Federal Act
on Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy
(DEBA)¹

¹The ter­rit­ory of each can­ton shall form one or more dis­tricts for the pur­pose of debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings.

² The can­tons shall de­term­ine the num­ber and size of these dis­tricts.

³ A bank­ruptcy dis­trict may com­prise two or more debt en­force­ment dis­tricts.

¹ Each debt en­force­ment dis­trict has a debt en­force­ment of­fice, which shall be headed by a debt en­force­ment of­ficer.

² Each bank­ruptcy dis­trict has a bank­ruptcy of­fice, which shall be headed by a bank­ruptcy of­ficer.

³ Each debt en­force­ment of­ficer and each bank­ruptcy of­ficer shall have a deputy who shall re­place him if he re­cuses him­self or is un­able to man­age the of­fice.

⁴ The debt en­force­ment of­fice and the bank­ruptcy of­fice may be merged and headed by the same pub­lic of­fi­cial.

⁵ The can­tons shall oth­er­wise de­cide on how the debt en­force­ment and the bank­ruptcy of­fices are or­gan­ised.

The re­mu­ner­a­tion of debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy of­ficers and their depu­ties is a mat­ter for the can­tons.

¹ The debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy of­fices shall carry out of­fi­cial acts at the re­quest of oth­er pub­lic of­fices, non-of­fi­cial bank­ruptcy ad­min­is­tra­tions, com­mis­sion­ers and li­quid­at­ors from an­oth­er dis­trict.

² With the con­sent of the of­fice that has jur­is­dic­tion, debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy of­fices, non-of­fi­cial bank­ruptcy ad­min­is­tra­tions, com­mis­sion­ers and li­quid­at­ors may also per­form of­fi­cial acts out­side their dis­trict. However, only the of­fice at the place where the act must be car­ried out is com­pet­ent to serve debt en­force­ment no­tices oth­er than by post or to con­duct dis­traint pro­ceed­ings and pub­lic auc­tions or to re­quest as­sist­ance from the po­lice

¹ In the case of bank­ruptcies and com­pos­i­tion pro­ceed­ings that have the same sub­ject mat­ter, the com­puls­ory ex­e­cu­tion bod­ies, su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies and courts in­volved shall co­ordin­ate their ac­tions as far as pos­sible.

² The bank­ruptcy and com­pos­i­tion courts in­volved and the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies may, by mu­tu­al agree­ment, des­ig­nate a single jur­is­dic­tion for all pro­ceed­ings.

¹ The can­ton shall be li­able for any loss or dam­age caused un­law­fully by debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy of­ficers and their em­ploy­ees, their aux­il­i­ar­ies, non-of­fi­cial bank­ruptcy ad­min­is­tra­tions, com­mis­sion­ers, li­quid­at­ors, su­per­vis­ory and ju­di­cial au­thor­it­ies and the po­lice in the ful­fil­ment of the du­ties as­signed to them by this Act.

² The per­son suf­fer­ing loss or dam­age has no claim against the per­son at fault.

³ Re­course by the can­ton against the per­son who has caused the loss or dam­age is gov­erned by can­ton­al law.

⁴ Where the sever­ity of the loss or dam­age jus­ti­fies it, there is also a right to sat­is­fac­tion.

¹ A claim for dam­ages shall be­come time-barred three years from the day on which the per­son suf­fer­ing dam­age be­came aware of the dam­age, but in any case ten years from the day on which the harm­ful be­ha­viour oc­curred or ceased.

² If the per­son who caused the dam­age has com­mit­ted a crim­in­al of­fence through his con­duct, the claim for dam­ages shall be­come time-barred at the earli­est when the right to pro­sec­ute be­comes time-barred. If this no longer ap­plies as a res­ult of a first-in­stance crim­in­al judg­ment, the claim shall be­come time-barred at the earli­est three years after no­tice of the judg­ment was served.

Where an ac­tion for dam­ages is filed on the grounds of un­law­ful con­duct by the can­ton­al su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies of second in­stance or of the can­ton­al com­pos­i­tion court of second in­stance, the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court has ex­clus­ive jur­is­dic­tion.

¹ The debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy of­fices shall keep a re­cord of their of­fi­cial activ­it­ies and of the re­quests and de­clar­a­tions they re­ceive; they keep the re­gisters.

² The re­cords and re­gisters are con­clus­ive in their con­tent un­til proven oth­er­wise.

³ The debt en­force­ment of­fice shall cor­rect an in­cor­rect entry ex of­fi­cio or at the re­quest of the per­son con­cerned.

¹ Any per­son who can cred­ibly demon­strate an in­terest may in­spect the re­cords and re­gisters of the debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy of­fices and ob­tain ex­tracts from them.

² An in­terest is deemed to be cred­ible in par­tic­u­lar if the re­quest for in­form­a­tion is made in dir­ect con­nec­tion with the con­clu­sion or per­form­ance of a con­tract.

³ The of­fices shall not provide third parties with in­form­a­tion about debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings if:

a.

the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings are null and void or have been an­nulled as the res­ult of an ap­peal or a court de­cision¹⁴;

b.

the debt­or suc­ceeded with an ac­tion for resti­tu­tion of money paid without leg­al cause;

c.

the cred­it­or has with­drawn the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings;

d.¹⁵

the debt­or has filed an ob­jec­tion and has with­in three months of the sum­mons for pay­ment be­ing served and be­fore the third-party right to in­spect has ex­pired sub­mit­ted a re­quest that in­form­a­tion should not be provided, un­less the cred­it­or proves with­in a peri­od of 20 days set by the debt en­force­ment of­fice that pro­ceed­ings to set aside the ob­jec­tion (Arts 79-84) were ini­ti­ated in good time; if this proof is sub­sequently provided or if the debt en­force­ment con­tin­ues, the pro­ceed­ings may be brought to the at­ten­tion of third parties again, un­less the debt­or proves that a bind­ing de­cision has been taken to re­ject a re­quest from the cred­it­or to have the ob­jec­tion set aside.

⁴ The right to in­spect of third parties ex­pires five years after the con­clu­sion of the pro­ceed­ings. Ju­di­cial and ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­it­ies may still re­quest ex­tracts in the in­terests of pro­ceed­ings pending be­fore them.

The debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy of­fices shall hand over sums of money, se­cur­it­ies and valu­ables which are not dis­posed of with­in three days of re­ceipt to the of­fi­cial de­pos­it­ary.

¹ Of­ficers and em­ploy­ees of the debt en­force­ment and the bank­ruptcy of­fices, and mem­bers of the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies may not carry out of­fi­cial acts:

1.

re­lat­ing to their own af­fairs;

2.¹⁷

in mat­ters re­lat­ing to their spouses, re­gistered part­ners or per­sons with whom they are in de facto co­hab­it­a­tion;

2^bis.¹⁸

in mat­ters re­lat­ing to re­l­at­ives and in-laws in dir­ect line or in col­lat­er­al line to the third de­gree;

3.

in mat­ters re­lat­ing to a per­son for whom they act as a leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive, hold a power of at­tor­ney or are an em­ploy­ee;

4.

in mat­ters in which they may not be im­par­tial for oth­er reas­ons.

² A debt en­force­ment or bank­ruptcy of­ficer who must re­cuse him­self shall im­me­di­ately for­ward any re­quest he re­ceives to his deputy and no­ti­fy the cred­it­ors of this by stand­ard post.

¹ The of­ficers and em­ploy­ees of the debt en­force­ment and the bank­ruptcy of­fices may not enter in­to any leg­al trans­ac­tions for their own ac­count in re­la­tion to claims to be en­forced or goods to be sold by the of­fice. Leg­al acts that breach this pro­vi­sion are null and void.

² Bank­ruptcy of­ficers are ob­liged to re­port to the pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies any felon­ies or mis­de­mean­ours that they or their sub­or­din­ates dis­cov­er in the course of their of­fi­cial du­ties or that are re­por­ted to them and for which there are spe­cif­ic grounds for sus­pi­cion.²¹

³ Sub­ject to the same con­di­tions, any per­son work­ing for the bank­ruptcy of­fice is also en­titled to re­port of­fences to be pro­sec­uted ex of­fi­cio to the pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies.²²

¹ The debt en­force­ment of­fice must ac­cept pay­ments for the ac­count of the cred­it­or seek­ing en­force­ment.

² The debt is can­celled by pay­ment to the debt en­force­ment of­fice.

¹ Each can­ton must ap­point a su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity to su­per­vise the debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy of­fices.

² The can­tons may also ap­point lower su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies for one or more dis­tricts.

¹ The su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity must audit the man­age­ment of each of­fice at least once a year.

² The fol­low­ing dis­cip­lin­ary meas­ures may be taken against an of­ficer or em­ploy­ee:²³

1.

rep­rim­and;

2.²⁴

fine not ex­ceed­ing 1000 francs;

3.

sus­pen­sion for a max­im­um of six months;

4.

re­mov­al from of­fice.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall ex­er­cise over­sight over the debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy mat­ters and en­sure the uni­form ap­plic­a­tion of this Act.

