Me and my husband are moving to Germany for his new job near Stuttgart. Currently we live in The Netherlands and have a big problem renting the apartment from abroad. Basicly nobody want's to rent us the apartment without viewing it first, even though my husband can provide a job contract and a contact person in his new company, who can confirm his employment and answer all questions. Unfortunately we can't come to Germany earlier to just look for apartments and our time to move is becoming very limited. What can we do in this situation? We need to move in in August and so far we have no place to stay and move our belongings. I checked some of the temporary accommodation agencies, but their prices and deposits are crazy!!! I really count on Your advice!
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I am not sure about Stuttgart but usually you need the SCHUFA to rent an apartment in DE, witch you cannot have unless you're already living in Germany. Catch 22– user8598Jul 1, 2016 at 12:35
2 Answers
I would suggest putting your belongings (assuming you have quite a lot of stuff to move) into storage, and staying in hotels for a short time until you find somewhere to rent. That gives you the flexibility to temporarily try out different areas in and around the city, as well as gauging such things as traffic, public transport, local facilities etc.
Once you are there, it should not take too long to find somewhere to stay, and while hotels are not known for being cheap, shouldn't some of the cost of this be borne by your husband's new employer anyway? He is relocating to another country for them, after all.
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1Thanks for the information, we decided to go with temporary place from airbnb and look for a permanent place once we're there. Thank you again! :) Jul 5, 2016 at 14:24
It's very unlikely to rent an appartment from private landlord without meeting them in person. Renting a flat is a great risk for a landlord, once you do, you can terminate the contract only under very specific circumstances (tenant not paying one of them), while the tenant can terminate on will. Because of that, people don't want to rent appartments to complete strangers.
You have more chance with corporate landlords, but there are not many of them, and they are mostly specialized in renting rooms (Wohnen auf Zeit), often with lower standard, often you're not allowed to stamp your name on letterbox (which makes receiving letters difficult, and if the sender is not willing to send letter as C/A, impossible).
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Thanks for the information, we decided to go with temporary place from airbnb and look for a permanent place once we're there. Thank you again! :) Jul 5, 2016 at 14:24