Federal Act
on the Registered Partnership
between Same-Sex Couples
(Same-Sex Partnership Act, SSPA)

This Act reg­u­lates the ef­fects, dis­sol­u­tion and con­ver­sion in­to mar­riage of re­gistered part­ner­ships between same-sex couples es­tab­lished be­fore the Amend­ment of 18 Decem­ber 2020⁴ to the Civil Code comes fully in­to force.

Re­pealed

¹ Any per­son who has an in­terest may at any time bring an ac­tion be­fore the court to have the re­gistered part­ner­ship de­clared null and void if:

a.

either of the part­ners was not cap­able of judge­ment at the time the part­ner­ship was re­gistered and has not be­come cap­able of judge­ment since then;

b.⁷

the part­ners are re­lated in dir­ect line, or are sib­lings or half-sib­lings;

b^bis.⁸

at the time of re­gis­tra­tion, either of the part­ners was already liv­ing in a re­gistered part­ner­ship or mar­ried, and the earli­er re­gistered part­ner­ship or mar­riage has not been dis­solved;

c.⁹

either of the pro­spect­ive spouses clearly has no in­ten­tion of liv­ing with the oth­er but wishes to cir­cum­vent the pro­vi­sions on the ad­mis­sion and res­id­ence of for­eign na­tion­als;

d.¹⁰

either of the part­ners did not give their free con­sent to the re­gis­tra­tion of the part­ner­ship;

e.¹¹

either of the part­ners is a minor, un­less the pur­pose of the re­gis­tra­tion meets the over­rid­ing in­terests of this part­ner.

² While a re­gistered part­ner­ship is in ex­ist­ence, the ac­tion shall be in­sti­tuted ex of­fi­cio by the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity at the part­ners’ place of res­id­ence. In­so­far as this is com­pat­ible with their du­ties, the fed­er­al and can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies shall no­ti­fy the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the ac­tion if they have reas­on to be­lieve that grounds for nullity ex­ist.¹²

¹ Either part­ner may bring an ac­tion be­fore the court to have the re­gistered part­ner­ship de­clared null and void on the grounds of viti­ated con­sent.

² The ac­tion for nullity must be filed with­in six months of ac­quir­ing know­ledge of viti­ated con­sent, but no later than five years after re­gis­tra­tion.

³ If the claimant dies dur­ing the pro­ceed­ings, an heir may con­tin­ue the pro­ceed­ings.

¹ The re­gistered part­ner­ship shall cease to be val­id on the date on which the judg­ment of nullity takes leg­al ef­fect.

² In­her­it­ance claims shall lapse ret­ro­act­ively. Oth­er­wise, the pro­vi­sions on the ef­fects of leg­al dis­sol­u­tion ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

The two part­ners shall of­fer each oth­er sup­port and show con­sid­er­a­tion for each oth­er.

¹ The part­ners are not re­quired to change their sur­names.

² When re­gis­ter­ing the part­ner­ship, however, they may de­clare to the re­gis­trar that they wish to use the sur­name of one of the part­ners as their com­mon name.

¹ The two part­ners shall each con­trib­ute, as far as they are able, to the prop­er main­ten­ance of their part­ner­ship. In ad­di­tion, Art­icles 163–165 of the Civil Code (CC)¹⁴ ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.¹⁵

² If they can­not agree, the court shall on re­quest de­term­ine the fin­an­cial con­tri­bu­tions to­wards main­ten­ance. The con­tri­bu­tions may be claimed for the fu­ture and for the year be­fore fil­ing the claim.

³ If a part­ner does not ful­fil his or her duty of main­ten­ance, the court may in­struct his or her debt­ors to make the pay­ments in whole or in part to the oth­er part­ner.

¹ A part­ner re­quires the ex­press con­sent of the oth­er part­ner in or­der to ter­min­ate a lease, sell the joint home, or re­strict the rights to the joint liv­ing area through oth­er leg­al trans­ac­tions.

² If con­sent can­not be ob­tained or is re­fused for no val­id reas­on, the mat­ter may be taken to court.

