Chat­tel own­er­ship relates to mov­able phys­ic­al ob­jects and to forces of nature that may be the sub­ject of leg­al rights and which do not form part of any im­mov­able prop­erty.

¹ Trans­fer of chat­tel own­er­ship re­quires the de­liv­ery of pos­ses­sion to the ac­quirer.

² A per­son who in good faith re­ceives pos­ses­sion of a chat­tel as own­er will be­come its own­er even if the trans­fer­or is not au­thor­ised to ali­en­ate it as soon his or her pos­ses­sion of it is pro­tec­ted ac­cord­ing to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing pos­ses­sion.

¹ Re­ser­va­tion of own­er­ship in re­spect of a chat­tel trans­ferred to the ac­quirer is only ef­fect­ive provided it is entered in the of­fi­cial re­gister kept by the debt en­force­ment of­fice at his or her cur­rent dom­i­cile.

² Re­ser­va­tion of own­er­ship is not per­mit­ted in live­stock trad­ing.

An ob­ject trans­ferred un­der re­ser­va­tion of own­er­ship may be re­claimed by the own­er only on con­di­tion that he or she re­im­burse any pay­ments made for it by the ac­quirer after de­duc­tion of an ap­pro­pri­ate rent­al charge and com­pens­a­tion for wear and tear.

¹ If as a res­ult of a spe­cial leg­al re­la­tion­ship, the chat­tel re­mains in the trans­fer­or’s pos­ses­sion, this trans­fer of own­er­ship is null and void in re­la­tion third parties if the un­der­ly­ing in­ten­tion was to dis­ad­vant­age them or to cir­cum­vent the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the pledging of chat­tels.

² The court shall rules on this at its dis­cre­tion.

Own­er­ship of an own­er­less chat­tel is ac­quired by the act of tak­ing it in­to pos­ses­sion with the in­ten­tion of be­com­ing its own­er.

¹ Cap­tured an­im­als be­come own­er­less if they re­gain their free­dom and their own­er fails to search for them im­me­di­ately and per­sist­ently with a view to re­cap­tur­ing them.

² Do­mest­ic­ated an­im­als be­come own­er­less once they re­gress to a fer­al state and no longer re­turn to their mas­ters.

³ Swarms of bees do not be­come own­er­less by vir­tue of stray­ing onto land be­long­ing to oth­ers.

¹ A per­son find­ing a lost ob­ject must in­form its own­er and, if the lat­ter is un­known, either re­port the find to the po­lice or him­self take ap­pro­pri­ate steps to pub­li­cise the find and trace the own­er.

² He or she has a duty to re­port the find to the po­lice if the value of the ob­ject clearly ex­ceeds ten francs.

³ A per­son who finds an ob­ject in an oc­cu­pied house or on premises used for pub­lic ser­vices or pub­lic trans­port must de­pos­it it with the head of the house­hold, the ten­ant or the su­per­visor.

¹ A per­son who finds a lost an­im­al must, sub­ject to Art. 720 para. 3, in­form the own­er or, if the lat­ter is un­known, re­port his or her find.

² The can­tons des­ig­nate the au­thor­ity to which such finds must be re­por­ted.

¹ A find must be held in ap­pro­pri­ate safe­keep­ing.

² If it re­quires ex­pens­ive main­ten­ance or is sus­cept­ible to rap­id de­teri­or­a­tion, or if the po­lice or a pub­lic body has held it for more than one year, it may be sold at pub­lic auc­tion with the pri­or au­thor­isa­tion of the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity.

³ The pro­ceeds of sale at auc­tion re­place the ob­ject.

¹ A per­son who has dis­charged his or her du­ties as find­er ac­quires own­er­ship of the find if it has not been pos­sible to trace the right­ful own­er with­in five years of the an­nounce­ment or pub­lic no­tice be­ing giv­en of the find.

^1bis In the case of an­im­als kept as pets rather than for in­vest­ment or com­mer­cial pur­poses, the peri­od is two months.⁵⁷⁷

^1ter If the find­er puts the an­im­al in a home with the in­ten­tion of re­noun­cing its own­er­ship, on ex­piry of the two-month peri­od the an­im­al home is at liberty to dis­pose of the an­im­al as it sees fit.⁵⁷⁸

² If the find is re­turned to its own­er, the find­er is en­titled to com­pens­a­tion for all out­lays and to a suit­able find­er’s re­ward.

³ In the case of a find made in an oc­cu­pied house or on premises used for pub­lic ser­vices or pub­lic trans­port, the head of the house­hold, ten­ant or su­per­visor is deemed to be the find­er but is not en­titled to any find­er’s re­ward.

¹ If an ob­ject of value is found in cir­cum­stances in­dic­at­ing with cer­tainty that it has lain bur­ied or hid­den so long that it will not be pos­sible to trace its own­er, it is treated as treas­ure trove.

² Sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing ob­jects of sci­entif­ic value, treas­ure trove be­longs to the own­er of the land or chat­tel where it was found.

³ The find­er is en­titled to an ap­pro­pri­ate find­er’s re­ward not ex­ceed­ing one-half of the treas­ure’s value.

¹ Own­er­less nat­ur­al spe­ci­mens and an­tiquit­ies of sci­entif­ic value are the prop­erty of the can­ton on whose ter­rit­ory they are found.⁵⁷⁹

^1bis Such ob­jects must not be ali­en­ated without the con­sent of the com­pet­ent can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies. They may not be pur­chased in good faith or ac­quired through ad­verse pos­ses­sion. There is no pre­script­ive peri­od on the can­ton’s right to re­cov­er them.⁵⁸⁰

² The own­er of the land on which such ob­jects are found is ob­liged to per­mit their ex­cav­a­tion in ex­change for com­pens­a­tion for the dam­age caused.

³ The find­er, and in the case of treas­ure trove also the own­er is en­titled to an ap­pro­pri­ate find­er’s re­ward not ex­ceed­ing one-half of the value of the find.

¹ If chat­tels are car­ried onto a per­son’s prop­erty by wa­ter, wind, ava­lanche or oth­er force of nature or by chance event, or if an­im­als be­long­ing to oth­ers stray onto his or her prop­erty, such a per­son has the rights and ob­lig­a­tions of the find­er of a lost ob­ject.

² If a swarm of bees flies in­to an oc­cu­pied bee­hive be­long­ing to an­oth­er per­son, the own­er of that hive ac­quires said swarm without ob­lig­a­tion to com­pensate.

¹ If a per­son has pro­cessed or re­worked an ob­ject that does not be­long to him, the newly cre­ated ob­ject be­comes the prop­erty of that per­son if the work is more valu­able than the ma­ter­i­al, fail­ing which it be­longs to the ori­gin­al own­er.

² Where the per­son do­ing such work did not act in good faith, the court may award the newly cre­ated ob­ject to the ori­gin­al own­er even if his or her work is more valu­able than the ma­ter­i­al.

³ Claims for dam­ages and un­just en­rich­ment are re­served.

¹ If chat­tels be­long­ing to dif­fer­ent own­ers are mixed or joined to­geth­er such that they may no longer be sep­ar­ated without sub­stan­tial dam­age or pro­hib­it­ive la­bour and ex­pense, those in­volved ac­quire joint own­er­ship rights in the new ob­ject in pro­por­tion to the value of the con­stitu­ent parts at the time that they were mixed or joined.

² If one chat­tel is mixed with or joined to an­oth­er such that it ac­quires the char­ac­ter of a sec­ond­ary com­pon­ent of the lat­ter, the en­tire ob­ject be­longs to the own­er of the primary com­pon­ent.

³ Claims for dam­ages and un­just en­rich­ment are re­served.

¹ If a per­son has pos­sessed a chat­tel be­long­ing to an­oth­er per­son un­in­ter­rup­tedly and without chal­lenge for five years be­liev­ing in good faith that he or she owns it, he or she be­comes its own­er by ad­verse pos­ses­sion.

^1bis In the case of an­im­als kept as pets rather than for in­vest­ment or com­mer­cial pur­poses, the peri­od is two months.⁵⁸¹

^1ter Sub­ject to ex­cep­tions pre­scribed by law, the time lim­it for ad­verse pos­ses­sion in the case of ob­jects of cul­tur­al her­it­age with­in the mean­ing of Art. 2 para. 1 of the Cul­tur­al Prop­erty Trans­fer Act of 20 June 2003⁵⁸² is 30 years.⁵⁸³

² In­vol­un­tary loss of pos­ses­sion does not in­ter­rupt ad­verse pos­ses­sion provided the pos­sessor re­gains the chat­tel with­in one year or by means of leg­al ac­tion brought with­in the same time lim­it.