² It shall is­sue the or­din­ances and reg­u­la­tions ne­ces­sary for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act.

³ It may is­sue dir­ect­ives to the can­ton­al su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies and re­quest an­nu­al re­ports from them.

⁴ …²⁶

⁵ It shall co­ordin­ate elec­tron­ic com­mu­nic­a­tion between the debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy of­fices, the land re­gister and com­mer­cial re­gister of­fices, the courts and the pub­lic.²⁷

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall set the tar­iff of fees.

² Doc­u­ments is­sued in debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings are ex­empt from stamp duty.

¹ With the ex­cep­tion of cases in which this Act re­quires court ac­tion, an ap­peal may be filed with the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity against any or­der of a debt en­force­ment or bank­ruptcy of­fice due to in­fringe­ment of the law or un­reas­on­able­ness.²⁸

² The ap­peal must be filed with­in ten days of the date on which the ap­pel­lant re­ceived no­tice of the or­der.

³ An ap­peal may be filed at any time on the grounds of deni­al of justice or un­jus­ti­fied delay.

⁴ The of­fice may re­con­sider its or­der at any time be­fore the dead­line on which it must sub­mit its re­sponse to the ap­peal. If it is­sues a new or­der, it shall give no­tice of the same to the parties im­me­di­ately and in­form the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity.²⁹

¹ The de­cision of a lower su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity may be re­ferred with­in ten days of no­tice there­of be­ing giv­en to the high­er can­ton­al su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity.

² An ap­peal may be filed at any time with the high­er can­ton­al su­per­vis­ory on the grounds of deni­al of justice or un­jus­ti­fied delay by a lower su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity.

An ap­peal to the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court is gov­erned by the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court Act of 17 June 2005³².

In cases re­lat­ing to debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings based on a bill of ex­change, the peri­od al­lowed for fil­ing an ap­peal in first and second in­stance amounts to five days only; the au­thor­ity must de­cide on the ap­peal with­in five days.

¹ …³⁵

² The fol­low­ing pro­vi­sions ap­ply to the pro­ced­ure be­fore the can­ton­al su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies:³⁶

1.

The su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies must in every case in which they act in this ca­pa­city des­ig­nate them­selves as such and, if ap­pro­pri­ate, as the high­er or lower su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity.

2.

The su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity es­tab­lishes the facts of the case ex of­fi­cio. It may re­quire the as­sist­ance of the parties in this pro­cess and need not con­sider their re­quest if they re­fuse to provide as­sist­ance that is re­ques­ted and can reas­on­ably be ex­pec­ted of them.

3.³⁷

The su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity eval­u­ates the evid­ence freely; sub­ject to Art­icle 22, it may not go bey­ond the parties’ re­quests.

4.

The de­cision shall be jus­ti­fied, con­tain in­struc­tions on rights of ap­peal, and writ­ten no­tice there­of shall be giv­en to the parties, the of­fice con­cerned and any oth­er per­sons con­cerned.

5.³⁸

The pro­ceed­ings are free of charge. In the case of ma­li­cious or vex­a­tious lit­ig­a­tion, the party con­cerned or their agent may be re­quired to pay a fine not ex­ceed­ing 1500 francs and the fees and out­lays.

³ The can­tons shall oth­er­wise reg­u­late the pro­ced­ure.

An au­thor­ity that up­holds an ap­peal shall or­der the con­tested act to be quashed or cor­rec­ted; it shall or­der the ex­e­cu­tion of acts that the of­fi­cial re­fuses to carry out or delays without jus­ti­fic­a­tion.

¹ If or­ders breach reg­u­la­tions is­sued in the pub­lic in­terest or in the in­terests of per­sons not party to the pro­ceed­ings, these rul­ings shall be null and void. Ir­re­spect­ive of wheth­er an ap­peal has been filed, the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies shall de­clare the rul­ings null and void ex of­fi­cio.

² The of­fice may re­place an or­der that has been de­clared null and void with a new or­der. If pro­ceed­ings un­der para­graph 1 are pending be­fore the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity, the of­fice may do this at any time be­fore the dead­line on which it must sub­mit its re­sponse.

The can­tons shall des­ig­nate the ju­di­cial au­thor­it­ies that are re­spons­ible for mak­ing the de­cision as­signed to a court un­der this Act.

The can­tons shall des­ig­nate the in­sti­tu­tions that are re­quired to ac­cept de­pos­its in the cases provided for in this Act (of­fi­cial de­pos­it­ar­ies). The can­tons are li­able for the de­pos­its held by these in­sti­tu­tions.

¹ The can­tons may, un­less fed­er­al law ap­plies, im­pose con­sequences un­der pub­lic law (such as de­clar­ing a per­son un­fit for pub­lic of­fice or to carry on a pro­fes­sion or activ­it­ies re­quir­ing au­thor­isa­tion) to un­suc­cess­ful dis­traint pro­ceed­ings or a de­clar­a­tion of bank­ruptcy. These con­sequences may not in­clude a with­draw­al of the right to vote or be elec­ted, or the pub­lic­a­tion of un­paid debt cer­ti­fic­ates.

² The leg­al con­sequences must be re­voked if the bank­ruptcy is an­nulled, if all cred­it­ors hold­ing un­paid debt cer­ti­fic­ates have been re­paid in full or their claims have be­come time-barred.

³ If the only cred­it­or to sus­tain a loss is the debt­or’s spouse or re­gistered part­ner, no con­sequences un­der pub­lic law may be im­posed for un­suc­cess­ful dis­traint pro­ceed­ings or bank­ruptcy.⁴³

¹ Any per­son with leg­al ca­pa­city to act is au­thor­ised to rep­res­ent oth­er per­sons in en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings. This also ap­plies to pro­fes­sion­al rep­res­ent­a­tion. The cantons may prohibit a person from acting as a professional representative for good cause.

² The costs of rep­res­ent­a­tion in pro­ceed­ings be­fore the debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy of­fices may not be charged to the oth­er party.

¹ The can­tons shall provide the Fed­er­al Coun­cil with de­tails of the debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy dis­tricts and of the sys­tem of or­gan­isa­tion of the debt en­force­ment and the bank­ruptcy of­fices and of the au­thor­it­ies that they have ap­poin­ted in im­ple­ment­a­tion of this Act.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­sure that this in­form­a­tion is made pub­lic in an ap­pro­pri­ate man­ner.

¹ This Act does not ap­ply to the en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings against can­tons, dis­tricts and com­munes where spe­cial fed­er­al or can­ton­al reg­u­la­tions ap­ply.

² The pro­vi­sions of oth­er fed­er­al laws on spe­cial en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings are also re­served.

In­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies and the pro­vi­sions of the Fed­er­al Act of 18 Decem­ber 1987⁴⁹ on Private In­ter­na­tion­al Law (PILA) are re­served.

The com­pu­ta­tion of and com­pli­ance with dead­lines are gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions of the Civil Pro­ced­ure Code of 19 Decem­ber 2008⁵¹ (CPC), un­less this Act provides oth­er­wise.

¹ …⁵³

² A dead­line is also com­plied with if a debt en­force­ment or bank­ruptcy of­fice without jur­is­dic­tion is seised be­fore its ex­piry; this of­fice shall trans­fer the case im­me­di­ately to the of­fice that has jur­is­dic­tion.⁵⁴

³ …⁵⁵

⁴ In the case of writ­ten sub­mis­sions that con­tain er­rors that can be cor­rec­ted, an op­por­tun­ity must be giv­en to cor­rect them.

¹ The dead­lines laid down in this Act may not be amended by agree­ment.

² If a party to pro­ceed­ings lives abroad or if he must be no­ti­fied by pub­lic no­tice, a longer dead­line may be gran­ted or an ex­ist­ing dead­line ex­ten­ded.⁵⁶

³ A party to pro­ceed­ings may waive his right to claim non-com­pli­ance with a dead­line if the dead­line is im­posed ex­clus­ively in his in­terest.⁵⁷

⁴ Any per­son who is pre­ven­ted from act­ing with­in a dead­line due to cir­cum­stances bey­ond his con­trol may re­quest the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity or the ju­di­cial au­thor­ity with jur­is­dic­tion over the case to re­in­state the dead­line. From the date on which those cir­cum­stances no longer ap­ply, he must carry out the re­quired leg­al act for the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity with­in the same peri­od as that which has ex­pired and file an ap­plic­a­tion stat­ing the grounds for re­in­stat­ing the dead­line.⁵⁸

¹ A sub­mis­sion may be filed elec­tron­ic­ally with the debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy of­fices and the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies.

² The sub­mis­sion must be provided with a qual­i­fied elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture in ac­cord­ance with the Fed­er­al Act of 18 March 2016⁶⁰ on Elec­tron­ic Sig­na­tures. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make ex­cep­tions for mass pro­ced­ures.