¹ While co­hab­it­ing, both part­ners rep­res­ent the part­ner­ship with re­gard to their day-to-day needs.

² A part­ner may rep­res­ent the part­ner­ship with re­gard to the oth­er needs of the uni­on only if:

a.

au­thor­ised so to do by the oth­er per­son or by court or­der; or

b.

the in­terests of the part­ner­ship brook no delay and the oth­er per­son is un­able to con­sent due to ill­ness, ab­sence or oth­er sim­il­ar reas­ons.

³ Each part­ner is per­son­ally li­able for his or her own ac­tions and, to the ex­tent that these do not ex­ceed his or her powers of rep­res­ent­a­tion in a man­ner ap­par­ent to third parties, also renders the oth­er per­son jointly and sev­er­ally li­able for such ac­tions.

⁴ If a part­ner ex­ceeds his or her power to rep­res­ent the part­ner­ship or proves in­cap­able of ex­er­cising it, at the oth­er part­ner’s re­quest the court may re­voke such power in whole or in part. The re­voc­a­tion is ef­fect­ive to­wards third parties act­ing in good faith only if it has been made pub­lic by or­der of the court.

¹ The part­ners must provide each oth­er with in­form­a­tion on their re­spect­ive in­comes, as­sets and debts.

² On re­quest, the court may or­der a part­ner or a third party to fur­nish the in­form­a­tion re­quired and to pro­duce the ne­ces­sary doc­u­ments.

³ This does not ap­ply to any in­form­a­tion held by law­yers, so­li­cit­ors, doc­tors, clergy and their aux­il­i­ary staff which is sub­ject to pro­fes­sion­al con­fid­en­ti­al­ity.

¹ Each part­ner is en­titled to ter­min­ate co­hab­it­a­tion for good cause.

² On re­quest, the court must:

a.

de­term­ine the mon­et­ary con­tri­bu­tions which the part­ners owe each oth­er;

b.

is­sue rules on the use of the home and the house­hold ef­fects.

³ A part­ner may also make such re­quest if the oth­er part­ner re­fuses to co­hab­it without good cause.

^3bis If a part­ner has ad­op­ted a minor child from the oth­er part­ner, the court must take the ne­ces­sary steps in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 270–327c CC¹⁶.¹⁷

⁴ If cir­cum­stances change, at the re­quest of either part­ner, the court shall modi­fy the meas­ures or re­voke the same.

¹ Each part­ner has his or her own as­sets.

² Each part­ner shall be use his or her own as­sets to cov­er his or her own debts.

¹ Any per­son who as­serts that a spe­cif­ic ob­ject or as­set is owned by one or oth­er part­ner bears the bur­den of proof.

² If no such proof may be ad­duced, there is a pre­sump­tion of co-own­er­ship.

¹ Each part­ner may at any time re­quire the oth­er’s co­oper­a­tion in draw­ing up an in­vent­ory of their joint as­sets in the form of a pub­lic deed.

² Such an in­vent­ory is deemed ac­cur­ate if made with­in one year of the in­clu­sion of such as­sets un­der the re­gime.

Where one part­ner ex­pressly or ta­citly en­trusts man­age­ment of his or her as­sets to the oth­er, the pro­vi­sions gov­ern­ing agency ap­ply un­less oth­er­wise agreed.

¹ To the ex­tent re­quired to en­sure the part­ner­ship’s fin­an­cial se­cur­ity or ful­fil­ment of a fin­an­cial ob­lig­a­tion arising from the re­gistered part­ner­ship, at the re­quest of either part­ner the court may make the oth­er part­ner’s power to dis­pose of cer­tain as­sets con­di­tion­al on the pe­ti­tion­ing part­ner’s con­sent and take pro­tect­ive meas­ures.

² If the meas­ure con­cerns im­mov­able prop­erty, the court shall re­cord it in the land re­gister.