³ The com­pu­ta­tion, in­ter­rup­tion and sus­pen­sion of ad­verse pos­ses­sion time lim­its are gov­erned mu­tatis mutandis by the pro­vi­sions on the pre­scrip­tion of debts.

Even where pos­ses­sion has been lost, own­er­ship of the chat­tel is not ex­tin­guished un­til the own­er re­lin­quishes his or her right or un­til an­oth­er per­son sub­sequently ac­quires own­er­ship.

¹ A par­cel of land may be en­cumbered in fa­vour of an­oth­er prop­erty such that the ser­vi­ent own­er must per­mit the own­er of the dom­in­ant prop­erty to ex­er­cise cer­tain rights over it to or may not ex­er­cise cer­tain of the rights at­tach­ing to his or her prop­erty for the be­ne­fit of the own­er of the dom­in­ant prop­erty.

² An ob­lig­a­tion to carry out cer­tain acts may only be ac­cess­ory to an ease­ment. Any per­son ac­quir­ing the dom­in­ant or ser­vi­ent prop­erty is only bound by such an ob­lig­a­tion if it is based on an entry in the land re­gister.⁵⁸⁴

¹ An ease­ment is cre­ated by entry in the land re­gister.

² The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing land own­er­ship ap­ply to the ac­quis­i­tion or re­gis­tra­tion of an ease­ment, ex­cept where oth­er­wise provided.

³ Ad­verse pos­ses­sion of an ease­ment is pos­sible only in re­spect of par­cels of land which may be pos­sessed ad­versely.

¹ The leg­al trans­ac­tion cre­at­ing an ease­ment is only val­id if done as a pub­lic deed.

² If in the cir­cum­stances the ex­er­cise of the ease­ment is lim­ited to part of the dom­in­ant prop­erty and if the geo­graph­ic­al loc­a­tion is not suf­fi­ciently iden­ti­fi­able in the cer­ti­fic­ate of leg­al title, it must be shown in a dia­gram in an ex­tract of the plan for the land re­gister.

The own­er of a prop­erty may cre­ate an ease­ment on a prop­erty in fa­vour of an­oth­er prop­erty which he or she also owns.

An ease­ment is ex­tin­guished with the de­le­tion of its re­gis­tra­tion or the com­plete loss of either the ser­vi­ent or the dom­in­ant prop­erty.

¹ If the be­ne­fi­ciary of an ease­ment be­comes the ser­vi­ent own­er, he or she may have the ease­ment de­leted from the land re­gister.

² If it is not de­leted, the ease­ment re­mains in place as a right in rem.

¹ If an ease­ment is of no value to the dom­in­ant prop­erty, the ser­vi­ent own­er may re­quest its de­le­tion.

² If the dom­in­ant prop­erty still de­rives a be­ne­fit from the ease­ment but this is minor and dis­pro­por­tion­ate to the en­cum­brance, the ease­ment may be partly or wholly can­celled in re­turn for com­pens­a­tion.

¹ The be­ne­fi­ciary is en­titled to take all meas­ures ne­ces­sary to pre­serve and ex­er­cise the ease­ment.

² However, he or she is ob­liged to ex­er­cise his or her rights as be­nignly as pos­sible.

³ The ser­vi­ent own­er must not do any­thing to ob­struct the ex­er­cise of the ease­ment or render it more dif­fi­cult.

¹ The land re­gister entry for an ease­ment defines the scope of the ease­ment, provided it clearly in­dic­ates the at­tend­ant rights and du­ties.

² With­in the lim­its of such entry, the scope of the ease­ment may be in­ferred from the reas­on for its cre­ation or from the fact that it has been ex­er­cised un­chal­lenged and in good faith for some length of time.

Ad­di­tion­al en­cum­brances may not be im­posed on the ser­vi­ent own­er if the needs of the dom­in­ant prop­erty change.

In the ab­sence of any oth­er spe­cif­ic ar­range­ment in a giv­en case, can­ton­al law and loc­al cus­tom shall gov­ern rights of way, such as foot­paths, bridle paths, car­riage­ways, field paths, rights of trans­it in the dead sea­son or for cart­ing wood, rights of pas­ture, of trans­it for wa­ter­ing cattle or for ir­rig­a­tion and sim­il­ar rights.

¹ If two or more be­ne­fi­ciar­ies be­ne­fit from com­mon fix­tures based on the same ease­ment and if no oth­er agree­ment ex­ists, the pro­vi­sions ap­plic­able to co-own­ers ap­ply by ana­logy.

² The right to leave the com­munity by waiv­ing the ease­ment may be ex­cluded for a max­im­um of 30 years by agree­ment in the form spe­cified for the ease­ment agree­ment. The agree­ment may be noted in the land re­gister.

¹The be­ne­fi­ciary is re­spons­ible for main­tain­ing any fix­tures re­quired for the ex­er­cise of an ease­ment.

² If the fix­ture also serves the in­terests of the ser­vi­ent own­er, both parties are re­spons­ible for its main­ten­ance in pro­por­tion to their in­terests. An al­tern­at­ive ar­range­ment is bind­ing on the ac­quirer of the dom­in­ant and the ac­quirer of the ser­vi­ent prop­erty if there is proof there­of in the land re­gister.⁵⁸⁷

¹ If only part of a prop­erty is af­fected by the ex­er­cise of an ease­ment, the ser­vi­ent own­er is en­titled, provided he or she can show a le­git­im­ate in­terest and bears the cost, to re­quest that the right be trans­ferred to an­oth­er loc­a­tion which is no less suit­able for the be­ne­fi­ciary.

² He or she is en­titled to do so even if the ease­ment is re­cor­ded in the land re­gister as be­ing in a spe­cif­ic loc­a­tion.

³ ...⁵⁸⁹

¹ If the dom­in­ant prop­erty is par­ti­tioned, the ease­ment nor­mally con­tin­ues to ex­ist in fa­vour of each part of the dom­in­ant prop­erty.

² If ac­cord­ing to the doc­u­ment­ary evid­ence or the cir­cum­stances the ex­er­cise of the ease­ment is lim­ited to in­di­vidu­al parts of the prop­erty, it must be de­leted in re­spect of the oth­er parts.

³ The re­vi­sion pro­ced­ure is gov­erned by the reg­u­la­tions on the de­le­tion and amend­ment of land re­gister entries.

¹ A usu­fruct may be held over chat­tels, im­mov­able prop­erty, rights or as­sets.

² Un­less oth­er­wise provided, it con­fers com­plete en­joy­ment of the ob­ject on the usu­fructu­ary.

³ A usu­fruct of im­mov­able prop­erty may be lim­ited to a spe­cif­ic part there­of.⁵⁹²

¹ A usu­fruct of chat­tels or debts is es­tab­lished by trans­fer to the ac­quirer and a usu­fruct of im­mov­able prop­erty by entry in the land re­gister.

² The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing own­er­ship ap­ply to the ac­quis­i­tion of a usu­fruct of chat­tels and of im­mov­able prop­erty as well as to entry in the land re­gister, ex­cept where oth­er­wise provided.

¹ Usu­fruct is ex­tin­guished in the event of the com­plete loss of the ob­ject to which it ap­plies and in the case of im­mov­able prop­erty on de­le­tion of the entry from the land re­gister where the entry was re­quired to es­tab­lish the usu­fruct.

² Oth­er grounds for ex­tinc­tion, such as the pas­sage of time or the re­nun­ci­ation or death of the usu­fructu­ary, con­fer on the own­er only a right to ap­ply for the de­le­tion of the entry.

³ A stat­utory usu­fruct ends on ces­sa­tion of its cause.

¹ Usu­fruct ceases with the death of the usu­fructu­ary and in the case of leg­al en­tit­ies on their dis­sol­u­tion.

² In the case of leg­al en­tit­ies, however, it may not last more than 100 years.

¹ The own­er of the ob­ject of a usu­fruct is not ob­liged to re­place or re­store the ob­ject if it has been des­troyed.

² If it is re­placed or re­stored the usu­fruct is re­stored with it.

³ If an ob­ject that has been des­troyed is re­placed, as may be the case with com­puls­ory pur­chase and in­sur­ance in­dem­nit­ies, the usu­fruct con­tin­ues on the re­place­ment ob­ject.

When the usu­fruct ends, the per­son in pos­ses­sion of the ob­ject must re­turn it to the own­er.

¹ The usu­fructu­ary is li­able for com­plete loss or de­teri­or­a­tion of the ob­ject, un­less he or she shows that he or she was not at fault.

² He or she must re­place any items which have been used up if such con­sump­tion is not in­trins­ic to the use of the ob­ject.