³ The rel­ev­ant time for com­pli­ance with a dead­line is that at which the re­ceipt is is­sued that con­firms that all the steps ne­ces­sary for trans­mis­sion have been com­pleted by the party or their rep­res­ent­at­ive.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late:

a.

the format of the sub­mis­sion and its en­clos­ures;

b.

the meth­od of trans­mis­sion;

c.

the re­quire­ments for re­quest­ing the sub­mis­sion of doc­u­ments in pa­per form in the event of tech­nic­al prob­lems.

¹ No­tices, or­ders and de­cisions of the debt en­force­ment and bank­ruptcy of­fices and the su­per­vis­ory au­thor­it­ies shall be served by re­gistered mail or in any oth­er way against con­firm­a­tion of re­ceipt, un­less this Act provides oth­er­wise

² With the con­sent of the per­son con­cerned, no­tices, or­ders and de­cisions may be sent elec­tron­ic­ally. They must bear an elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture in ac­cord­ance with the Fed­er­al Act of 18 March 2016⁶² on Elec­tron­ic Sig­na­tures. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­late:

a.

the sig­na­ture to be used;

b.

the format of no­tices, or­ders and de­cisions and their en­clos­ures;

c.

the meth­od of trans­mis­sion;

d.

the date on which the no­tice, or­der or de­cision is deemed to have been served.⁶³

¹ Pub­lic no­tice shall be giv­en in the Swiss Of­fi­cial Gaz­ette of Com­merce and in the rel­ev­ant of­fi­cial can­ton­al gaz­ette. For the cal­cu­la­tion of dead­lines and de­term­in­ing the leg­al con­sequences of the no­tice, pub­lic­a­tion in the Swiss Of­fi­cial Gaz­ette of Com­merce is de­cis­ive.⁶⁴

² If the cir­cum­stances so re­quire, no­tice may also be giv­en in oth­er pub­lic­a­tions or by pub­lic pro­clam­a­tion.

No ap­peal of any form shall have sus­pens­ive ef­fect un­less this is spe­cific­ally ordered by the au­thor­ity to which it is ad­dressed or its presid­ing of­fi­cial. If such an or­der is made, im­me­di­ate no­tice must be giv­en to the parties.

¹ The term "mort­gage" in this Act com­prises mort­gages, mort­gage cer­ti­fic­ates, mort­gage rights un­der the pre­vi­ous law, real bur­dens and any pref­er­en­tial rights to spe­cif­ic im­mov­able prop­er­ties as well as the pledge on the ap­pur­ten­ances of an im­mov­able prop­erty.⁶⁶

² The term "pledge of chat­tels" also in­cludes the pledge of live­stock, the spe­cial li­en and the pledge on claims and oth­er rights.

³ The term "pledge" com­prises both the mort­gage and the pledge of chat­tels.

¹ Debt en­force­ment is an en­force­ment pro­ced­ure car­ried out to se­cure the pay­ment of money or the pro­vi­sion of se­cur­ity.

²Debt en­force­ment be­gins with the ser­vice of the sum­mons for pay­ment and is con­tin­ued either by way of dis­traint, pro­ceed­ings to real­ise a pledge or bank­ruptcy.

³ The debt en­force­ment of­ficer de­cides which type of debt en­force­ment ap­plies.

¹ Debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings are con­tin­ued by way of bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings, either in the form of "or­din­ary bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings" (Arts 159–176) or of "debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings based on a bill of ex­change" (Arts 177–189) if the debt­or is re­gistered in the Com­mer­cial Re­gister as any of the fol­low­ing:

1.

as the own­er of a sole pro­pri­et­or­ship (Arts 934 and 935 CO⁶⁷);

2.

as a mem­ber of a gen­er­al part­ner­ship (Art. 554 CO);

3.

as a mem­ber of a lim­ited part­ner­ship with un­lim­ited li­ab­il­ity (Art. 596 CO);

4.

as a dir­ect­or of a part­ner­ship lim­ited by shares (Art. 765 CO);

5.⁶⁸

...

6.

as a gen­er­al part­ner­ship (Art. 552 CO);

7.

as a lim­ited part­ner­ship (Art. 594 CO);

8.

as a com­pany lim­ited by shares or a part­ner­ship lim­ited by shares (Arts 620 and 764 CO);

9.

as a lim­ited li­ab­il­ity com­pany (Art. 772 CO);

10.

as a co­oper­at­ive (Art. 828 CO);

11.

as an as­so­ci­ation (Art. 60 Swiss Civil Code (CC)⁶⁹);

12.

as a found­a­tion (Art. 80 CC);

13.⁷⁰

as an in­vest­ment com­pany with vari­able cap­it­al (Art. 36 Col­lect­ive In­vest­ments Act of 23 June 2006⁷¹ (CISA));

14.⁷²

as a lim­ited part­ner­ship for col­lect­ive in­vest­ment (Art. 98 CISA).⁷³

² …⁷⁴

³ Re­gis­tra­tion takes ef­fect on the day after no­tice there­of in pub­lished in the Swiss Of­fi­cial Gaz­ette of Com­merce.

¹ Per­sons who were re­gistered in the Com­mer­cial Re­gister re­main sub­ject to bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings for six months fol­low­ing pub­lic­a­tion of their de­le­tion in the Swiss Of­fi­cial Gaz­ette of Com­merce.

² If the cred­it­or re­quests con­tinu­ation be­fore the ex­piry of this dead­line or if he de­mands that a sum­mons for pay­ment be is­sued in debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings based on a bill of ex­change, the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings shall be con­tin­ued by way of bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings.⁷⁵

¹ For pledge-se­cured claims, the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings, in­clud­ing those against debt­ors sub­ject to bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings, are con­tin­ued by pro­ceed­ings to real­ise a pledge (Arts 151–158).

^1bis If debt en­force­ment by dis­traint or through bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings are ini­ti­ated for a pledge-se­cured claim, the debt­or may by fil­ing an ap­peal (Art. 17) de­mand that the cred­it­ors first real­ise the pledge.

² In the case of in­terest or an­nu­it­ies se­cured by a mort­gage, however, the cred­it­or may choose either to have the pledge real­ised or, de­pend­ing on the debt­or’s leg­al per­son­al­ity, to ini­ti­ate debt en­force­ment by dis­traint or bank­ruptcy. The pro­vi­sions on debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings based on a bill of ex­change are re­served (Art. 177 para. 1).

¹ In all oth­er cases, debt en­force­ment is con­tin­ued by way of dis­traint (Arts 89–150).

² If a debt­or is sub­sequently re­gistered in the Com­mer­cial Re­gister, a pending re­quest for con­tinu­ation must still be ex­ecuted by way of dis­traint un­less the debt­or has already been de­clared bank­rupt.

Bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings shall not be brought for:

1.⁷⁹

…

1^bis.⁸⁰

…

2.⁸¹

reg­u­lar fam­ily law main­ten­ance and sup­port con­tri­bu­tions, and main­ten­ance pay­ments un­der the Same-Sex Part­ner­ship Act of 18 June 2004⁸²;

3.

rights to the pro­vi­sion of se­cur­ity.

The real­isa­tion of items that have been seized un­der crim­in­al or fisc­al pro­vi­sions or un­der the Fed­er­al Act of 18 Decem­ber 2015⁸⁴ on the Freez­ing and the Resti­tu­tion of Il­li­cit As­sets held by For­eign Polit­ic­ally Ex­posed Per­sons shall be car­ried out in ac­cord­ance with the rel­ev­ant fed­er­al or can­ton­al pro­vi­sions.

The pur­suit of pawn­brokers’ claims is gov­erned by Art­icle 910 of the Civil Code (Swiss Civil Code)⁸⁶.

¹ Debt en­force­ment takes place at the debt­or’s dom­i­cile.

² Debt en­force­ment against leg­al en­tit­ies and com­pan­ies re­gistered in the Com­mer­cial Re­gister takes place at their re­gistered of­fices, or in the case of non-re­gistered leg­al en­tit­ies at the place where they are primar­ily man­aged.

³ For debts arising from an agree­ment on joint own­er­ship in un­di­vided shares, in the ab­sence of a rep­res­ent­at­ive, debt en­force­ment may take place against any of the joint own­ers at the place of their joint eco­nom­ic activ­ity.⁸⁷

⁴ Debt en­force­ment against a com­munity of con­domin­i­um own­ers takes place at the loc­a­tion of the prop­erty.⁸⁸

Debt en­force­ment against debt­ors of no fixed abode takes place where they are cur­rently to be found.

Provided the es­tate has not been dis­trib­uted, a con­trac­tu­al com­munity of prop­erty formed or bank­ruptcy li­quid­a­tion ordered, debt en­force­ment against a de­ceased per­son’s es­tate may be car­ried out at the place and by the pro­ced­ure which would have ap­plied to the de­ceased per­son at the time of his death.

¹ In the case of debt­ors dom­i­ciled abroad who have a busi­ness es­tab­lish­ment in Switzer­land, en­force­ment take place in re­spect of li­ab­il­it­ies in­curred for the ac­count of the busi­ness es­tab­lish­ment at the loc­a­tion of the busi­ness es­tab­lish­ment.

