The FMEL’s buildings are reserved for bachelor’s and master’s students enrolled at one of the following schools :

• University of Lausanne (UNIL)
• Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL)
• École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (cantonal school of art, ECAL)
• School of Management and Engineering Vaud (HEIG-VD)
• La Source School of Nursing
• Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne (HEMU)
• Haute Ecole de Santé Vaud (HESAV)
• Haute école de travail social et de la santé Lausanne (HETSL)
• Haute école pédagogique du canton de Vaud (HEP-VD)
• Changins – School of Viticulture and Oenology
• Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL)
• La Manufacture – Haute école des arts de la scène
• University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland (HES-SO) in the canton of Vaud

Students enrolled in the School of French as a Foreign Language at UNIL, EPFL and in the Special Mathematics Courses (CMS) at EPFL.

However, doctoral and postgraduate students, as well as students who have already have a master’s degree, are not entitled to book accommodation in FMEL buildings. (See Applications guidelines, art. 1)

Yes, you can reserve accommodation. Your legal representative must sign the lease on your behalf.

Accommodation is allocated automatically via our computer system.

Please create an account on the FMEL portal under the ‘book’ tab. You will be able to enter your choices concerning the start and end dates of your lease, the type of accommodation you require and your budget.

If an accommodation matching your preferences is available, the computer system will send you a housing offer by e-mail, which you will have to accept within 48 hours.

Please note that the profile must be created with the first name and surname of the student looking for accommodation. No changes will be made to these details afterwards, and if you receive an offer that does not match your details, it will be cancelled.

• A copy of your ID card or passport.
• If you receive an offer, you will need to provide a certificate of enrolment or a valid proof of pre-registration.

The lease is for a fixed term. The minimum term of the contract is 3 months. At the end of this minimum term, the contract is automatically renewed for 6 months at a time until the specified end date (the last renewal date may be less than 6 months). The maximum duration of the contract is 3 years (in a single contract or by combining several contracts).

After the minimum contract term of 3 months has expired, the termination period is 2 months for the 15th or the end of a month.

Contracts begin on the 1st and 16th of each month and end on the 15th or last day of the month.

* Special conditions apply to tenants of the Welcome Centre (UNIL) and the Planète Bleue residence.  

According to FMEL regulations, it is not possible to take over a lease.

FMEL leases are for a fixed term. The end date is chosen by the tenant before the lease is signed. If the maximum term of 3 years has not been reached, a request for an extension may be submitted to the administration of your home approximately 6 months before the initially chosen end date, but there is no guarantee that it will be accepted. The approval of an extension request depends in particular on the start date of the following semester (either mid-September or mid-February). Therefore, an extension cannot go beyond these deadlines: September 15 or February 15, depending on the initially planned end date in the contract.

This is because FMEL must reserve a certain number of accommodations for EPFL and UNIL, in accordance with the agreement signed with these institutions.

You can indicate your preferences in terms of budget and type of accommodation. However, it is not possible to choose houses.

FMEL offers the following types of furnished accommodation :

• Single rooms with private bathroom and kitchen to be shared with other tenants with the same type of accommodation.
• Shared rooms in flats (mixed): private room in a flat to be shared by several tenants. The bathroom may be private or shared between several flatmates.
• Studios for 1 or 2 people: with bathroom and kitchenette.
• Flats: with two bedrooms or one bedroom and a living room. Kitchen and bathroom.

More information in the tab dedicated to residences (‘Our homes’).

No. At the moment, you can't choose the people you share with.

Studios 1-2P are furnished for two students. You can stay alone or with a person of your choice. The lease is issued in the name of one person only, and the price indicated is for the studio and not per occupant.

• Once you have booked your accommodation, please continue the process without delay, within 48 hours at the latest.
• During the process, you will receive an email confirming your provisional booking. A number of details concerning payment of the security deposit and contractual documents to be signed electronically (tick boxes) will be available on the portal.
• Please continue the process until you reach the ‘Final validation’ page.
• As soon as FMEL has received the security deposit certificate from your bank, the booking will be definitive.

• The security deposit is CHF 1,200. It is payable no later than 10 working days after receipt of the relevant e-mail. The security deposit is temporarily blocked in an account to cover any damage or breakages to your accommodation or non-payment of rent. If all your payments are up to date, it will be returned to you in the weeks following the end of the lease.

• You can transfer the deposit to Banque Cantonale de Fribourg, our partner bank, which offers you a simplified procedure. You can also open a security deposit with the Swiss bank of your choice, provided that the bank does not require the landlord's signature to open the deposit. An e-mail with more information will be sent to you in due course. Swiss Caution or any other collection agency will not be accepted.