³ He or she is not ob­liged to com­pensate for any de­pre­ci­ation caused by the prop­er use of the ob­ject.

¹ If the usu­fructu­ary has of his or her own free will in­curred costs or made im­prove­ments, on re­turn of the ob­ject he or she may re­quest com­pens­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing agency without au­thor­ity.

² He or she is en­titled to re­move any fix­tures he or she has in­stalled for which the own­er is not pre­pared to pay com­pens­a­tion; he or she is, however, ob­liged to re­store the ob­ject to its pre­vi­ous con­di­tion.

The own­er’s right to com­pens­a­tion for al­ter­a­tions or de­pre­ci­ation and the usu­fructu­ary’s right to com­pens­a­tion for ex­pendit­ure or to re­move fix­tures pre­scribe one year after the re­turn of the ob­ject.

¹ The usu­fructu­ary has the rights of pos­ses­sion, use and en­joy­ment of the ob­ject.

² He or she is re­spons­ible for look­ing after it.

³ In the ex­er­cise of these rights, he or she must ex­er­cise reas­on­able care.

¹ Nat­ur­al fruits be­long to the usu­fructu­ary if they have ripened dur­ing the peri­od of the usu­fruct.

² The per­son who has cul­tiv­ated the land is en­titled to claim equit­able com­pens­a­tion for his or her costs from the per­son who re­ceives the ripe fruits, whereby this com­pens­a­tion should not ex­ceed their value.

³ Con­stitu­ent parts of the usu­fruct oth­er than fruits or pro­duce be­long to the own­er.

In­terest on usu­fructu­ary cap­it­al and oth­er peri­od­ic re­turns ac­crue to the usu­fructu­ary from the day on which the usu­fruct be­gins un­til the day on which it ends, even if they ma­ture at a later date.

¹ Un­less it is a strictly per­son­al right, the ex­er­cise of the usu­fruct may be as­signed to an­oth­er per­son.

² The own­er is en­titled to as­sert his or her rights dir­ectly against such per­son.

The own­er may ob­ject to any un­law­ful or in­ap­pro­pri­ate use of the ob­ject.

¹ The own­er is en­titled to re­quest se­cur­ity from the usu­fructu­ary provid­ing he or she may show that his or her rights are jeop­ard­ised.

² He or she is en­titled to re­quest se­cur­ity without such show­ing and already be­fore trans­fer where con­sum­able ob­jects or se­cur­it­ies are the ob­ject of the usu­fruct.

³ If se­cur­it­ies are the ob­ject of the usu­fruct, their de­pos­it con­sti­tutes suf­fi­cient se­cur­ity.

¹ A per­son who has trans­ferred an ob­ject as a gift while re­serving a per­son­al right of usu­fruct may not be re­quired to provide se­cur­ity.

² The ob­lig­a­tion to provide se­cur­ity in the case of stat­utory usu­fruct is sub­ject to the spe­cif­ic rules gov­ern­ing the leg­al re­la­tion­ship.

If the usu­fructu­ary fails to provide se­cur­ity with­in the reas­on­able time lim­it set for that pur­pose, or if he or she per­sists in us­ing the ob­ject un­law­fully des­pite the own­er’s ob­jec­tions, the court may dis­pos­sess him or her of the ob­ject un­til fur­ther no­tice and ap­point a trust­ee.

The own­er and the usu­fructu­ary have the right at any time to re­quest that a pub­licly not­ar­ised in­vent­ory of the ob­jects sub­ject to the usu­fruct be drawn up at their joint ex­pense.

¹ The usu­fructu­ary must pre­serve the ob­ject in its ori­gin­al con­di­tion and of his or her own ac­cord carry out such re­pairs and renov­a­tions as con­sti­tute nor­mal main­ten­ance.

² If more sub­stan­tial work or meas­ures are ne­ces­sary to pro­tect the ob­ject, the usu­fructu­ary must in­form the own­er and al­low such work to be car­ried out.

³ If the own­er does not at­tend to the mat­ter, the usu­fructu­ary is au­thor­ised to take the ne­ces­sary steps at the own­er’s ex­pense.

¹ The usu­fructu­ary must bear the costs of the nor­mal main­ten­ance and ad­min­is­tra­tion of the ob­ject, the in­terest on the at­tend­ant debt and taxes and oth­er du­ties for the dur­a­tion of his or her rights over the ob­ject.

² If the taxes and du­ties are pay­able by the own­er, the usu­fructu­ary must com­pensate him or her to the same ex­tent.

³ All oth­er charges are borne by the own­er, but if the usu­fructu­ary does not ad­vance the own­er the ne­ces­sary funds on re­quest, he or she is en­titled to dis­pose of parts of the usu­fruct for this pur­pose.

In the case of a usu­fruct of as­sets, the usu­fructu­ary must pay in­terest on the debts but, where jus­ti­fied in the cir­cum­stances, is en­titled on re­quest to be re­leased from that ob­lig­a­tion by re­demp­tion of the debt so that af­ter­wards the usu­fruct is con­fined to the re­mainder of the as­sets.

¹ The usu­fructu­ary must in­sure the ob­ject in fa­vour of the own­er against fire and oth­er risks to the ex­tent such in­sur­ance is re­quired un­der the duty of care re­quired by loc­al cus­tom.

² Where this is the case, and also where a usu­fruct is es­tab­lished on an already in­sured ob­ject, the usu­fructu­ary bears the costs of the in­sur­ance for the dur­a­tion of the usu­fruct.

¹ The usu­fructu­ary of im­mov­able prop­erty must en­sure that it is not ex­ploited bey­ond the nor­mal lim­its by the type of use to which it is put.

² To the ex­tent that fruits are col­lec­ted bey­ond such lim­its they be­long to the own­er.

¹ The usu­fructu­ary must not change the in­ten­ded use of the im­mov­able prop­erty in a man­ner that is sig­ni­fic­antly det­ri­ment­al to the own­er.

² He or she must neither trans­form nor sub­stan­tially modi­fy the ob­ject.

³ He or she may dig quar­ries, marl pits, peat cut­tings and the like only after giv­ing pri­or no­tice to the own­er and on con­di­tion that the in­ten­ded use of the im­mov­able prop­erty is not sub­stan­tially changed.

¹ The usu­fructu­ary of wood­land is en­titled to farm it with­in the lim­its of a reas­on­able busi­ness plan.

² Both own­er and usu­fructu­ary may re­quire com­pli­ance with a plan which takes due ac­count of their rights.

³ Where there is large-scale loss of wood­land caused by storm, snow, fire, in­sect in­fest­a­tion or oth­er factors, either the ex­ploit­a­tion must gradu­ally be re­duced or the busi­ness plan ad­ap­ted to the changed cir­cum­stances; in­come real­ised from the clear­ing of tim­ber must be in­ves­ted at in­terest and serves as com­pens­a­tion for the loss of wood­land.

The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the usu­fruct of wood­land ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to the usu­fruct of ob­jects, such as mines, whose use in­volves the ex­trac­tion of sub­stances from the earth.

¹ In the ab­sence of an agree­ment to the con­trary, the usu­fructu­ary be­comes the own­er of con­sum­able ob­jects but is li­able to re­place the value they had at the be­gin­ning of the usu­fruct.

² Where any oth­er chat­tels which have been val­ued are trans­ferred to the usu­fructu­ary he or she may, in the ab­sence of an agree­ment to the con­trary, freely dis­pose of them but is li­able for their re­place­ment if he or she ex­er­cises such right.

³ Ag­ri­cul­tur­al equip­ment, herds of an­im­als, stores of goods and the like may be re­placed with ob­jects of the same kind and qual­ity.

¹ A usu­fruct of debts en­titles the usu­fructu­ary to re­tain the real­ised rev­en­ue.

² No­tices of ter­min­a­tion to the debt­or and dis­pos­i­tions re­lat­ing to se­cur­it­ies sub­ject to a usu­fruct must be made jointly by the cred­it­or and the usu­fructu­ary; no­tices of ter­min­a­tion by the debt­or must be ad­dressed to both.

³ If a debt is at risk, the cred­it­or and the usu­fructu­ary have a mu­tu­al right to re­quest each oth­er’s con­sent to such meas­ures as are re­quired to en­sure di­li­gent ad­min­is­tra­tion.

¹ If the debt­or is not spe­cific­ally au­thor­ised to re­pay either the cred­it­or or the usu­fructu­ary, he or she must pay them jointly or de­pos­it the amount.

² The be­ne­fit re­ceived, such as the re­pay­ment of the prin­cip­al, if un­der the usu­fruct.

