goods before leaving, then find another tenant to take over the lease (or pay the penalty for leaving early) once the apartment is empty. That's the most common route for departing expats. Also the least fun - I did not enjoy packing up to fly home as the furniture disappeared around me. 

You might find an incoming expat willing to go for option 2, depending on the cost of the furniture, but if it's a shorter stay they'd likely prefer option 1.

I expect this will be a stressful and expensive adventure, but obviously you know that already.


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## CookehMonsta2

our landlord has refused the transfer option, we are properly shafted!
how can we avoid paying 3 months rent(the cancellation period)?
What happens if we just stop paying and leave? I'm prepared to lose the deposit, I just don't want international legal implications.


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## Nononymous

I was going to add a line to my earlier post along the lines of kiss your deposit goodbye. If you leave the country in a hurry and the landlord isn't happy about your departure, they'll come up with some excuse to keep the money - smudges in the entrance hall, needs repainting - and you'd be long gone.

If your lease says three months' rent as penalty for cancelling, then that's what you'll pay. Did the landlord take that much as a deposit? If so then just walk away and consider it an expensive lesson. If the landlord only took one month's rent then you could get on a plane, it's likely not worth their while to sue you in Australia, but you'd be advised not to move back to Germany anytime soon.

You might want to join the Mieterverein for some inexpensive advice.


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## CookehMonsta2

We are meeting the agent in our flat tomorrow. We're looking to either coax them into accepting a lease transfer, as our furniture is minimal and inexpensive, save for a few home appliances many would be happy to avoid purchasing themselves. 

Or to get them to reduce the time from 3 to 2 months, in that case we'd repaint and leave them with no reason to take some of our deposit. That would allow them to immediately put the house on the market.


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## sphider

CookehMonsta2 said:


> We are meeting the agent in our flat tomorrow. We're looking to either coax them into accepting a lease transfer, as our furniture is minimal and inexpensive, save for a few home appliances many would be happy to avoid purchasing themselves.
> 
> Or to get them to reduce the time from 3 to 2 months, in that case we'd repaint and leave them with no reason to take some of our deposit. That would allow them to immediately put the house on the market.


Actually the landlord can't force you to repaint your appartment. There is no such law 
When your equipment is inexpensive then just leave it to the guy coming after you and get the hell out of germany. lane:


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## CookehMonsta2

We paid three month's rent as deposit. and rental termination notices last 90 days. 

We'd like either get our deposit back or not need to pay rent until December!!

My new job in Oz (50% pay increase, check that krauts) starts mid october.


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## Nononymous

If the landlord won't agree to a lease transfer, you likely have no choice in the matter. Possibly you can negotiate a lower penalty but really that would be a goodwill gesture on the landlord's part - the law is not on your side. 

Pack up, head home, and kiss the deposit goodbye. An expensive lesson but there you go.

General tips for others: do your research on salaries, working conditions and cost of living; try a more flexible furnished rental at first, while you get settled in; be realistic about the prospects for a spouse who doesn't speak the local language.


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## sphider

Nononymous said:


> If the landlord won't agree to a lease transfer, you likely have no choice in the matter. Possibly you can negotiate a lower penalty but really that would be a goodwill gesture on the landlord's part - the law is not on your side.
> 
> Pack up, head home, and kiss the deposit goodbye. An expensive lesson but there you go.
> 
> General tips for others: do your research on salaries, working conditions and cost of living; try a more flexible furnished rental at first, while you get settled in; be realistic about the prospects for a spouse who doesn't speak the local language.


Actually I do fully agree! Mate you are going back to Australia and got a job with 50% increase! Be happy and get the hell out of here! 
I hope I can do the same asap! :fingerscrossed: lane:


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## kanadanicht

German rental contracts are often no fixed term leases, but open-ended with a 3 month notice period. You can continue living in the place during your notice period.

Maybe Germany didn't match your expectations, but you still had the privilege of working in a foreign country without complicated applications for work permits. Maybe your future employer in Melbourne even pays you a higher than normal salary because of your international experience?

Also, be aware of the trade-off between living in a 'cool' city and salaries versus cost of living. Like you don't get best value for money in the fanciest touristy restaurants. Berlin has a long tradition of paying bad salaries to engineers and software developers because of the many university graduates desperate to stay. In the good old west, cities like Hamburg, Essen, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt or München, companies treat technical staff 100% nicer at 50% better pay. That's at least been my experience in the late 90s.


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## Nononymous

My experiences living in Berlin have been very positive. I worked in the digital agency and design world. The money was okay, not great, but that really wasn't my priority - getting some international experience and sharpening my language skills were far more important. (Disclaimer: with a spouse in academia we've always had an extra salary to play with and health insurance taken care of, so I could afford to be relaxed about this.)

Berlin salaries are not great unless you're something very specialized or desirable, for obvious supply-demand reasons, as there are lots of lots of creative/software types wanting to live in the city. 

The cost of living I've found to be lower than Canada - eating out, beer, groceries, anything involving children - but that's in part because I didn't try to replicate my Canadian life with house and multiple cars, we were perfectly happy with a decent apartment, bicycles and good public transit.

[on edit] The bureaucracy hasn't given us much trouble. On our last visit, with appointments made ahead of time we had residence and work permits in 20 minutes. But I suspect that pleasant, respectable Canadians who know how to fill out the paperwork correctly and speak fluent German are a rarity and are treated extremely well.


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## CookehMonsta2

thanks for the replies, even if i can do without the lecturing. I was missing home (Italy), figured i could brush up on my childhood german, and in the tech sector you have highs and lows, I went from a contractor on a fabulous day rate to unemployed so when the prospect came up in Germany i jumped at the opportunity.

I was paid by a company in the south of Germany, and it was considered good for Germany, but still did not compare to the comfy six figures you get in Australia in tech. and the work culture was just awful. I'm talking enterprise IT here, not goofy startups. to compare, just say that the work hours in Big 4 tech consulting in australia, here in Germany was considered a "good work-life balance". In fact this supposed promise of "work-life balance" was what I was promised, I didn't come for the salary. 

Twisted arrogant EU dictators, these krauts. I have not forgiven them for what they did Greece and the Euro.


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## Nononymous

I never had huge issues with work-life balance in Germany either. Though that might just be me, in all my jobs across various countries I just leave whenever I want to leave, and I never get fired for it.


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## CookehMonsta2

if I was to skip the country and not pay the notice period rent, what would happen?


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## Stevesolar

CookehMonsta2 said:


> if I was to skip the country and not pay the notice period rent, what would happen?


Realistically - not a lot!


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## Nononymous

The landlord would keep the 3 months' deposit, I expect, so it would work out the same as if you had paid the rent then had the deposit returned. Only advantage to this strategy is that you don't lose the rent and the deposit if the landlord tries to charge you for damage to the apartment or for a settlement of the heating bill. Disadvantage is having a potential mess to deal with in the unlikely event that you return to Germany.


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