• As soon as FMEL has received the security deposit certificate from your bank, the booking will be definitive and you will receive all the information you need for your arrival.

 As soon as FMEL has received the certificate of security deposit from your bank, the booking is definitive and you will receive all the information you need to plan your arrival. Please note that it takes between 10 and 20 days to open a deposit account. We therefore advise you to do this as soon as possible. It is important to note that access to accommodation cannot be granted until the FMEL has received official confirmation from the bank.

1 – Cancellation conditions before accepting the housing offer
When a person does not wish to accept a housing offer that has been assigned to them by the system, they must reject it online through the portal. If they take no action, the offer will automatically be cancelled after 48 hours.

2 – Cancellation conditions once the housing offer has been accepted
If you sign a rental contract with FMEL but ultimately need to cancel the contract, fees will be deducted:

 • Fees after signing but before the lease start date, or after the lease start date but without check-in (key handover), according to our guidelines:

Application guidelines

• After signing, lease start date, and check-in (key handover)
In this situation, it is no longer considered as a cancellation but as a termination of the lease.
Rent is due for 3 months from the beginning of the lease, in accordance with our minimum 3-month rental conditions.

See FAQ 33 / art. 57 of the RIUL / rental contract, section 4.

• Please send send an e-mail to  it-helpdesk@fmel.ch to indicate which profile should remain active.
• Please note that your personal details must match those on your identity card or passport for your booking to be accepted.
• If our system detects several profiles with the same data or details, all the profiles will be automatically blocked.

Animals are not accepted at the FMEL.

However, a request for an assistance/alert dog can be made by the tenant within 48 hours following an offer of accommodation and before it is accepted. This request must contain the medical certificate in French or English and the certificate for the assistance dog. All requests are subject to approval by the FMEL Management. If approved, an assistance dog guidelines document must be signed by the tenant. No priority is given to these people in the allocation of accommodation within the FMEL.

Conditions for staying with an assistance dog :

• Only in studio (please indicate in your preferences the type of accommodation ‘studio 1p’ and/or ‘studio 1-2p’).
• Signature of the guidelines document that forms an integral part of the lease.
• Only with a certificate of daily support for reasons of health and vital safety of the person concerned. 
• Certificates of emotional support will not be considered.”

The following houses have parking spaces : Cèdres, Jordils, Marcolet, Rainbow and Rhodanie. Parking spaces are available on request and subject to availability. Please contact the administration of your house for further information.

UNIL and EPFL also rent parking spaces to students. For more information, please follow these links :

https://www.unil.ch/parking/fr/home.html

https://www.epfl.ch/campus/mobility/fr/mobilite/vehicules/parking/

Please contact the administration of the house where you were a tenant to reactivate your FMEL account.

• Check that you’re using the correct email address (the one used to create your profile).
• Click on the Login button on the booking portal, enter your login details and click the LOGIN button with the mouse, without using Enter on your computer keyboard.
• If this still doesn’t work, please try with another browser or send an email to it-helpdesk@fmel.ch.

• Yes. You can sublet your room or studio to another student.
• The future tenant must send an email to the admin manager of the building concerned to submit the request for subletting before the start of the subletting period.
• For more information, please consult the rules and regulations of our buildings.

Yes, after one year's stay at FMEL, the tenant may request a change of accommodation and/or house. This possibility is only available for leases signed before 1 January, 2024.

Please send your request to the administration of your residence, who will put you on the waiting list and inform you of the rest of the process.

Terminations will be accepted in cases of exmatriculation for "force majeure" if the exmatriculation is for failure or medical reasons (proof of failure or medical certificate required).

• Termination notice given 31 days (or more) in advance CHF 150.- (force majeure)
• Termination notice given between 15 and 30 days in advance CHF 300.- (force majeure)

Any request for exceptional termination must be made at least 15 days in advance.

No, kitchenware is not included. Each tenant must bring their own crockery.

All requests for technical assistance have to be made via the reservation portal, under the section ‘Room maintenance’.

• Yes, you are responsible for the cleanliness of your accommodation and, if you are sharing, the communal areas (living room, kitchen, shared bathroom) must also be clean. You are also responsible for any damage caused.
• During your stay, and in particular at check-out, you must leave your room or studio as well as the common areas (kitchen, living room and bathroom) in a perfect state of maintenance and cleanliness. Think of the next tenant. They want the place to be nice when they move into it.
• To ensure that the communal areas of your accommodation are kept clean, the house managers makes regular scheduled visits to check on the state of cleanliness.