³ Both cred­it­or and usu­fructu­ary are en­titled to a se­cure, in­terest-bear­ing re­in­vest­ment of the prin­cip­al.

¹ The usu­fructu­ary has the right to re­quest the as­sign­ment of the debts and se­cur­it­ies over which he or she has a usu­fruct with­in three months of the be­gin­ning there­of.

² Once as­sign­ment has been ef­fected, he or she is li­able to the former cred­it­or for the value of the debts and se­cur­it­ies as at the date of as­sign­ment and is re­quired to provide se­cur­ity for that amount un­less waived by the cred­it­or.

³ If the cred­it­or has not waived his or her right to se­cur­ity, the as­sign­ment be­comes ef­fect­ive only once se­cur­ity has been pos­ted.

¹ The right of res­id­ence is the right to live in all or part of a build­ing.

² It is neither trans­fer­able nor her­it­able.

³ It is sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing usu­fruct un­less the law provides oth­er­wise.

¹ The scope of the right of res­id­ence is gen­er­ally tailored to the per­son­al re­quire­ments of the usu­fructu­ary.

² However, un­less the right is ex­pressly re­stric­ted to the per­son of the hold­er, he or she may share the res­id­ence with his or her fam­ily and house­hold.

³ If the right of res­id­ence is lim­ited to part of a build­ing, the hold­er may use the fit­tings and in­stall­a­tions in­ten­ded for com­mon use.

¹ If the right of res­id­ence is ex­clus­ive, the usu­fructu­ary bears the costs of or­din­ary main­ten­ance.

² If the right of res­id­ence is ex­er­cised jointly with the own­er, the lat­ter bears the main­ten­ance costs.

¹ Im­mov­able prop­erty may be en­cumbered with an ease­ment en­titling a third party to erect or main­tain a con­struc­tion above or be­low ground on such land.

² Un­less oth­er­wise agreed, this right is trans­fer­able and her­it­able.

³ If the build­ing right has the char­ac­ter of a dis­tinct and per­man­ent right it may be re­cor­ded in the land re­gister as im­mov­able prop­erty.

¹ The leg­al trans­ac­tion cre­at­ing a build­ing right is only val­id if done as a pub­lic deed.

² If the re­mu­ner­a­tion for the build­ing right and any oth­er con­trac­tu­al pro­vi­sions should be noted in the land re­gister, they are also only val­id if done as a pub­lic deed.

¹ Con­trac­tu­al pro­vi­sions on the nature and scope of a build­ing right, such as loc­a­tion, design, size and pur­pose of the build­ings, as well as on the use of land which, al­though not built on, is used in the ex­er­cise of the build­ing right, are bind­ing on every new own­er of the right and the ser­vi­ent prop­erty.

² Ad­di­tion­al con­trac­tu­al pro­vi­sions may be noted in the land re­gister, if the parties so agree.⁵⁹⁸

When the build­ing right ex­pires, any ex­ist­ing con­struc­tion re­verts to the landown­er and be­comes an in­teg­ral part of his or her par­cel of land.

¹ The landown­er must pay the hold­er of the ex­pired right ad­equate com­pens­a­tion for the build­ings which have re­ver­ted to his or her own­er­ship, but such com­pens­a­tion is sub­ject to the out­stand­ing claims of cred­it­ors to whom the build­ing right was pledged as se­cur­ity and is not pay­able to the hold­er of the build­ing right without their con­sent.

² If the com­pens­a­tion has neither been paid nor se­cured, the hold­er of the ex­pired right or a cred­it­or to whom the build­ing right was pledged as se­cur­ity may re­quest that a mort­gage right be re­gistered in place of and with the same rank as the ex­pired right as se­cur­ity for the com­pens­a­tion claim.

³ Such re­gis­tra­tion must be made with­in three months of ex­piry of the build­ing right.

If the hold­er of the build­ing right grossly vi­ol­ates his or her right in rem or his or her con­trac­tu­al ob­lig­a­tions, the own­er is en­titled to pre­ma­ture re­ver­sion by re­quest­ing that the build­ing right with all rights and en­cum­brances be trans­ferred back to him or her.

¹ The right of re­ver­sion may be ex­er­cised only provided ad­equate com­pens­a­tion is paid for the re­vert­ing build­ings, the amount pay­able be­ing sus­cept­ible to re­duc­tion if the hold­er of the build­ing right is at fault.

² The build­ing right will not be trans­ferred to the own­er un­til the com­pens­a­tion has been paid or se­cured.

The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the ex­er­cise of the right of re­ver­sion ap­ply to all rights re­served by the landown­er to ter­min­ate or re­claim the build­ing right pre­ma­turely in the event of breach of duty.

¹ Provided the build­ing right is re­cor­ded in the land re­gister, the landown­er is en­titled to es­tab­lished a li­en there­on against each cur­rent hold­er as se­cur­ity for up to three an­nu­al pay­ments.

² Where the re­mu­ner­a­tion does not con­sist of equal an­nu­al pay­ments, the landown­er is en­titled to re­cord a stat­utory li­en for an amount ag­greg­at­ing three an­nu­al pay­ments.

¹ The li­en may be re­cor­ded at any time dur­ing the ex­ist­ence of the build­ing right and is ex­empt from de­le­tion in com­puls­ory sale pro­ceed­ings.

² The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing re­cord­ing of a build­ing con­tract­or’s li­en ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

¹ A build­ing right may be es­tab­lished as a dis­tinct right for a max­im­um of 100 years.

² It may be pro­longed at any time for a fur­ther peri­od of up to 100 years in the same form as that re­quired for its es­tab­lish­ment, but any ob­lig­a­tion to do so stip­u­lated in ad­vance is not bind­ing.

¹ The right of ac­cess to a wa­ter source on a par­cel of land owned by an­oth­er en­cum­bers such land with a ser­vitude per­mit­ting the draw­ing and chan­nel­ling-off of wa­ter.

² Un­less oth­er­wise agreed, the right is trans­fer­able and her­it­able.

³ If the right of ac­cess to wa­ter is dis­tinct and per­man­ent, it may be re­cor­ded in the land re­gister as im­mov­able prop­erty.

¹ An own­er may es­tab­lish oth­er ser­vitudes on his or her prop­erty in fa­vour of any per­son or group if such ser­vitudes meet a par­tic­u­lar need, such as rights of ac­cess for shoot­ing prac­tice or rights of way.

² Un­less oth­er­wise agreed, such ser­vitudes are non-trans­fer­able and their nature and scope is based on the be­ne­fi­ciar­ies’ nor­mal needs.

³ In oth­er re­spects they are sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing ease­ments.

The be­ne­fi­ciar­ies of an ease­ment re­cor­ded in the land re­gister are sub­ject by ana­logy to the pro­vi­sions on ju­di­cial meas­ures in the event that the own­er can­not be found or in the ab­sence of the re­quired man­age­ment bod­ies of a leg­al en­tity.

¹ A real bur­den ob­liges an own­er of im­mov­able prop­erty to ful­fil an ob­lig­a­tion to a be­ne­fi­ciary for which he or she is li­able solely with the im­mov­able prop­erty.

² The cur­rent own­er of an­oth­er prop­erty may be des­ig­nated as the be­ne­fi­ciary.

³ Oth­er than in the case of pub­lic law real bur­dens, a real bur­den may have as its ob­ject only one ob­lig­a­tion, which is de­term­ined either by the nature of the ser­vi­ent prop­erty or the eco­nom­ic needs of the be­nefited prop­erty.⁶⁰⁹

¹ A real bur­den is es­tab­lished by re­cord­ing in the land re­gister.

² The entry must stip­u­late a total value for the real bur­den de­nom­in­ated in Swiss cur­rency which, in the case of peri­od­ic pay­ments and in the ab­sence of any agree­ment to the con­trary, shall equal twenty times the an­nu­al pay­ment.

³ The pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing land own­er­ship ap­ply to the ac­quis­i­tion or re­gis­tra­tion of real bur­dens, un­less oth­er­wise provided.

The es­tab­lish­ment of pub­lic law real bur­dens and their ef­fect in re­la­tion to third parties act­ing in good faith is gov­erned by ana­logy by the pro­vi­sions of can­ton­al law on stat­utory li­ens.

¹A real bur­den is ex­tin­guished on de­le­tion of the entry or on the com­plete loss of the ser­vi­ent prop­erty.

² In the case of re­demp­tion, re­place­ment or oth­er causes of ex­tinc­tion, the burdened own­er ac­quires a right against the be­ne­fi­ciary for the de­le­tion of the entry.