² Where debt­ors dom­i­ciled abroad have elec­ted for a dom­i­cile in Switzer­land in or­der to ful­fil an ob­lig­a­tion, en­force­ment may take place in re­spect of this ob­lig­a­tion at the place of spe­cial dom­i­cile.

¹ Where a pledge of chat­tels has been made to se­cure the claim, debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings may either take place where re­quired in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 46–50, or at the place where the pledge or the most valu­able part there­of is loc­ated.⁹¹

² For claims se­cured by a mort­gage⁹², the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings may only take place⁹³ where the mort­gaged im­mov­able prop­erty is loc­ated. If the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings re­lated to two or more im­mov­able prop­er­ties loc­ated in dif­fer­ent debt en­force­ment dis­tricts, debt en­force­ment must take place in the dis­trict in which the most valu­able part of the im­mov­able prop­er­ties is loc­ated.

If an at­tach­ment is made in re­spect of a claim, debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings may also be in­sti­tuted where the at­tached as­set is loc­ated.⁹⁴ The no­tice of im­pend­ing bank­ruptcy and the de­clar­a­tion of bank­ruptcy may however only be is­sued where debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings must nor­mally take place.

If the debt­or changes his dom­i­cile after re­ceiv­ing no­tice of dis­traint pro­ceed­ings, no­tice of im­pend­ing bank­ruptcy or a sum­mons for pay­ment in debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings based on a bill of ex­change, debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings con­tin­ue at their ori­gin­al loc­a­tion.

Bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings are in­sti­tuted against an ab­scond­ing debt­or at his last dom­i­cile.

Bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings may only be in­sti­tuted in Switzer­land against a spe­cif­ic debt­or at one place at any one time. Pro­ceed­ings are deemed to have com­menced at the place where the debt­or is first de­clared bank­rupt.

¹ Oth­er than in at­tach­ment pro­ceed­ings or in the case of ur­gent meas­ures to pre­serve in­di­vidu­al as­sets, en­force­ment pro­ced­ures may not be car­ried out:

1.

dur­ing the hours of clos­ure, namely between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m., and on Sundays and state-re­cog­nised pub­lic hol­i­days;

2.

dur­ing debt en­force­ment hol­i­days, namely the sev­en days be­fore and sev­en days after East­er and Christ­mas, and from 15 Ju­ly un­til 31 Ju­ly; in the case of debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings based on a bill of ex­change there are no debt en­force­ment hol­i­days;

3.

against a debt­or who has been gran­ted a stay of en­force­ment (Arts 57–62).

² The sus­pen­sion of dead­lines in ac­tions un­der this Act that must be filed in a court are gov­erned ex­clus­ively by the pro­vi­sions there­on in the CPC⁹⁷.⁹⁸

¹ A stay of en­force­ment ap­plies to debt­ors who are on mil­it­ary, civil pro­tec­tion or civil de­fence ser­vice, for the dur­a­tion of such ser­vice.¹⁰¹

² If the debt­or com­pleted at least 30 days of ser­vice without sub­stan­tial in­ter­rup­tion be­fore dis­charge or leave, the stay of en­force­ment con­tin­ues for two weeks fol­low­ing dis­charge or leave.

³ En­force­ment pro­ceed­ings may be taken against debt­ors for reg­u­lar fam­ily main­ten­ance or sup­port con­tri­bu­tions dur­ing the stay of en­force­ment.¹⁰²

⁴ Debt­ors who un­der­take mil­it­ary or civil de­fence ser­vice in terms of an em­ploy­ment con­tract with the Con­fed­er­a­tion or a can­ton are not en­titled to a stay of en­force­ment.¹⁰³

¹ If an en­force­ment pro­ced­ure can­not be car­ried out be­cause the debt­or is on mil­it­ary, civil pro­tec­tion or civil de­fence ser­vice, adults in his house­hold and if the debt en­force­ment no­tice is served in a place of busi­ness, the em­ploy­ees or if ap­plic­able the em­ploy­er are ob­liged, sub­ject to crim­in­al pen­al­ties (Art. 324 No 5 SCC¹⁰⁵) to no­ti­fy the of­ficer of the ser­vice ad­dress and the year of birth of the debt­or.¹⁰⁶

^1bis The debt en­force­ment of­ficer shall make those con­cerned aware of their ob­lig­a­tions and of the crim­in­al pen­al­ties in the event of their vi­ol­a­tion.¹⁰⁷

² The com­mand of­fice con­cerned shall no­ti­fy the debt en­force­ment of­fice on re­quest of the debt­or’s dis­charge or leave.

³ …¹⁰⁸

¹ Where a debt­or is en­joy­ing a stay of en­force­ment due to mil­it­ary, civil pro­tec­tion or civil de­fence ser­vice, the dur­a­tion of li­ab­il­ity of a mort­gage right for the in­terest of the claim se­cured by that mort­gage right (Art. 818 para. 1 No 3 Swiss Civil Code¹¹⁰) is ex­ten­ded by the dur­a­tion of the stay of en­force­ment.¹¹¹

² In debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings to real­ise a pledge, the sum­mons for pay­ment must also be served dur­ing the stay of en­force­ment if this has las­ted for three months.

¹ Where a debt­or is en­joy­ing a stay of en­force­ment due to mil­it­ary, civil pro­tec­tion or civil de­fence ser­vice, the cred­it­or may dur­ing the stay of en­force­ment de­mand that the debt en­force­ment of­fice draw up a in­vent­ory with the ef­fects set out in Art­icle 164.¹¹³ The cred­it­or must however provide prima facie evid­ence that his claim ex­ists and that it is en­dangered by acts of the debt­or or third parties that aim to fa­vour in­di­vidu­al cred­it­ors to the det­ri­ment of oth­ers or to have a det­ri­ment­al ef­fect on the cred­it­ors in gen­er­al.

² The draw­ing up of an in­vent­ory may be ob­vi­ated by se­cur­ing the ap­plic­ant cred­it­or’s claim.

A stay of en­force­ment due to mil­it­ary, civil pro­tec­tion or civil de­fence ser­vice may on ap­plic­a­tion by a cred­it­or be lif­ted with im­me­di­ate ef­fect by the court com­pet­ent to set aside the ob­jec­tion in gen­er­al or for in­di­vidu­al claims if the cred­it­or provides prima facie evid­ence that:¹¹⁵

1.

the debt­or has de­prived the cred­it­ors of ac­cess to as­sets or that he is mak­ing ar­range­ments to fa­vour cer­tain cred­it­ors to the pre­ju­dice of oth­ers or to pre­ju­dice the cred­it­ors in gen­er­al, or

2.¹¹⁶

the debt­or is per­form­ing mil­it­ary, civil pro­tec­tion or civil de­fence ser­vice vol­un­tar­ily and does not re­quire the stay of en­force­ment for his fin­an­cial sub­sist­ence, or

3.¹¹⁷

the debt­or is per­form­ing mil­it­ary, civil pro­tec­tion or civil de­fence ser­vice vol­un­tar­ily in or­der to evade his li­ab­il­it­ies.

The pro­vi­sions on the stay of en­force­ment also ap­ply to per­sons and leg­al en­tit­ies whose leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive is per­form­ing mil­it­ary, civil pro­tec­tion or civil de­fence ser­vice, provided the per­son or en­tity is un­able to ap­point an­oth­er rep­res­ent­at­ive.

In the event of the death of the debt­or’s spouse or re­gistered part­ner, or of a re­l­at­ive or in-law of the debt­or in dir­ect line, or of a mem­ber of the debt­or’s house­hold, the debt­or shall be en­titled to a two-week stay of en­force­ment from the date of death.

¹ In debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings for debts due from a de­ceased per­son’s es­tate, a stay of en­force­ment ap­plies from the test­at­or’s date of death for the two sub­sequent weeks and dur­ing the peri­od of re­flec­tion al­lowed for ac­cept­ing or dis­claim­ing the in­her­it­ance.¹²⁰

² Debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings raised dur­ing the life­time of the test­at­or may be con­tin­ued against the es­tate in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 49.¹²¹

³ Pro­ceed­ings may only be con­tin­ued against the heirs if they in­volve debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings to real­ise a pledge or if the dead­lines giv­en in Art­icles 110 and 111 for par­ti­cip­at­ing in dis­traint pro­ceed­ings in a case of debt en­force­ment by dis­traint pro­ceed­ings have already ex­pired.

If an ar­res­ted per­son who has no rep­res­ent­at­ive be­comes sub­ject to debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings, the debt en­force­ment of­ficer shall set him a dead­line for ap­point­ing one.¹²² Dur­ing this peri­od, the ar­res­ted per­son is en­titled to a stay of en­force­ment.

The debt en­force­ment of­ficer may grant a ser­i­ously ill debt­or a stay of en­force­ment for a spe­cif­ic peri­od of time.