If they find the common areas of your accommodation…

• ...bright and shiny, they’ll award you a green card. Keep it up!
• ...really leave something to be desired, you get a yellow card. You have one week to get out your mop and broom to remedy the situation.
• ...still in an unacceptable state despite the fact you’ve already had a yellow card, the caretaker will see red and give you a red card. You’ll receive a warning and will be billed for cleaning expenses.

IncaMail is Swiss Post's secure e-mail service for sending confidential information. Our tenants can use this system, which replaces ordinary registered mail, to receive particularly important letters addressed to them.

Please note that access to ATRIUM and to the VORTEX residence is restricted every year during the Balélec festival in May. Only tenants are allowed to access their residence on the day of the festival.

As a tenant, your first obligation is to pay the rent in advance, no later than 5 days after the date of the invoice. Each month, you will receive an e-mail with an invoice and QR code. If, for any reason, you do not receive your e-bill, please do not hesitate to contact the Finance and Accounts Department by email finance@fmel.ch, but please check your spam folder first. You can also use the QR code from the previous month.

Important points:

• Only use the monthly QR-code invoice. This enables us to process your payment automatically. You have two options for payment: transfer from a Swiss bank account (by scanning the QR-code with your bank application) or payment in cash or debit card at a post office using the QR-code. Please note that any bank charges must be charged to the customer.
• To make your life easier we strongly recommend that you create a standing order by scanning the QR-code with your bank application. If you have questions about how to do it, please contact your e-banking hotline.
• First Rent payment:
  • If arriving in your room within the first month after the beginning of your housing contract, please pay your rent payment only once you’ve opened a Swiss bank account
  • If arriving in your room more than 1 month after the beginning of your housing contract, please contact our finance department regarding payment on finance@fmel.ch
• Please note that payments by cheque, credit card, international money transfer, etc., are not accepted.
• In case of payment without the use of the BVR, we will be obliged to charge you an administration fee.

Thank you for respecting the payment terms. This makes life easier both for us and for you!

• In Switzerland, the visitor’s tax is set by the municipality and in most cases amounts to CHF 37 per month. It is not included in your rent.
• Students whose place of residence is abroad and who are staying in the canton of Vaud to attend a course are subject to the visitor’s tax.
• Students who receive a Swiss or foreign grant or scholarship or who have a secondary occupation where tax is deducted directly from their pay do not have to pay the visitor’s tax.

SERAFE is the body commissioned by the Federal Office of Communications to collect the media licence fee, which amounts to CHF 335.- per household. This fee is a legal obligation that is governed by the law on radio and television (LRTV). Unfortunately, the FMEL has no way of influencing the fact that some homes are subject to the fee and others are not.

There are three possible cases :

1. If you live in a single room (without a kitchen), you are exempt from the tax.
2. If you share a flat, you have to pay a single bill for the whole household (otherwise you share the costs between you, so it's up to you to arrange payment).
3. If you live in a studio, you have to pay the tax.

If you do not wish to pay the full fee, contact directly SERAFE to pay only the amount corresponding to the duration of your lease.

If you do nothing or do not pay, you will incur additional costs.

• The tenant’s personal belongings are insured for up to CHF 5,000 for fire and natural disasters (flooding) by the ECA (Etablissement Cantonal d’Assurance, the cantonal insurance institution).
• Burglary in a FMEL accommodation is covered by the household contents insurance up to a maximum of CHF 5,000.- Be warned: simple theft (without breaking and entering) is not covered.
• From the beginning of the lease and throughout its duration, FMEL tenants are covered by liability insurance (RC) for any damage that they may cause to third parties, to buildings or to outdoor spaces, all over Switzerland. Damage covered by liability insurance (RC) must be accidental. Liability does not cover non- maintenance.

Depending on the terms of your lease you can terminate it on the 15th or the last day of a month, with two months’ notice. To do this, log in to your FMEL account and go to the ‘My booking’ section to select the desired end of lease date.

Please note that certain fields must be completed in advance to unlock this function, including :

• Your future address
• Your bank details

You’ll find more information here. Please also refer to Art. 57 of the internal regulations

Once the check-out has been completed and the end date of your contract has been reached, your house administration will send you the necessary documents to complete the refund formalities. If your payments are up to date, we will do our utmost to release the security deposit as soon as possible, but this may take a few weeks.