¹ The cred­it­or may re­quest re­demp­tion of the real bur­den by agree­ment and also:⁶¹²

1.⁶¹³

if the ser­vi­ent prop­erty has been di­vided and the cred­it­or does not ac­cept the trans­fer of the debt to the di­vided parts;

2.

if the own­er re­duces the value of the land without provid­ing oth­er se­cur­ity by way of re­place­ment;

3.

if the debt­or is in ar­rears for three years’ worth of per­form­ance.

² If the cred­it­or re­quests re­demp­tion due to the di­vi­sion of the prop­erty, the he or she must give one year’s no­tice of ter­min­a­tion with­in one month of the trans­fer be­com­ing leg­ally bind­ing.⁶¹⁴

¹The debt­or may re­quest re­demp­tion of the real bur­den by agree­ment, and also:

1.

if the be­ne­fi­ciary fails to abide by the agree­ment es­tab­lish­ing the real bur­den;

2.

if the real bur­den has been in ex­ist­ence for thirty years, even where a longer dur­a­tion or a charge in per­petu­ity was agreed.

² If the debt­or wishes to re­deem the charge after thirty years, he or she must in every case give no­tice of ter­min­a­tion one year in ad­vance.

³ The real bur­den may not be re­deemed in such man­ner if it is linked with a per­petu­al ease­ment.

The re­demp­tion sum is equal to the amount re­cor­ded in the land re­gister as the total value of the real bur­den, un­less its real value is shown to be less.

¹ A real bur­den is not sub­ject to pre­scrip­tion.

² Each in­di­vidu­al ob­lig­a­tion is sub­ject to pre­scrip­tion from the time it be­comes the ob­lig­or’s per­son­al debt.

¹ The real bur­den cred­it­or has no per­son­al claim against the debt­or, but only the right to sat­is­fac­tion from the ser­vi­ent prop­erty.

² However, three years after it if due, each in­di­vidu­al ob­lig­a­tion be­comes a per­son­al ob­lig­a­tion for which the prop­erty is no longer li­able.

¹ If the land changes own­er­ship, the new own­er auto­mat­ic­ally be­comes the ob­lig­or un­der the real bur­den.

² If the land is di­vided, the own­ers of the di­vided parts be­come debt­ors un­der the real bur­den. The debt is ap­por­tioned over the di­vided parts of the prop­erty in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions on mort­gage con­tracts.⁶¹⁵

¹ A mort­gage may be cre­ated on im­mov­able prop­erty in the form of a mort­gage con­tract or a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate.⁶¹⁶

² No oth­er types of mort­gage are per­mit­ted.

¹ Whenev­er a mort­gage is cre­ated, a spe­cif­ic amount de­nom­in­ated in Swiss cur­rency must be in­dic­ated as the debt.

² If the amount of the debt is un­spe­cified, a max­im­um amount must be in­dic­ated up to which the prop­erty is li­able for all claims of the cred­it­or.

¹ The in­terest pay­able may be set at any level at the parties’ dis­cre­tion with­in the leg­al lim­its im­posed to pre­vent ab­us­ive in­terest rates.

² Can­ton­al law may provide for a max­im­um per­miss­ible in­terest rate for debts se­cured by mort­gages.

¹ A mort­gage may be cre­ated only on im­mov­able prop­erty re­cor­ded in the land re­gister.

² The can­tons may pro­hib­it or en­act spe­cial pro­vi­sions to reg­u­late the cre­ation of mort­gages over pub­licly owned land or over com­mon land and pas­tures owned by cor­por­a­tions, and over any as­so­ci­ated rights of use.

¹ Where a mort­gage is cre­ated, the im­mov­able prop­erty that it en­cum­bers must be clearly spe­cified.

² Parts of a prop­erty may not be made sub­ject to a mort­gage un­less the di­vi­sion of the prop­erty has been re­cor­ded in the land re­gister.

¹ A mort­gage right may be cre­ated on two or more prop­er­ties for a single debt provided the prop­er­ties are all owned by the same per­son or by debt­ors who are jointly and sev­er­ally li­able.

² In all oth­er cases where more than one prop­erty is made sub­ject to a mort­gage as se­cur­ity for a single debt, each of the prop­er­ties shall be en­cumbered for a spe­cified por­tion of the total debt.

³ Un­less oth­er­wise agreed, the total amount se­cured by the mort­gage is di­vided in pro­por­tion to the val­ues of the prop­er­ties.

The Fed­er­al Act of 4 Oc­to­ber 1991⁶¹⁸ on Rur­al Land Rights ap­plies to the es­tab­lish­ment of mort­gages over ag­ri­cul­tur­al prop­er­ties.

¹ Sub­ject to ex­cep­tions provided by law, a mort­gage is cre­ated by its re­cord­ing in the land re­gister.

² A leg­al trans­ac­tion cre­at­ing a mort­gage is val­id only if done as a pub­lic deed.⁶¹⁹

¹ In the case of joint own­er­ship of a prop­erty, each joint own­er may cre­ate a mort­gage over his or her share.

² In the case of col­lect­ive own­er­ship, the prop­erty may be made sub­ject to a mort­gage only as a whole and in the name of all co-own­ers.

¹A mort­gage is ex­tin­guished on de­le­tion of the entry or the com­plete loss of the prop­erty.

² Ex­tinc­tion as a res­ult of com­puls­ory pur­chase is gov­erned by fed­er­al and can­ton­al com­puls­ory pur­chase law.

¹ In the case of land con­sol­id­a­tion pro­ced­ures car­ried out with the as­sist­ance or un­der the su­per­vi­sion of the pub­lic au­thor­it­ies, the mort­gage rights as­signed are trans­ferred with the same rank­ing to the land al­lot­ted by way of re­place­ment.

² Where one par­cel of land re­places sev­er­al par­cels which are sub­ject to a mort­gage as se­cur­ity for dif­fer­ent debts, or not all of which are sub­ject to a mort­gage, the li­ens will be ap­plied to the single par­cel of land and their rank­ing pre­served wherever pos­sible.

The debt­or is en­titled to re­deem li­ens on par­cels of land in­volved in a land con­sol­id­a­tion pro­ced­ure by giv­ing three months’ no­tice ex­pir­ing on the date on which such con­sol­id­a­tion takes ef­fect.

¹ Where mon­et­ary com­pens­a­tion is re­ceived in con­nec­tion with the con­sol­id­a­tion of par­cels of land sub­ject to mort­gages, such funds are dis­trib­uted among the cred­it­ors ac­cord­ing to their rank or, if of equal rank, in pro­por­tion to the size of their claims.

² Such com­pens­a­tion must not be paid to the debt­or without the cred­it­ors’ con­sent if it ex­ceeds one-twen­ti­eth of the se­cured debt, or if the new par­cel of land no longer provides suf­fi­cient se­cur­ity.

¹ A mort­gage right en­cum­bers the en­tire prop­erty in­clud­ing all its con­stitu­ent parts and ac­cessor­ies.

² If ac­cessor­ies, such as ma­chines or hotel fur­nish­ings, are ex­pressly lis­ted in the mort­gage agree­ment and noted as such in the land re­gister, they are treated ac­cord­ingly un­less it is shown that the law pre­cludes their qual­i­fic­a­tion as ac­cessor­ies.

³ Rights of third parties to the ac­cessor­ies are re­served.

¹ If the mort­gaged prop­erty is let, the mort­gage cov­ers the rent claims which ac­crue between the date on which fore­clos­ure pro­ceed­ings are com­menced or the date on which the debt­or is de­clared bank­rupt and the date of real­isa­tion.

² Ten­ants and less­ees are bound by the mort­gage only once they have been in­formed of the en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings or the bank­ruptcy has been pub­lished.

³ Trans­ac­tions by the prop­erty own­er in­volving claims for un­ma­tured rent and any ac­tions of dis­traint by oth­er cred­it­ors are in­val­id in re­spect of any mort­gage cred­it­or who ini­ti­ated fore­clos­ure pro­ceed­ings be­fore the rent claims ma­tured.

Claims for which a mort­gage has been re­cor­ded in the land re­gister are not sub­ject to pre­scrip­tion.

¹ If the own­er re­duces the value of the mort­gaged prop­erty, the cred­it­or may re­quest that the court pro­hib­it any fur­ther det­ri­ment­al ac­tion.

² The cred­it­or may be au­thor­ised by the court to take ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures and may do so even without au­thor­isa­tion if there is risk in delay.