In the event of an epi­dem­ic or a na­tion­al dis­aster, as well as in times of war, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or, with its con­sent, the can­ton­al gov­ern­ment may de­cide to stay en­force­ment in a spe­cif­ic area or for cer­tain sec­tions of the pop­u­la­tion.

Debt en­force­ment hol­i­days and stays of en­force­ment do not sus­pend the dead­lines. However, if the dead­line for the debt­or, the cred­it­or or the third party falls dur­ing the debt en­force­ment hol­i­day or the stay of en­force­ment, the dead­line shall be ex­ten­ded un­til the third day after the end of the hol­i­day or stay. When cal­cu­lat­ing the three-day peri­od, a Sat­urday, Sunday and of­fi­cially re­cog­nised pub­lic hol­i­days are not coun­ted.

¹ Debt en­force­ment no­tices shall be served on the debt­or at his home or at the place where he car­ries out his pro­fes­sion. If he is not found there in per­son, ser­vice may be ef­fected on an adult per­son be­long­ing to his house­hold or on an em­ploy­ee.

² If none of the per­sons men­tioned are found, the debt en­force­ment no­tice must be handed to an of­fi­cial of the com­mune or po­lice of­ficer for de­liv­ery to the debt­or.

¹ If debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings are dir­ec­ted against a leg­al en­tity or a com­pany, ser­vice shall be ef­fected on the rep­res­ent­at­ive of the same. As such ap­plies:

[tab]

1.¹²⁵ for a com­mune, a can­ton or the Con­fed­er­a­tion, the pres­id­ent of the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity or the of­fice des­ig­nated by the ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity;

[tab]

2.¹²⁶ for a com­pany lim­ited by shares, a lim­ited part­ner­ship, a lim­ited li­ab­il­ity com­pany, a co­oper­at­ive or an as­so­ci­ation re­gistered in the Com­mer­cial Re­gister, each mem­ber of the man­age­ment or com­mit­tee as well as each dir­ect­or or au­thor­ised sig­nat­ory;

3.

for any oth­er leg­al en­tity, the pres­id­ent of the ad­min­is­tra­tion or the ad­min­is­trat­or;

4.

for a gen­er­al part­ner­ship or lim­ited part­ner­ship, each part­ner au­thor­ised to rep­res­ent the part­ner­ship and each au­thor­ised sig­nat­ory.

² If the afore­named per­sons can­not be found at their place of busi­ness, ser­vice may also be ef­fected on an­oth­er of­fi­cial or em­ploy­ee.

³ If debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings are dir­ec­ted against an un­dis­trib­uted es­tate, ser­vice shall be made on the rep­res­ent­at­ive ap­poin­ted for the es­tate or, if no such rep­res­ent­at­ive is known, on one of the heirs.¹²⁷

¹ If the debt­or does not live at the place of debt en­force­ment, the debt en­force­ment no­tices shall be served on the per­son des­ig­nated by the debt­or or at the place des­ig­nated by the debt­or.

² In the ab­sence of such a des­ig­na­tion, ser­vice shall be ef­fected through the debt en­force­ment of­fice at the place of res­id­ence or by post.

³ If the debt­or resides abroad, ser­vice shall be ef­fected through the loc­al au­thor­it­ies or, if provided for by in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies or if the re­cip­i­ent state con­sents, by the postal ser­vice.¹²⁸

⁴ Ser­vice shall be re­placed by pub­lic no­tice if:

1.

the debt­or's place of res­id­ence is un­known;

2.

the debt­or per­sist­ently evades ser­vice;

3.

the debt­or lives abroad and ser­vice in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 3 is not pos­sible with­in a reas­on­able peri­od of time.¹²⁹

⁵ …¹³⁰

¹ The re­quest for debt en­force­ment must be filed in writ­ing or made or­ally to the debt en­force­ment of­fice. The fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion must be provided:

1.

the name and place of res­id­ence of the cred­it­or and, if ap­plic­able, his au­thor­ised rep­res­ent­at­ive and, if the cred­it­or lives abroad, the dom­i­cile chosen by the cred­it­or in Switzer­land. If no clear dom­i­cile is in­dic­ated, it shall be as­sumed that the dom­i­cile is on the premises of the debt en­force­ment of­fice;

[tab]

2.¹³¹ the name and place of res­id­ence of the debt­or and, if ap­plic­able, his leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive; in the case of a re­quest for debt en­force­ments against a de­ceased’s es­tate, the heirs on whom ser­vice is to be ef­fected must be spe­cified;

3.

the amount of the claim or the amount for which se­cur­ity is de­man­ded, in leg­al Swiss cur­rency; in the case of in­terest-bear­ing claims, the in­terest rate and the date from which the in­terest is de­man­ded;

4.

the doc­u­ment evid­en­cing the claim and its date; in the ab­sence of such, the grounds for the claim.

² For a claim se­cured by a pledge, the in­form­a­tion spe­cified in Art­icle 151 must also be provided.

³ The cred­it­or shall be en­titled to have re­ceipt of the re­quest for debt en­force­ment cer­ti­fied free of charge on re­quest.

¹ The debt­or shall bear the costs of debt en­force­ment. These must be paid in ad­vance by the cred­it­or. If ad­vance pay­ment is not made, the debt en­force­ment of­fice may tem­por­ar­ily sus­pend the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings and no­ti­fy the cred­it­or there­of.

² The cred­it­or is en­titled to col­lect the debt en­force­ment costs in ad­vance from the debt­or’s pay­ments.

¹If a spouse liv­ing un­der a com­munity of prop­erty re­gime is the sub­ject of debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings, the sum­mons for pay­ment and all oth­er debt en­force­ment no­tices must also be served on the oth­er spouse; if it is only made known in the course of the pro­ceed­ings that the debt­or is sub­ject to com­munity of prop­erty, the debt en­force­ment of­fice shall im­me­di­ately ef­fect ser­vice on the oth­er spouse.

² Either spouse may file an ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons.

³ …¹³⁴

¹ Either spouse may as­sert in the third-party claims pro­ced­ure (Arts 106-109) that a dis­trained as­set is the per­son­al prop­erty of the debt­or’s spouse.

² If the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings are lim­ited to the debt­or’s share of the com­mon prop­erty in ad­di­tion to his in­di­vidu­al prop­erty, either spouse may also op­pose the dis­traint of items of com­mon prop­erty un­der the third-party claims pro­ced­ure (Arts 106-109).

³ If debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings for sat­is­fac­tion from in­di­vidu­al prop­erty and the share in the com­mon prop­erty are con­tin­ued, dis­traint and real­isa­tion of the share in the com­mon prop­erty are gov­erned by Art­icle 132; the right to dis­train the fu­ture earned in­come of the spouse sub­ject to debt en­force­ment re­mains re­served (Art. 93).¹³⁶

⁴ A spouse’s share of the com­mon prop­erty may not be auc­tioned.

⁵The su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity may re­quest the judge to or­der the sep­ar­a­tion of prop­erty.

¹ If the debt­or is a minor, the debt en­force­ment no­tices shall be served on the minor’s leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive. In the event of the ap­point­ment of a child wel­fare ad­voc­ate pur­su­ant to Art­icle 325 CC¹³⁹, the ad­voc­ate and the hold­er of par­ent­al re­spons­ib­il­ity shall re­ceive the debt en­force­ment no­tices, provided that the debt en­force­ment of­fice has been no­ti­fied of the ap­point­ment of the ad­voc­ate.

² However, if the claim comes from an au­thor­ised busi­ness activ­ity or is con­nec­ted with the man­age­ment of earn­ings or free as­sets by a minor (Arts 321 para. 2, 323 para. 1 and 327b CC), the debt en­force­ment no­tices shall be served on the debt­or and the leg­al rep­res­ent­at­ive.

¹ If a deputy or a per­son en­trus­ted with an adult’s care is re­spons­ible for man­aging an adult debt­or’s as­sets and the adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity has in­formed the debt en­force­ment of­fice of this, the debt en­force­ment no­tices shall be served on the deputy or the per­son en­trus­ted with the adult’s care.

² If the debt­or’s ca­pa­city to act is not re­stric­ted, the debt en­force­ment no­tice shall also be served on the debt­or.

If the debt­or is only li­able with his free as­sets, it may be claimed in the third-party claims pro­ced­ure (Arts 106-109) that a dis­trained as­set is not a part there­of.

¹ On re­ceipt of the re­quest for debt en­force­ment, the debt en­force­ment of­fice shall is­sue a sum­mons for pay­ment.

² The sum­mons for pay­ment con­tains:

1.

de­tails of the re­quest for debt en­force­ment;

2.

the re­quest to sat­is­fy the cred­it­or for the claim to­geth­er with the debt en­force­ment costs with­in 20 days or, if the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings are based on the pro­vi­sion of se­cur­ity, to provide se­cur­ity with­in this dead­line;

3.

no­ti­fic­a­tion that if the debt­or wishes to con­test the claim or a part there­of or the right to as­sert it by way of debt en­force­ment, he must de­clare this to the debt en­force­ment of­fice with­in ten days of ser­vice of the sum­mons for pay­ment (ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons);

4.

the warn­ing that if the debt­or neither com­plies with the sum­mons for pay­ment nor files an ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons, the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings will con­tin­ue.