¹ If there are debts between the part­ners and the debt­or has ser­i­ous dif­fi­culties in re­pay­ing his or her debt, the debt­or may re­quest an ex­ten­sion of time, provided that this is reas­on­able for the oth­er part­ner.

² The claim shall be se­cured, where cir­cum­stances so re­quire.

Where one part­ner proves an over­rid­ing in­terest in an as­set in co-own­er­ship, not­with­stand­ing any oth­er leg­al meas­ures avail­able, he or she may re­quest the un­di­vided al­loc­a­tion of this as­set in re­turn for pay­ing com­pens­a­tion to the oth­er part­ner on dis­sol­u­tion of the re­gistered part­ner­ship.

¹ The two part­ners may enter in­to an agree­ment on spe­cif­ic ar­range­ments for the event that the re­gistered part­ner­ship is dis­solved. In par­tic­u­lar, they may agree that the as­sets be di­vided in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 196–219 of the Swiss Civil Code¹⁸.¹⁹

² …²⁰

³ The prop­erty agree­ment must be drawn up and cer­ti­fied in due leg­al form, and signed by the parties and, where ap­plic­able, by the leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive.

⁴ Art­icles 185 and 193 CC ap­ply ac­cord­ingly.

¹ If a per­son has chil­dren, his or her part­ner shall provide him or her with reas­on­able as­sist­ance in the ful­fil­ment of the duty of main­ten­ance and in the ex­er­cise of par­ent­al au­thor­ity and shall rep­res­ent him or her if the cir­cum­stances so re­quire. Par­ent­al rights, however, shall be re­spec­ted in all cases.

² The guard­i­an­ship au­thor­ity may, sub­ject to the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 274a CC²² grant rights of con­tact with the child in the event that the part­ners no longer co­hab­it and the re­gistered part­ner­ship is dis­solved.

Where a per­son has ad­op­ted the minor child of his or her part­ner, Art­icles 270–327c CC²⁴ ap­ply by ana­logy.

Per­sons who live in a re­gistered part­ner­ship are not per­mit­ted to ad­opt to­geth­er or to un­der­go med­ic­ally as­sisted re­pro­duct­ive pro­ced­ures.

¹ If both part­ners re­quest the dis­sol­u­tion of the re­gistered part­ner­ship, the court shall hear the parties and ex­am­ine wheth­er the re­quest is based on free will and ma­ture re­flec­tion and wheth­er an agree­ment on the dis­sol­u­tion can be ap­proved.

² If this is the case, the court shall pro­nounce the dis­sol­u­tion of the re­gistered part­ner­ship.

³ The part­ners may jointly re­quest that the court de­cide in the dis­sol­u­tion judge­ment on those ef­fects of the dis­sol­u­tion which they can­not agree on.

Either part­ner may de­mand the dis­sol­u­tion of the re­gistered part­ner­ship if the part­ners have been liv­ing sep­ar­ately for at least one year at the time the ac­tion is brought.

The per­son who has changed their sur­name on the re­gis­tra­tion of the part­ner­ship re­tains that sur­name fol­low­ing dis­sol­u­tion; he or she may at any time de­clare be­fore the civil re­gis­trar the wish to re­vert to the name by which he or she was known pri­or to the re­gis­tra­tion of the part­ner­ship.

¹ Once the re­gistered part­ner­ship is dis­solved, the part­ners’ stat­utory right to in­her­it from each oth­er no longer ap­plies.

² Un­less there is an in­struc­tion to the con­trary, part­ners may not raise any claims based on test­a­ment­ary dis­pos­i­tions:

1.

fol­low­ing the leg­al dis­sol­u­tion of the part­ner­ship;

2.

fol­low­ing the death of a part­ner if dis­sol­u­tion pro­ceed­ings that res­ult in the sur­viv­ing part­ner los­ing his or her right to claim the stat­utory en­ti­tle­ment are on­go­ing at the time.²⁷

¹ If for good cause a per­son must re­main in the com­mon home, the court may trans­fer the rights and ob­lig­a­tions un­der the ten­ancy agree­ment to that per­son provided this is not in­equit­able for the oth­er.