³ He or she may re­quest com­pens­a­tion for the costs of such meas­ures from the own­er and shall ac­quire a li­en on the prop­erty for the cor­res­pond­ing amount. This li­en does not re­quire to be re­cor­ded in the land re­gister and takes pre­ced­ence over all oth­er re­gistered en­cum­brances.⁶²⁰

⁴ If the amount of the li­en ex­ceeds 1000 francs and the li­en is not re­cor­ded in the land re­gister with­in four months of com­ple­tion of the meas­ures, it may not cited in op­pos­i­tion to third parties who rely on the land re­gister in good faith.⁶²¹

¹ If the prop­erty has de­pre­ci­ated, the cred­it­or has the right to re­quest that the debt­or se­cure his or her debts or re­store the prop­erty to its pre­vi­ous state.

² He or she may also de­mand se­cur­ity in the case of im­min­ent de­pre­ci­ation.

³ If the debt­or does not com­ply with­in the time lim­it set by the court, the cred­it­or may re­quest re­demp­tion of such por­tion of the debt as is ap­pro­pri­ate to com­pensate for the re­duced de­gree of se­cur­ity.

¹ In the event of de­pre­ci­ation without fault on the own­er’s part, the cred­it­or has a right to se­cur­ity or re­demp­tion only if the own­er is in­dem­ni­fied for the dam­age.

² However, the cred­it­or is en­titled to take meas­ures to pre­vent or elim­in­ate the de­pre­ci­ation. He or she shall ac­quire a li­en on the prop­erty for his or her costs which does not render the own­er per­son­ally li­able. This li­en does not re­quire to be re­cor­ded in the land re­gister and takes pre­ced­ence over all oth­er re­gistered en­cum­brances.⁶²²

³ If the amount of the li­en ex­ceeds 1000 francs and the li­en is not re­cor­ded in the land re­gister with­in four months of com­ple­tion of the meas­ures, it may not be cited in op­pos­i­tion to third parties who rely on the land re­gister in good faith.⁶²³

If a part of the prop­erty worth less than one-twen­ti­eth of the se­cured debt is dis­posed of, the cred­it­or may not re­fuse to re­lease this por­tion from li­ab­il­ity un­der the li­en provided a pro­por­tion­ate re­pay­ment of the debt is made or the rest of the prop­erty provides him or her with suf­fi­cient se­cur­ity.

¹ Any waiver by the own­er of right to cre­ate fur­ther charges over the ser­vi­ent prop­erty is non-bind­ing.

² If, after the mort­gage right has been cre­ated, the im­mov­able prop­erty is en­cumbered with an ease­ment or a real bur­den without the mort­gage cred­it­or’s con­sent, the mort­gage right takes pre­ced­ence over the later en­cum­brances, which will be de­leted if, in the event of en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings, their ex­ist­ence is pre­ju­di­cial to the mort­gage cred­it­or.

³ However, the be­ne­fi­ciary of the ease­ment or real bur­den has a claim for pay­ment of the value of his or her right out of the en­force­ment pro­ceeds, such claim tak­ing pre­ced­ence over the be­ne­fi­ciar­ies of en­cum­brances sub­sequently re­cor­ded in the land re­gister.

¹ A mort­gage is con­fined to the rank in­dic­ated in the entry.

² Mort­gage rights may be es­tab­lished in a second or any lower rank provided the amount tak­ing pre­ced­ence is spe­cified in the entry.

¹ If mort­gage rights of dif­fer­ent rank are cre­ated on an im­mov­able prop­erty, any de­le­tion does not en­title the be­ne­fi­ciar­ies of lower-rank­ing mort­gage to ad­vance in rank.

² The own­er may cre­ate an­oth­er mort­gage in place of one which has been de­leted.

³ An agree­ment provid­ing for mort­gage cred­it­ors to ad­vance in rank only has in rem ef­fect where it is re­cor­ded as a pri­or­ity no­tice in the land re­gister.

If a sub­or­din­ate mort­gage right is cre­ated and no high­er-rank­ing mort­gage ex­ists, or if the debt­or has not yet made use of an ex­ist­ing high­er-rank­ing right to cre­ate a mort­gage, or if a pre­ced­ent claim is worth less than the amount re­cor­ded in the land re­gister, in the event of fore­clos­ure, the pro­ceeds are dis­trib­uted among the ac­tu­al mort­gage cred­it­ors ac­cord­ing to their rank and ir­re­spect­ive of va­cant ranks.

¹ In the event of de­fault on the part of the debt­or, the cred­it­or has the right to pay­ment out of the pro­ceeds of the sale of the prop­erty.

² Any agree­ment stip­u­lat­ing that the prop­erty sub­ject to the mort­gage will be­come the prop­erty of the cred­it­or in the event of de­fault on the part of the debt­or is in­val­id.

³ Where sev­er­al prop­er­ties are made sub­ject to a mort­gage as se­cur­ity for a single claim, fore­clos­ure pro­ceed­ings must be brought sim­ul­tan­eously against all such prop­er­ties, while in­di­vidu­al prop­er­ties are sold only if deemed ne­ces­sary by the debt en­force­ment of­fice.

¹ The pro­ceeds from the sale of the prop­erty are dis­trib­uted among the mort­gage cred­it­ors ac­cord­ing to their rank.

² Cred­it­ors of the same rank are en­titled to equal sat­is­fac­tion.

¹ A mort­gage right se­cures the cred­it­or:

1.

for the prin­cip­al;

2.

for the costs of debt en­force­ment and de­fault in­terest;

3.⁶²⁴

for three years’ ac­crued an­nu­al in­terest due on the date of the ap­plic­a­tion for fore­clos­ure or the debt­or is de­clared bank­rupt, plus the in­terest due since the last ma­tur­ity date; in the case of a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate only the in­terest ac­tu­ally due is se­cured by the mort­gage.

² The in­terest rate ori­gin­ally agreed must not ex­ceed five per cent to the det­ri­ment of sub­or­din­ate mort­gage cred­it­ors.

¹ If a cred­it­or has in­curred ex­penses ne­ces­sary for the main­ten­ance of the prop­erty, in par­tic­u­lar by pay­ing in­sur­ance premi­ums owed by the own­er, such ex­penses are se­cured by a li­en over the prop­erty. This li­en does not re­quire to be re­cor­ded in the land re­gister and takes pre­ced­ence over all oth­er re­gistered en­cum­brances.

² If the amount of the li­en ex­ceeds 1000 francs and the li­en is not re­cor­ded in the land re­gister with­in four months of the com­pens­at­ory act be­ing car­ried out, it may not be cited in op­pos­i­tion to third parties who rely on the land re­gister in good faith.

¹ If a rur­al prop­erty in­creases in value due to im­prove­ments car­ried out with the help of the pub­lic au­thor­it­ies, the own­er may re­cord a li­en in the land re­gister as se­cur­ity for his or her share of the costs which takes pre­ced­ence over all oth­er re­gistered en­cum­brances on the prop­erty.

² If such land im­prove­ment is made without state sub­sidy, the own­er may enter the li­en for a max­im­um of two-thirds of his or her costs.

¹ If a land im­prove­ment is made without state sub­sidy, the debt in re­la­tion to the li­en must be re­paid in an­nu­al pay­ments of at least five per cent of the re­gistered amount of the li­en.

² The li­en is ex­tin­guished for the claim and for each an­nu­al pay­ment three years after ma­tur­ity, and any lower-rank­ing mort­gage cred­it­ors ad­vance in rank.

¹ A pay­ment un­der in­sur­ance policy may be made to the own­er of the in­sured prop­erty only with the con­sent of all the charge cred­it­ors.

² However, it may be made to the own­er for the pur­poses of restor­ing the prop­erty sub­ject to the charge provided ad­equate se­cur­ity is fur­nished.

³ In oth­er re­spects, the can­ton­al pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing fire in­sur­ance are re­served.

Where the name or place of res­id­ence of the cred­it­or is un­known, the court may, at the re­quest of the debt­or or oth­er in­ter­ested parties, or­der the ne­ces­sary meas­ures in cases where the law re­quires that a cred­it­or take per­son­al ac­tion as a mat­ter of ur­gency.

¹ A mort­gage con­tract may se­cure any kind of debt, be it cur­rent, fu­ture or con­tin­gent.

² The mort­gaged prop­erty need not be owned by the debt­or.

¹ A mort­gage con­tract is cre­ated in a spe­cif­ic rank even if the se­cured amount is in­de­term­in­ate or vari­able, and it re­tains such rank not­with­stand­ing any fluc­tu­ations in the se­cured amount.

² The cred­it­or may re­quest that the land re­gis­trar provide him or her with an ex­tract con­cern­ing the mort­gage con­tract. Such an ex­tract has only evid­en­tial status and does not con­sti­tute a ne­go­ti­able in­stru­ment.