¹ The sum­mons for pay­ment is is­sued in du­plic­ate. One copy is in­ten­ded for the debt­or, the oth­er for the cred­it­or. If the two doc­u­ments are not identic­al, the copy de­livered to the debt­or shall take pre­ced­ence.

² If joint debt­ors are sued at the same time, a sep­ar­ate sum­mons for pay­ment shall be served on each of them.¹⁴²

¹ The sum­mons for pay­ment is served on the debt­or after re­ceipt of the re­quest for debt en­force­ment.¹⁴³

² If there are sev­er­al re­quests for debt en­force­ment against the same debt­or, all the sum­mons for pay­ment must be served at the same time.

³ In no case may a re­quest re­ceived later be ex­ecuted be­fore an earli­er re­quest.

¹ The sum­mons for pay­ment shall be served by the debt en­force­ment of­ficer, an em­ploy­ee of the of­fice or by post.¹⁴⁴

² On hand­ing over the sum­mons, the per­son ef­fect­ing ser­vice must cer­ti­fy on both cop­ies the date of ser­vice and the de­tails of the per­son on whom the sum­mons is served.

¹ At any time after the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings be­gin, the debt­or may de­mand that the cred­it­or be re­ques­ted to make evid­ence for his claim and a sum­mary of all his claims against the debt­or avail­able for in­spec­tion at the debt en­force­ment of­fice.

² This re­quest shall have no ef­fect on ex­ist­ing dead­lines. If the cred­it­or does not com­ply with the re­quest or does not com­ply with it in time, the court shall take ac­count of the fact that debt­or was un­able to in­spect the evid­ence in its de­cision on pro­ced­ur­al costs in any sub­sequent leg­al ac­tion.

¹ If the debt­or wishes to ob­ject to the sum­mons for pay­ment, he must do so im­me­di­ately verbally or in writ­ing to the per­son serving the sum­mons or with­in ten days of ser­vice to the debt en­force­ment of­fice.¹⁴⁶

² If the debt­or only partly dis­putes the claim, he must in­dic­ate the dis­puted amount pre­cisely; if he fails to do this, the en­tire claim is re­garded as dis­puted.¹⁴⁷

³ If the debt­or so re­quests, he must be is­sued free of charge with a cer­ti­fic­ate con­firm­ing his ob­jec­tion.

¹ No leg­al grounds need be giv­en for ob­ject­ing to the sum­mons for pay­ment. Any per­son who nev­er­the­less states such grounds is not pre­cluded from stat­ing oth­er grounds at a later date.

² If the debt­or dis­putes that he has ac­quired new as­sets (Arts 265, 265a), he must ex­pressly de­clare this when ob­ject­ing to the sum­mons, fail­ing which he may not raise this de­fence at a later date.

³ The pro­vi­sions on sub­sequent ob­jec­tion (Art. 77) and on fil­ing an ob­jec­tion to en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings based on a bill of ex­change (Art. 179 para. 1) are re­served.

¹ No­tice of the grounds for fil­ing an ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons for pay­ment shall be giv­en to the cred­it­or on his of­fi­cial copy of the sum­mons for pay­ment; if no ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons has been filed, this must be in­dic­ated on the of­fi­cial copy.

² The of­fi­cial copy is sent to the cred­it­or im­me­di­ately after an ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons is filed, or if no ob­jec­tion is filed, im­me­di­ately after ex­piry of the dead­line for ob­ject­ing to the sum­mons.

¹ If the cred­it­or changes dur­ing the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings, the debt­or may sub­sequently ob­ject to the sum­mons for pay­ment at any time pri­or to the dis­tri­bu­tion of the pro­ceeds or de­clar­a­tion of bank­ruptcy.¹⁴⁹

² The debt­or must file the ob­jec­tion in writ­ing in the court at the place of debt en­force­ment with­in ten days of learn­ing of the change in cred­it­or, provid­ing a state­ment of the grounds and en­ter­ing cred­ible de­fences against the new cred­it­or.¹⁵⁰

³ On re­ceiv­ing no­tice of the ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons, the court may or­der the pre­lim­in­ary sus­pen­sion of the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings; it de­cides on wheth­er to ad­mit the ob­jec­tion after hear­ing the parties.

⁴ If sub­sequent ob­jec­tion is ac­cep­ted, but dis­traint pro­ceed­ings have already been car­ried out, the debt en­force­ment of­fice shall al­low the cred­it­or ten days to re­quest the re­cog­ni­tion of his claim. If he does not file a re­quest, the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings be­come in­val­id.¹⁵¹

⁵ The debt en­force­ment of­fice shall give the debt­or no­tice of any change in cred­it­or.¹⁵²

¹ The ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons for pay­ment has the ef­fect of sus­pend­ing the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings.

² If the debt­or dis­putes only part of the claim, the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings may be con­tin­ued in re­spect of the un­dis­puted amount.

If the debt­or files an ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons for pay­ment, the cred­it­or must pur­sue his claim in civil or ad­min­is­trat­ive pro­ceed­ings. He may only se­cure the con­tinu­ation of the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings on the basis of an en­force­able de­cision that ex­pressly dis­misses the ob­jec­tion.

¹ If the claim is based on an en­force­able court judg­ment, the cred­it­or may re­quest the court to dis­miss the ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons for pay­ment (set­ting aside the ob­jec­tion defin­it­ively).¹⁵⁵

² The fol­low­ing are equi­val­ent to court judg­ments:¹⁵⁶

1.

court set­tle­ments and re­cog­ni­tion of debts in court;

1^bis157

en­force­able pub­lic re­cords un­der Art­icles 347–352 CPC¹⁵⁸;

2.¹⁵⁹

or­ders is­sued by Swiss ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­it­ies;

3.¹⁶⁰

…

4.¹⁶¹

the fi­nal de­cisions of the in­spect­or­ates taken in ap­plic­a­tion of Art­icle 16 para­graph 1 of the Fed­er­al Act of 17 June 2005¹⁶² on Il­leg­al Em­ploy­ment and which re­late to in­spec­tion costs;

5.¹⁶³

in re­la­tion to value ad­ded tax: tax re­turns and as­sess­ment no­tices that have be­come leg­ally bind­ing by pre­scrip­tion, and as­sess­ment no­tices that have be­come leg­ally bind­ing through their writ­ten ac­cept­ance by the tax­able per­son.

¹ If the claim is based on an en­force­able de­cision of a Swiss court or a Swiss ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­ity, the ob­jec­tion shall be set aside defin­it­ively un­less the debt­or provides doc­u­ment­ary evid­ence that the debt has been re­paid or de­ferred since the de­cision was is­sued or in­vokes the stat­ute of lim­it­a­tions.

² If the claim is based on an en­force­able pub­lic re­cord, the debt­or may as­sert fur­ther de­fences against the ob­lig­a­tion to per­form, provided they can be proven im­me­di­ately.

³If a de­cision has been is­sued in an­oth­er state, the debt­or may also claim the de­fences provided for in the rel­ev­ant in­ter­na­tion­al treaty or, in the ab­sence of such a treaty, in the Fed­er­al Act of 18 Decem­ber 1987¹⁶⁵ on Private In­ter­na­tion­al Law, un­less a Swiss court has already ruled on these de­fences.¹⁶⁶

¹ If the claim is based on re­cog­ni­tion of the claim evid­enced by a pub­lic deed or con­firmed by sig­na­ture, the cred­it­or may re­quest that the ob­jec­tion be set aside pro­vi­sion­ally.

² The court shall grant the same provided the debt­or does not im­me­di­ately enter cred­ible de­fences that re­but the re­cog­ni­tion of the claim.

¹ A cred­it­or who has been suc­cess­ful in hav­ing the ob­jec­tion set aside pro­vi­sion­ally may de­mand pro­vi­sion­al dis­traint pro­ceed­ings on ex­piry of the pay­ment dead­line, de­pend­ing on the per­son of the debt­or, or that an in­vent­ory be made in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 162.

² The debt­or may however with­in 20 days of the ob­jec­tion be­ing set aside bring an ac­tion to have the claim de­clared un­foun­ded un­der or­din­ary pro­ced­ure in the court at the place of debt en­force­ment.¹⁶⁷

³ If the debt­or fails to do this or if the ac­tion to have the debt de­clared un­foun­ded is dis­missed, the pro­vi­sion­al de­cision to set aside the ob­jec­tion and if ap­plic­able the pro­vi­sion­al dis­traint pro­ceed­ings shall be­come defin­it­ive.¹⁶⁸

⁴ The dead­line un­der Art­icle 165 para­graph 2 shall be sus­pen­ded between the ini­ti­ation of and the de­cision on the ac­tion be­ing raised to have the debt de­clared un­foun­ded. However, the bank­ruptcy court shall an­nul the ef­fects of the in­vent­ory if the re­quire­ments for or­der­ing it are no longer met.¹⁶⁹

¹ The court at the place of debt en­force­ment shall de­cide on ap­plic­a­tions to set aside the ob­jec­tion.

