Under Swiss tenancy law, the owner is in principle free to give notice in order to recover the use of his property.
The notion of the landlord’s own use arises, however, in clearly distinct legal situations, whether ordinary notice, early termination by a new acquirer, or an exception to the protection period against notices.
The situations in which personal need may be invoked
The personal or family need to recover the dwelling or the commercial premises may be invoked at different stages of the lease:
- Ordinary notice: The landlord may terminate the contract for the contractual termination dates and notice periods in order to occupy the premises himself or to house close relatives or relatives by marriage there; this ground is fully legitimate so long as it rests on a real, serious interest worthy of protection and does not constitute a purely vexatious pretext contrary to the rules of good faith.
- Alienation of the property or the protection period: The new owner who acquires the property may terminate early for the next statutory termination date, observing the statutory period of notice, if he asserts an urgent need for himself or his close relatives; likewise, an urgent need allows the landlord to give valid notice even during the three-year protection period following judicial or conciliation proceedings.
The notion of urgent need and the tenant’s rights
The urgency of the need and its effect on the actual end of the lease follow strict criteria laid down by judicial practice:
- The criteria of urgency: The urgency required on a purchase or during a protection period does not presuppose a situation of distress or absolute compulsion, but is assessed objectively where it appears intolerable or unreasonable to require the owner, for serious personal or economic reasons, to forgo the immediate use of his dwelling.
- The request for an extension of the lease: Even where notice for urgent need is held to be valid, the tenant retains the right to request an extension of the lease before the competent authority; the court then carries out a full weighing of interests, setting the urgency of the landlord’s needs against the hardship suffered by the tenant.
This ground is additional to the general rules on termination of a residential lease. For an individual, these cantonal rules are among those that an AI cannot decide alone, as explained in legal AI for individuals.
Legal sources
Federal legislation:
- Art. 261 para. 2 let. a CO (early termination for urgent need by the acquirer of the property)
- Art. 271 CO(cited in particular byFederal Supreme Court judgment 4A_475/2024;Federal Supreme Court judgment 4A_18/2016 ) (annulment of notice given in bad faith)
- Art. 271a para. 3 let. a CO (exception to the three-year protection period in cases of urgent need for the landlord or their close relatives)
- Art. 272 para. 2 let. d CO(cited in particular byBGE 118 II 50;Federal Supreme Court judgment 4A_18/2016 (consideration of the landlord’s own use when weighing interests regarding a lease extension)
Federal case law:
- BGE 118 II 50 (definition of urgent need, which does not require a state of absolute distress but rather that forgoing use would be intolerable)
- BGE 132 III 737 (temporal and substantive nature of urgent need, and exclusion of purely simulated or future grounds)
- Federal Supreme Court judgment 4A_18/2016 (distinction between the role of the landlord’s own use in ordinary notice, early termination, and lease extension)
- Federal Supreme Court judgment 4A_475/2024 (general admissibility of ordinary notice given by the landlord to occupy the property themselves or to house close relatives)