Written Notice To Leave Apartment Template for Switzerland

The official form requirement in Article 266l of the Code of Obligations applies to a landlord's notice of termination, not to a tenant's. A tenant's notice must be in writing under the same article, and the lease may set out how and where it should be sent. In practice that means a signed letter rather than a phone call or a message, sent in a way that shows when it arrived, because receipt is what the notice period runs from. Where two or more people are named as tenants, the notice is normally expected from all of them, so collect the signatures before sending rather than assuming one will do.

For residential premises, Article 266c of the Code of Obligations sets three months' notice, expiring on a locally customary termination date unless the lease provides otherwise. The termination dates recorded in your lease are the ones to work back from, and the notice has to have arrived by then rather than merely been posted. Missing the date is not fatal but it is expensive: under Article 266a(2) a notice that misses the required period or date takes effect on the next possible date instead of being void, which can add another three months of rent. Count backwards from the termination date and allow for delivery.

Article 264 of the Code of Obligations releases a departing tenant early only if they put forward a replacement tenant who is solvent, acceptable to the landlord and willing to take the lease on the same terms. All three conditions have to hold, so a candidate offering to pay more, or wanting the flat on different terms, does not discharge you. Present the person in writing with enough information for the landlord to assess them, and allow reasonable time for that assessment. Without such a tenant, rent continues to run until the next permitted termination date even after you have handed back the keys.

No. Under Article 266m of the Code of Obligations, a tenant may terminate the lease of a family home only with the express consent of their spouse or registered partner. A notice given without that consent is void under Article 266o, and a void notice leaves the tenancy running, so rent keeps accruing while both sides believe it has ended. Record the consent on the notice itself, signed and dated, rather than in a conversation. The article protects a spouse or registered partner who is not named on the lease; where two unmarried people are both named as tenants, the point is simply that a joint tenancy needs both signatures.

Contract law, including tenancy, sits in the federal Swiss Code of Obligations, so the notice rules are the same throughout Switzerland. What varies is local: the customary termination dates the three month period expires on, and the moving practices built around them, which is why two identical leases in different places can have different last possible dates. Read your own lease first, since it may fix those dates expressly and displace the local custom. Where it is silent, the customary dates for the place the property is in are what apply, so establish them before you start counting back three months.