² Im­me­di­ately on re­ceipt of the ap­plic­a­tion, it shall give the debt­or the op­por­tun­ity to re­spond or­ally or in writ­ing and shall then give no­tice of its de­cision with­in five days.

If the debt­or proves by of­fi­cial doc­u­ments that the debt to­geth­er with in­terest and costs has been settled or de­ferred, he may at any time re­quest the court at the place of debt en­force­ment in the former case to dis­miss, and in the lat­ter case to sus­pend the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings.

¹ Ir­re­spect­ive of wheth­er an ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons for pay­ment is filed, the debt­or may at any time have the court at the place of debt en­force­ment de­clare that the debt does not ex­ist or no longer ex­ists or has been de­ferred. ¹⁷⁴

²On the ac­tion be­ing filed, the court shall hear the parties and as­sess the evid­ence; if the court con­siders the ac­tion to be very prob­ably well-foun­ded, it shall pro­vi­sion­ally sus­pend debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings:

1.

in debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings by dis­traint or debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings to real­ise a pledge pri­or to real­isa­tion or, if this has already taken place, pri­or to dis­tri­bu­tion;

2.

in bank­ruptcy pro­ceed­ings after ser­vice of the no­tice of im­pend­ing bank­ruptcy.

³ If the court up­holds the ac­tion, it shall can­cel or dis­con­tin­ue the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings.

⁴ …¹⁷⁵

¹ If no ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons for pay­ment was filed or if the ob­jec­tion was set aside, the per­son who has paid an un­due debt as a res­ult may re­cov­er the amount paid through leg­al pro­ceed­ings with­in one year of the pay­ment.¹⁷⁶

² The plaintiff has the choice of bring­ing the ac­tion for resti­tu­tion to court either at the place of debt en­force­ment or at the place where the de­fend­ant has his or­din­ary place of jur­is­dic­tion.

³ In derog­a­tion from Art­icle 63 of the Swiss Code of Ob­lig­a­tions (CO)¹⁷⁷, this right of resti­tu­tion is not de­pend­ent on any con­di­tion oth­er than proof that the debt was not due.¹⁷⁸

The spe­cial pro­vi­sions of Art­icles 151-153 ap­ply to the sum­mons for pay­ment in debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings to real­ise a pledge, and those of Art­icles 178-189 ap­ply to the sum­mons for pay­ment and fil­ing an ob­jec­tion to debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings based on a bill of ex­change.

¹ If the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings have not been sus­pen­ded by an ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons for pay­ment or by court de­cision, the cred­it­or may file a re­quest for con­tinu­ation no earli­er than 20 days after ser­vice of the sum­mons.

² This right ex­pires one year after ser­vice of the sum­mons. If an ob­jec­tion to the sum­mons has been filed, this peri­od shall be sus­pen­ded between the ini­ti­ation and set­tle­ment of any court or ad­min­is­trat­ive pro­ceed­ings brought as a res­ult.

³ Re­ceipt of the re­quest for con­tinu­ation shall be cer­ti­fied to the cred­it­or free of charge on re­quest.

⁴ A claim in a for­eign cur­rency may, at the cred­it­or's re­quest, be con­ver­ted back in­to the na­tion­al cur­rency at the ex­change rate on the date of the re­quest for con­tinu­ation.

Where the debt­or is sub­ject to debt en­force­ment by dis­traint, the debt en­force­ment of­fice, on re­ceipt of the ap­plic­a­tion for con­tinu­ation, must im­me­di­ately dis­train the as­sets or have them dis­trained by the debt en­force­ment of­fice at the place where the as­sets to be dis­trained are loc­ated.

The debt­or shall be no­ti­fied of the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings on the pre­ced­ing day at the latest, with ref­er­ence be­ing made to Art­icle 91.

¹ The debt­or is ob­liged, sub­ject to crim­in­al pen­al­ties for fail­ing to do so:

1.

to at­tend the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings or be rep­res­en­ted dur­ing the same (Art. 323 para. 1 SCC¹⁸⁵);

2.

to dis­close his as­sets, in­clud­ing those not in his cus­tody, as well as his claims and rights against third parties, to the ex­tent that this is ne­ces­sary for suf­fi­cient dis­traint (Arts 163 no 1 and 323 no 2 SCC)¹⁸⁶.

² If the debt­or fails to at­tend the dis­traint without suf­fi­cient ex­cuse and does not al­low him­self to be rep­res­en­ted, the debt en­force­ment of­fice may have him brought to the pro­ceed­ings by the po­lice.

³ The debt­or must open premises and con­tain­ers to the of­ficer on re­quest. The of­fi­cial may use po­lice powers if ne­ces­sary.

⁴ Third parties who hold the debt­or’s as­sets in safe­keep­ing or with whom the debt­or has as­sets are ob­liged to provide in­form­a­tion to the same ex­tent as the debt­or, sub­ject to crim­in­al pen­al­ties for fail­ing to do so (Art. 324 para. 5 SCC).

⁵ Au­thor­it­ies are ob­liged to provide in­form­a­tion to the same ex­tent as the debt­or.

⁶ The debt en­force­ment of­fice shall ex­pressly draw the at­ten­tion of the per­sons con­cerned to their ob­lig­a­tions and to the pen­al­ties for fail­ing to meet the same.

¹ The fol­low­ing are ex­empt from dis­traint:

1.¹⁸⁷

items for the per­son­al use of the debt­or and his fam­ily, such as cloth­ing, per­son­al ef­fects, house­hold ap­pli­ances, fur­niture or oth­er mov­able items, in­so­far as they are in­dis­pens­able;

1a.¹⁸⁸

an­im­als kept for do­mest­ic pur­poses and not for prop­erty or profit;

2.¹⁸⁹

books of re­li­gious edi­fic­a­tion and items of wor­ship;

3.¹⁹⁰

tools, equip­ment, in­stru­ments and books, in­so­far as they are ne­ces­sary for the debt­or and his fam­ily to prac­tise their pro­fes­sion;

4.¹⁹¹

at the choice of the debt­or, either two dairy cows or oth­er cattle, or four goats or sheep, as well as small an­im­als, to­geth­er with the fod­der and straw ne­ces­sary for their sub­sist­ence and bed­ding for four months, provided the an­im­als are in­dis­pens­able to the debt­or and his fam­ily or for the main­ten­ance of his busi­ness;

5.¹⁹²

the food and com­bust­ible fuels re­quired by the debt­or and his fam­ily for the two months fol­low­ing the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings or the cash or claims re­quired to pur­chase them;

6.¹⁹³

the cloth­ing, equip­ment and weapons, the ser­vice horse and the pay of a mem­ber of the armed forces, the pock­et money of a per­son per­form­ing ci­vil­ian ser­vice as well as the cloth­ing and equip­ment and al­low­ance of a per­son per­form­ing civil pro­tec­tion ser­vice;

7.¹⁹⁴

the un­der­ly­ing right to the life an­nu­it­ies cre­ated in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 516˗520 CO¹⁹⁵;

8.¹⁹⁶

wel­fare be­ne­fits and sup­port from re­lief, health and wel­fare funds, death be­ne­fit or­gan­isa­tions and sim­il­ar in­sti­tu­tions;

9.¹⁹⁷

pen­sions, lump-sum set­tle­ments and oth­er be­ne­fits paid to vic­tims or their re­l­at­ives for bod­ily in­jury, health dis­orders or the death of a per­son, in­so­far as such be­ne­fits con­sti­tute sat­is­fac­tion, com­pens­a­tion for med­ic­al ex­penses or for the pur­chase of aids;

9a.¹⁹⁸

pen­sions pur­su­ant to Art­icle 20 of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 Decem­ber 1946¹⁹⁹ on Old Age and Sur­viv­ors’ In­sur­ance or pur­su­ant to Art­icle 50 of the Fed­er­al Act of 19 June 1959²⁰⁰on In­valid­ity In­sur­ance, be­ne­fits pur­su­ant to Art­icle 12 of the Fed­er­al Act of 19 March 1965²⁰¹ on Be­ne­fits Sup­ple­ment­ary to the Old Age, Sur­viv­ors’ and Dis­ab­il­ity In­sur­ance and be­ne­fits from fam­ily com­pens­a­tion funds;

10.²⁰²

claims to pen­sion and ves­ted be­ne­fits against an oc­cu­pa­tion­al pen­sion scheme be­fore they fall due;

11.²⁰³

as­sets of a for­eign state or a for­eign cent­ral bank that serve sov­er­eign pur­poses.