² The pre­vi­ous ten­ant is jointly and sev­er­ally li­able for pay­ment of the rent up to the date on which the ten­ancy ends or may be ter­min­ated pur­su­ant to the ten­ancy agree­ment or by law, but for a max­im­um peri­od of two years. If an ac­tion is brought to re­cov­er rent due, he or she is en­titled to set off the amount paid against any main­ten­ance pay­ments in in­stal­ments equal to the amount of the monthly rent.

³ If the home be­longs to one of the part­ners, the court may, on the con­di­tions un­der para­graph 1, grant the oth­er per­son a right of res­id­ence for a fixed term in re­turn for reas­on­able com­pens­a­tion or set-off against main­ten­ance pay­ments. Where new and com­pel­ling reas­ons so re­quire, the right of res­id­ence may be re­stric­ted or re­voked.

The with­draw­al be­ne­fits ac­quired un­der the oc­cu­pa­tion­al pen­sion scheme throughout the re­gistered part­ner­ship are di­vided in ac­cord­ance with the oc­cu­pa­tion­al pen­sion scheme reg­u­la­tions un­der di­vorce law.

¹ After the dis­sol­u­tion of the re­gistered part­ner­ship, each part­ner is ba­sic­ally re­spons­ible for his or her own main­ten­ance.

² A per­son who, due to the di­vi­sion of du­ties, has been un­able or had lim­ited op­por­tun­ity to work dur­ing the re­gistered part­ner­ship, may de­mand ap­pro­pri­ate main­ten­ance pay­ments from their part­ner un­til they can main­tain them­selves from their own gain­ful activ­ity.

³ Fur­ther­more, a per­son may de­mand ap­pro­pri­ate main­ten­ance pay­ments if they be­come in­di­gent due to the dis­sol­u­tion of the re­gistered part­ner­ship and the part­ner can be ex­pec­ted to pay the main­ten­ance pay­ments in the over­all cir­cum­stances.

⁴ Art­icle 125 para­graphs 2 and 3 as well as 126–134 CC²⁸ is oth­er­wise ap­plic­able mu­tatis mutandis.²⁹

¹ Re­gistered part­ners may at any time jointly de­clare be­fore any civil re­gis­trar that they wish to con­vert their re­gistered part­ner­ship in­to a mar­riage.

² They must ap­pear in per­son be­fore the civil re­gis­trar, provide doc­u­ments to prove their per­son­al de­tails and their re­gistered part­ner­ship, and sign the de­clar­a­tion of con­ver­sion.

³ On re­quest, the de­clar­a­tion of con­ver­sion shall be made in a wed­ding ven­ue in the pres­ence of two adult wit­nesses with ca­pa­city of judge­ment.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

¹ As soon as the de­clar­a­tion of con­ver­sion is con­cluded, the re­gistered part­ners are deemed to be mar­ried.

² Where a leg­al pro­vi­sion makes leg­al ef­fects de­pend­ent on the dur­a­tion of a mar­riage, the dur­a­tion of a pre­ced­ing re­gistered part­ner­ship shall be taken in­to ac­count.

³ The stat­utory mar­it­al prop­erty re­gime of par­ti­cip­a­tion in ac­quired prop­erty ap­plies from the time of con­ver­sion, un­less the couple agrees oth­er­wise by mar­it­al agree­ment or prop­erty agree­ment.

⁴ Any ex­ist­ing prop­erty or mar­it­al agree­ment re­mains val­id fol­low­ing the con­ver­sion.

The amend­ment of cur­rent le­gis­la­tion is reg­u­lated in the An­nex.

...³³

If the part­ner­ship was re­gistered be­fore the Amend­ment of 30 Septem­ber 2016 of the Swiss Civil Code comes in­to force, the part­ners may, with­in one year of this amend­ment com­ing in­to force de­clare to the civil re­gis­trar that they wish bear the sur­name of one of the part­ners as the fam­ily sur­name.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Janu­ary 2007³⁵