³ In lieu of such evid­ence, a cer­ti­fic­ate of re­gis­tra­tion may be ap­pen­ded to the mort­gage con­tract deed.

If the debt is ex­tin­guished, the own­er of the mort­gaged prop­erty may re­quest the cred­it­or to au­thor­ise the de­le­tion of the entry from the land re­gister.

¹ If the prop­erty own­er is not the debt­or of the se­cured debt, he or she may re­deem the mort­gage on the same con­di­tions as the debt­or may re­pay the debt.

² If he or she sat­is­fies the cred­it­or, the claim passes to him or her.

¹ Where a prop­erty is mort­gaged for more than its value in re­spect of debts for which the ac­quirer is not per­son­ally li­able, and provid­ing no debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings are pending, can­ton­al law may au­thor­ise the ac­quirer to re­deem the mort­gage rights either by pay­ing the pur­chase price to the cred­it­ors or, where the prop­erty was ac­quired without pay­ment, the amount at which he or she val­ues the prop­erty.

² He or she must give the cred­it­ors six months’ no­tice in writ­ing of his or her in­ten­tion to re­deem the mort­gage.

³ The re­demp­tion amount is dis­trib­uted among the cred­it­ors ac­cord­ing to their rank.

¹ With­in one month of the ac­quirer’s no­ti­fic­a­tion, the cred­it­ors are en­titled to re­quest that the mort­gaged prop­erty be sold at pub­lic auc­tion provided that they ad­vance the costs, such auc­tion to be an­nounced pub­licly and held with­in one month of the date on which it was re­ques­ted.

² If a high­er price than the one offered is ob­tained at auc­tion, the mort­gage is re­deemed at that high­er price.

³ The costs of the pub­lic auc­tion are borne by the ac­quirer if a high­er price is ob­tained, or oth­er­wise by the cred­it­or who re­ques­ted the auc­tion.

Can­ton­al law may provide that the re­demp­tion amount be de­term­ined by an of­fi­cial valu­ation rather than by sale at pub­lic auc­tion.

Where the own­er of the mort­gaged prop­erty is not also the debt­or, no­tice giv­en by the cred­it­or to ter­min­ate his or her claim is bind­ing on the own­er only if it is served on both him or her and the debt­or.

¹ The ali­en­a­tion of a mort­gaged prop­erty does not af­fect li­ab­il­ity un­der the mort­gage con­tract and of the debt­or un­less oth­er­wise agreed.

² However, if the new own­er has as­sumed li­ab­il­ity for the se­cured debt, the pre­vi­ous debt­or is dis­charged un­less the cred­it­or no­ti­fies him or her in writ­ing with­in one year that he or she in­tends to re­tain him or her as debt­or.

¹ If part of a mort­gaged prop­erty or one of two or more mort­gaged prop­er­ties be­long­ing to the same own­er is ali­en­ated or if the mort­gaged prop­erty is di­vided, un­less oth­er­wise agreed, li­ab­il­ity un­der the mort­gage will be real­loc­ated in pro­por­tion to the value of the dif­fer­ent parts.

² If the cred­it­or does not wish to ac­cept such real­loc­a­tion, with­in one month of its be­com­ing fi­nal he or she may re­quest re­pay­ment of his or her debt with­in one year.

³ Where the new own­ers have as­sumed li­ab­il­ity for the debts se­cured by their prop­er­ties, the pre­vi­ous debt­or is dis­charged un­less the cred­it­or no­ti­fies him or her in writ­ing with­in one year that he or she in­tends to re­tain him or her as debt­or.

¹ If the new own­er as­sumes the debt, the land re­gis­trar no­ti­fies the cred­it­or ac­cord­ingly.

² The one-year time lim­it for the cred­it­or’s de­clar­a­tion runs as of such no­tice.

The as­sign­ment of a debt se­cured by a mort­gage con­tract is val­id without entry in the land re­gister.

¹ Where can­ton­al law grants the cred­it­or the right to a li­en in re­spect of debts that are dir­ectly re­lated to the ser­vi­ent prop­erty, the li­en is cre­ated when it is re­cor­ded in the land re­gister.

² Where stat­utory li­ens amount­ing to over 1000 francs are cre­ated un­der can­ton­al law without be­ing re­cor­ded in the land re­gister and if they are not re­cor­ded in the land re­gister with­in four months of the un­der­ly­ing debt be­com­ing due, or at the latest with­in two years of the debt arising, on ex­piry of the peri­od al­lowed for re­gis­tra­tion they may no longer be cited in op­pos­i­tion to third parties who rely on the land re­gister in good faith.

³ More re­strict­ive reg­u­la­tions un­der can­ton­al law are re­served.

¹ The right to es­tab­lish a stat­utory mort­gage right ap­plies to:

1.

the vendor’s claim to the sale price;

2.

the claims of co-heirs and oth­er co-own­ers in un­di­vided shares arising from the di­vi­sion of im­mov­able prop­erty which be­longed to the com­munity;

3.

the claims of trades­men and build­ing con­tract­ors who have sup­plied la­bour and ma­ter­i­als, or la­bour alone, for con­struc­tion or oth­er works, for de­moli­tion work, scaf­fold­ing work or for se­cur­ing the con­struc­tion pit or sim­il­ar on the prop­erty wheth­er the debt­or is the own­er of the prop­erty, trades­man or build­ing con­tract­or, ten­ant or any oth­er per­son with rights to the prop­erty.

² If a ten­ant or oth­er per­son with rights to the prop­erty is li­able for debts due to trades­men or build­ing con­tract­ors, the claim is val­id only if the prop­erty own­er has con­sen­ted to the work be­ing done.

³ The be­ne­fi­ciary may not waive such stat­utory mort­gage rights in ad­vance.

A li­en in fa­vour of the vendor, co-heirs or co-own­ers in un­di­vided shares must be re­gistered with­in three months of trans­fer of own­er­ship.

¹ A trades­man's or build­ing con­tract­or’s li­en may be re­cor­ded in the land re­gister as of the date of his or her un­der­tak­ing to per­form work.

² Ap­plic­a­tion for such entry must be made with­in four months of com­ple­tion of the work.

³ The li­en is entered only if the claim has been ac­know­ledged by the own­er or con­firmed in a court judg­ment and may not be re­ques­ted if the own­er provides the claimant with ad­equate se­cur­ity.

⁴ If the prop­erty is in­dis­put­ably ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sets and if the own­er's li­ab­il­ity for the debt is not based on con­trac­tu­al ob­lig­a­tions, the own­er shall be li­able to the trades­men or build­ing con­tract­or for debts that are ac­know­ledged or de­term­ined by a court in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions on a debt sub­ject to a simple surety, provided a writ­ten claim for the debt mak­ing ref­er­ence to the stat­utory surety was made against the own­er no later than four months after com­ple­tion of the work.

⁵ If there is a dis­pute as to wheth­er im­mov­able prop­erty con­sti­tutes ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sets, the trades­man or build­ing con­tract­or may ap­ply for the pro­vi­sion­al re­cord­ing of the li­en in the land re­gister no later than four months after com­ple­tion of the work.

⁶ If it is held in a court judg­ment that the im­mov­able prop­erty con­sti­tutes ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sets, the pro­vi­sion­al re­cord­ing of the li­en must be de­leted. It shall be re­placed by the stat­utory surety provided the re­quire­ments of para­graph 4 are met. The dead­line is met with the pro­vi­sion­al re­cord­ing of the li­en.

If more than one stat­utory build­ing con­tract­or’s li­en is re­cor­ded in the land re­gister, such li­ens con­fer an equal en­ti­tle­ment to sat­is­fac­tion from the mort­gaged prop­erty even if the entries were made on dif­fer­ent dates.

¹ Where the claims of trades­men and build­ing con­tract­ors are not wholly sat­is­fied by fore­clos­ure, the short­fall must be com­pensated for by the high­er-rank­ing cred­it­ors out of such por­tion of the pro­ceeds as ex­ceeds the land value, provided it is ap­par­ent to such cred­it­ors that their li­ens have en­cumbered the prop­erty to the det­ri­ment of the trades­men and build­ing con­tract­ors.

² If the high­er-rank­ing cred­it­or ali­en­ates his or her mort­gage se­cur­ity, he or she must com­pensate the trades­men and build­ing con­tract­ors for any sum of which they are de­prived by such ali­en­a­tion.

³ Once an in­ter­ested party has had the be­gin­ning of the work noted in the land re­gister, un­til the time lim­it for re­gis­tra­tion has ex­pired, li­ens may only be re­gistered in the form of mort­gage con­tracts.

