Forced Eviction (Zwangsräumung)

How a case reaches forced eviction

A forced eviction stands at the end of a long procedure, and no step can be skipped. It usually starts with unpaid rent: the landlord sets a deadline of at least 30 days and warns that the tenancy will be terminated (Zahlungsverzug nach Art. 257d OR). If the arrears are not settled, the landlord may terminate the lease extraordinarily. If the tenant then does not move out, the landlord has to apply to the court for an eviction order — there is no self-help route.

Only once the court has ordered the eviction and the deadline for voluntary departure has passed can the clearance be enforced, by the competent enforcement body — in many Zurich municipalities the Gemeindeammann, the municipal enforcement officer. A landlord must never change the locks or remove belongings on their own initiative; in Swiss law that is verbotene Eigenmacht (prohibited self-help) and exposes the landlord to damages, even when the rent really is unpaid.

What happens to the tenant's belongings

In a forced eviction the household contents may not simply be thrown away. As a rule they are inventoried item by item and stored for a set period so that the evicted person can collect them. Only when that deadline passes unused may the goods be sold or disposed of. Personal documents, identity papers and valuables are kept separately.

The costs of clearance and storage are in principle borne by the evicted person. In practice they often stay with the landlord, because there is nothing to recover from an insolvent tenant — one reason why an early conversation and an instalment agreement are usually the better outcome for both sides than the court route. For a landlord, a settlement at CHF 3,000 is regularly cheaper than a procedure that runs for months.

Our role in the process

We carry out clearances on behalf of landlords, property managers (Verwaltungen) and public authorities once the enforcement order is in place — never before. We document the condition of the property, draw up an inventory of the items left behind, put into storage what has to be stored, and clear the rest. Everything is recorded photographically so that the process remains verifiable later, which matters if the evicted person disputes what was found or removed.