¹ A mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate gives rise to a per­son­al debt se­cured by a mort­gage.

² In the ab­sence of an agree­ment to the con­trary, the mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate, where ap­plic­able, co-ex­ists with the debt to be se­cured that arises from the ba­sic re­la­tion­ship between the cred­it­or and the debt­or

³ The debt­or may raise the per­son­al ob­jec­tions arising from the ba­sic re­la­tion­ship against the cred­it­or and his or her leg­al suc­cessors where they do not act in good faith.

The mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate takes the form of either a re­gister mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate or a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate on pa­per.

¹ The own­er of a mort­gaged prop­erty who is not also the debt­or un­der the mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate is sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing mort­gage con­tracts.

² In the case of a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate, the own­er of the mort­gaged prop­erty may raise the same ob­jec­tions as the debt­or.

The con­sequences of the sale and the di­vi­sion of the prop­erty are gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions on mort­gage con­tracts.

¹ The mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate debt must neither re­late to the ba­sic re­la­tion­ship nor in­clude con­di­tions or con­sid­er­a­tions in re­turn.

² The mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate may in­clude debt-re­lated an­cil­lary agree­ments on the rate of in­terest, re­pay­ment in­stal­ments and dis­charge as well as oth­er an­cil­lary pro­vi­sions re­lat­ing to the mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate debt. A ref­er­ence to a sep­ar­ate agree­ment is per­mit­ted.

¹ The mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate may be dis­charged by the cred­it­or or the debt­or at six months no­tice at the end of any month un­less oth­er­wise agreed.

² Any agree­ment may not al­low the cred­it­or a short­er peri­od of no­tice than three months, un­less the debt­or de­faults in mak­ing the re­pay­ments or pay­ing the in­terest.

For any per­son re­ly­ing on the land re­gister in good faith, the de­tails of the mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate debt and the li­en ac­cord with the entry.

¹ The debt­or may raise only such ob­jec­tions as arise from the entry in the land re­gister or to which he or she is per­son­ally en­titled with re­gard to the cred­it­or or to doc­u­ment of title in the case of a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate on pa­per.

² Agree­ments in­clud­ing an­cil­lary pro­vi­sions on the mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate debt may only be cited in op­pos­i­tion to an ac­quirer of the mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate act­ing in good faith if they are re­ferred to in the land re­gister and on the doc­u­ment of title in the case of a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate on pa­per.

On the is­sue of a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate, a per­son may be gran­ted a power of at­tor­ney. This per­son must make and re­ceive pay­ments, re­ceive no­tices, con­sent to re­leases from li­ab­il­ity un­der the mort­gage and in gen­er­al safe­guard the rights of the cred­it­ors, debt­or and own­er with all due care and im­par­ti­al­ity

² The name of the au­thor­ised per­son must be re­cor­ded in the land re­gister and on the doc­u­ment of title.

³ If the power of at­tor­ney lapses and the per­sons in­volved are un­able to agree, the court shall make the ne­ces­sary ar­range­ments.

¹ The debt­or must make all pay­ments at the dom­i­cile of the cred­it­or un­less oth­er­wise agreed.

² If the cred­it­or’s dom­i­cile is un­known or has changed to the det­ri­ment of the debt­or, the lat­ter may dis­charge his or her ob­lig­a­tion by de­pos­it­ing pay­ment with the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity at his or her own dom­i­cile or at the cred­it­or’s former dom­i­cile

¹ Where the leg­al re­la­tion­ship changes to the ad­vant­age of the debt­or, in par­tic­u­lar through the re­pay­ment of the debt, the debt­or may re­quest the cred­it­or to agree to an amend­ment be­ing re­cor­ded in the land re­gister.

² In the case of a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate on pa­per, the land re­gister shall note the amend­ment on the doc­u­ment of title.

³ In the ab­sence of such an entry or the note on the doc­u­ment of title, the ef­fect of the change in the leg­al re­la­tion­ship has no ef­fect on an ac­quirer of the mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate act­ing in good faith.

If the mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate debt is dis­charged, the debt­or may re­quest the cred­it­or:

1.

to agree to trans­fer the re­gister mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate in­to the name of the debt­or; or

2.

to hand over the doc­u­ment of title to the pa­per mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate without can­cel­ling the same.

¹ If there is no longer a cred­it­or, or if the cred­it­or waives his or her li­en, the debt­or has the op­tion of either hav­ing the entry de­leted or al­low­ing it to re­main in the land re­gister.

² The debt­or also has the right to con­tin­ue to use the mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate.

A mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate on pa­per may not be de­leted from the land re­gister be­fore the doc­u­ment of title has been can­celled or de­clared void by the court.

¹ If the cred­it­or un­der a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate has not come for­ward for ten years and if no de­mand has been made for in­terest dur­ing that peri­od, the own­er of the mort­gaged prop­erty may ask the court to make a pub­lic call for the cred­it­or to come for­ward with­in six months

² If the cred­it­or fails to come for­ward with­in this peri­od and if an in­vest­ig­a­tion con­cludes that there is a high prob­ab­il­ity that a val­id claim no longer ex­ists, the court shall:

1.

in the case of a re­gister mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate, de­lete the li­en from the land re­gister; or

2.

can­cel the mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate on pa­per and de­lete the li­en from the land re­gister.

¹ A re­gister mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate is cre­ated when it is re­cor­ded in the land re­gister.

² It is re­cor­ded in the name of the cred­it­or or of the landown­er.

¹ The trans­fer of a re­gister mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate is achieved by re­cord­ing the new cred­it­or in the land re­gister based on a writ­ten de­clar­a­tion from the pre­vi­ous cred­it­or.

² Pay­ments by the debt­or only have a dis­char­ging ef­fect if they are made to the per­son who at the time of pay­ment is re­cor­ded as the cred­it­or in the land re­gister.

¹ The pledging of the re­gister mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate is achieved by re­cord­ing the cred­it­or of a charge on chat­tels in the land re­gister based on a writ­ten de­clar­a­tion from the cred­it­or re­cor­ded in the land re­gister.

² A dis­traint or­der is ex­ecuted by re­cord­ing the re­stric­tion on power of dis­pos­al in the land re­gister.

³ The usu­fruct is cre­ated by its re­cord­ing in the land re­gister.

¹ The cre­ation of a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate on pa­per al­ways re­quires an entry in the land re­gister and a doc­u­ment of title

² The bear­er or a spe­cif­ic per­son, in par­tic­u­lar the landown­er, may be named as the cred­it­or un­der the pa­per mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate.

³ The mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate shall take ef­fect on re­gis­tra­tion even if the doc­u­ment of title has not yet been is­sued.

¹ The mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate on pa­per is is­sued by the land re­gister is­sued.

² It must be signed by the land re­gis­trar in or­der to be val­id. Oth­er re­quire­ments as to form shall be im­posed by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

³ It may be de­livered to the cred­it­or or his or her au­thor­ised agent only with the ex­press con­sent of the debt­or and of the own­er of the ser­vi­ent prop­erty.

¹ For any per­son re­ly­ing on the land re­gister in good faith, the rights stated in the doc­u­ment of title duly is­sued as a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate on pa­per ap­ply.

² If the word­ing of the doc­u­ment of title does not cor­res­pond to the entry or if there is no entry, the land re­gister is au­thor­it­at­ive.

³ A per­son who has ac­quired a doc­u­ment of title in good faith is en­titled to dam­ages in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the land re­gister.

¹ A claim arising from a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate may not be ali­en­ated, pledged or oth­er­wise as­ser­ted un­less the claimant is in pos­ses­sion of the doc­u­ment.

² This does not ap­ply to the as­ser­tion of a claim in cases where the doc­u­ment of title has been can­celled or not yet is­sued

¹ The as­sign­ment of a mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ate debt re­quires the de­liv­ery of the doc­u­ment of title to the as­sign­ee.

² If the title is in the names of a per­son, the title must also be en­dorsed and the name of the as­sign­ee giv­en.

¹ Where a doc­u­ment of title has been lost or des­troyed without the in­ten­tion of re­pay­ing the debt, the cred­it­or may re­quest the court to can­cel the doc­u­ment of title and or­der the debt­or to make pay­ment or that a new doc­u­ment of title be is­sued for as yet un­ma­tured claims

² The can­cel­la­tion is made in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing the can­cel­la­tion of bear­er se­cur­it­ies but sub­ject to a no­tice peri­od of six months

³ Like­wise, the debt­or may re­quest that a lost cer­ti­fic­ate which has already been re­deemed be can­celled.

Re­pealed