² Items for which it can be as­sumed from the out­set that the sur­plus of the real­isa­tion pro­ceeds over the costs would be so small that re­mov­al is not jus­ti­fied may not be dis­trained. However, they must be noted in the deed of dis­traint to­geth­er with the es­tim­ated amount.²⁰⁴

³ High-value items in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1, num­bers 1-3 are dis­train­able; However, they may only be taken away from the debt­or if the cred­it­or provides re­place­ment items of the same util­ity value or the amount re­quired to pur­chase them be­fore they are taken away.²⁰⁵

⁴ The spe­cial pro­vi­sions on un­dis­train­ab­il­ity of the Fed­er­al Act of 2 April 1908²⁰⁶ on In­sur­ance Policies (Arts 79 para. 2 and 80 IPA), the Copy­right Act of 9 Oc­to­ber 1992²⁰⁷ (Art. 18 CopA) and the Swiss Crim­in­al Code²⁰⁸ (Art. 378 para. 2 SCC) re­main re­served.²⁰⁹

¹ Earned in­come in any form, usu­fructs and their rev­en­ues, life an­nu­it­ies, and main­ten­ance pay­ments, pen­sions and pay­ments in any form that com­pensate for a loss of in­come or a right to main­ten­ance, in par­tic­u­lar pen­sions and lump-sum pay­ments that are not ex­emp­ted from dis­traint un­der Art­icle 92, may be dis­trained un­less the debt en­force­ment of­ficer is of the view that they are ab­so­lutely es­sen­tial to the debt­or and his fam­ily.

² Such in­come may be dis­trained for one year at the most; this peri­od be­gins with the ex­e­cu­tion of dis­traint. If two or more cred­it­ors par­ti­cip­ate in the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings, the peri­od runs from the first dis­traint that is ex­ecuted at the re­quest of a cred­it­or of the re­spect­ive group (Arts 110 and 111).

³ If, dur­ing the peri­od of such dis­traint, it comes to the at­ten­tion of the of­fice that the cir­cum­stances that are de­cis­ive in de­term­in­ing the dis­train­able amount have changed, the of­fice shall modi­fy the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings to take ac­count of the new cir­cum­stances.

⁴ At the re­quest of the debt­or, the of­fice shall in­struct the debt­or’s em­ploy­er to trans­fer to the of­fice, in ad­di­tion, the amount re­quired to pay the cur­rent premi­um and share of cost debts due to the com­puls­ory health in­surer for the dur­a­tion of the dis­traint of earn­ings, in­so­far as these premi­ums and share of cost debts are part of the debt­or’s sub­sist­ence min­im­um. The of­fice shall use this to settle the cur­rent premi­um and share of cost debts dir­ectly with the in­surer.²¹¹

¹ Hanging and stand­ing crops may not be dis­trained:

1.

in the mead­ows be­fore 1 April;

2.

in the fields be­fore 1 June;

3.

in the vine­yards be­fore 20 Au­gust.

² Any sale be­fore or on the spe­cified dates of har­ves­ted crops is in­val­id as against the dis­train­ing cred­it­or.

³ The rights of a mort­gagee to hanging and stand­ing crops as part of the pledged prop­erty are re­served, but only on con­di­tion that the mort­gagee him­self has ini­ti­ated en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings for real­isa­tion of the mort­gage²¹² be­fore the real­isa­tion of the pledged crops takes place.²¹³

¹ In the first in­stance, mov­able as­sets, in­clud­ing claims and claims sub­ject to lim­ited dis­train­ab­il­ity (Art. 93), shall be at­tached. The first items to be dis­trained are every­day items; However, more dis­pens­able as­sets shall be dis­trained be­fore those less dis­pens­able.²¹⁴

² Im­mov­able as­sets shall only be dis­trained if the mov­able as­sets are in­suf­fi­cient to cov­er the debt.²¹⁵

³ In the last in­stance, as­sets which have been at­tached or which are des­ig­nated by the debt­or as be­long­ing to third parties or are claimed by third parties shall be dis­trained.

⁴ If fod­der stocks are dis­trained, a cor­res­pond­ing num­ber of live­stock must also be dis­trained at the debt­or’s re­quest.

^4bis The of­ficer may derog­ate from this or­der if the cir­cum­stances jus­ti­fy it or if the cred­it­or and debt­or jointly re­quest so.²¹⁶

⁵ Moreover, the of­ficer shall, as far as prac­tic­able, take in­to ac­count the in­terests of both the cred­it­or and the debt­or.

Claims of the debt­or against his or her spouse or re­gistered part­ner shall only be dis­trained if his or her oth­er as­sets are in­suf­fi­cient.

¹ The debt­or may not dis­pose of the dis­trained as­sets without the au­thor­isa­tion of the debt en­force­ment of­ficer, sub­ject to crim­in­al pen­al­ties for do­ing so (Art. 169 SCC²¹⁸). The dis­train­ing of­ficer shall ex­pressly draw his at­ten­tion to this and to the pen­alty.²¹⁹

² Dis­pos­als by the debt­or are in­val­id in­so­far as they in­fringe the rights of the cred­it­ors arising from dis­traint, sub­ject to the con­sequences of third parties ac­quir­ing pos­ses­sion in good faith.²²⁰

¹ The of­ficer shall es­tim­ate the value of the dis­trained items, if ne­ces­sary, with the as­sist­ance of ex­perts.

² No more shall be dis­trained than is ne­ces­sary to sat­is­fy the dis­train­ing cred­it­ors’ claims, in­clud­ing in­terest and costs.

¹ Money, bank­notes, bear­er in­stru­ments, bills of ex­change and oth­er en­dors­able pa­pers, pre­cious metals and oth­er valu­ables shall be held in safe­keep­ing by the debt en­force­ment of­fice.²²¹

² Oth­er mov­able items may be left tem­por­ar­ily in the pos­ses­sion of the debt­or or a third-party hold­er against the un­der­tak­ing to keep them avail­able at all times.

³ However, these items must also be taken in­to of­fi­cial safe­keep­ing or handed over to a third party for safe­keep­ing if the debt en­force­ment of­ficer deems it ap­pro­pri­ate or the cred­it­or can cred­ibly demon­strate that this is ne­ces­sary to se­cure his rights es­tab­lished by dis­traint.²²²

⁴ The debt en­force­ment of­fice may also take pos­ses­sion if a third party has a pledge on the prop­erty. If it is not real­ised, it shall be re­turned to the pledgee.

When dis­train­ing claims or oth­er rights for which there is no doc­u­ment made out to the hold­er or trans­fer­able by en­dorse­ment, a debt­or of the debt­or sub­ject to en­force­ment shall be in­formed that he may only make leg­ally val­id pay­ments to the debt en­force­ment of­fice.

The debt en­force­ment of­fice shall en­sure that the dis­trained rights are main­tained and shall col­lect pay­ment for debts due.

¹ The dis­traint of im­mov­able prop­erty has the ef­fect of a re­stric­tion on the power of dis­pos­al. The debt en­force­ment of­fice shall no­ti­fy the land re­gister of­fice without delay, stat­ing the date and the amount for which dis­traint was made, for the pur­pose of en­ter­ing the pri­or­ity no­tice. No­tice must also be giv­en of the par­ti­cip­a­tion of new cred­it­ors in the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings and the can­cel­la­tion of dis­traint.

² The pri­or­ity no­tice shall be can­celled if the ap­plic­a­tion for real­isa­tion is not filed with­in two years of dis­traint.

¹ Sub­ject to the rights of the mort­gagees, the dis­traint of im­mov­able prop­erty also cov­ers its crops and oth­er yields.

² The debt en­force­ment of­fice must in­form the mort­gagees and, where ap­plic­able, the ten­ants or less­ees of the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings.

³ It is re­spons­ible for the ad­min­is­tra­tion and man­age­ment of the im­mov­able prop­erty²²⁵.

¹ The debt en­force­ment of­fice shall en­sure that the crops are har­ves­ted (Arts 94 and 102).²²⁶

² If ne­ces­sary, the crop shall be used for the sub­sist­ence of the debt­or and his fam­ily.

If a usu­fruct or a share in an un­dis­trib­uted es­tate, joint prop­erty or oth­er joint as­sets is dis­trained, the debt en­force­ment of­fice shall no­ti­fy the third parties in­volved of the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings.

On re­quest, the cred­it­or shall ad­vance the costs of stor­age and main­ten­ance of dis­trained as­sets to the debt en­force­ment of­fice.

¹ If it is as­ser­ted that a third party has the own­er­ship of, a pledge on or an­oth­er right to the dis­trained item that pre­vents dis­traint or that must be taken in­to ac­count in the fur­ther course of the en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings, the debt en­force­ment of­fice shall note the third party’s claim in the deed of dis­traint or, if the deed has already been served, no­ti­fy the parties sep­ar­ately.

² Third parties may file their claims as long as the pro­ceeds from the real­isa­tion of the dis­trained item have not yet been dis­trib­uted.

³ After real­isa­tion, the third party may as­sert the claims to which it is en­titled un­der civil law in the event of theft, loss or oth­er mis­ap­pro­pri­ation of a mov­able item (Arts 934 and 935 CC²²⁹) or in the event of bad faith on the part of the ac­quirer (Arts 936 and 974 para. 3 CC) out­side the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings. A pub­lic auc­tion with­in the mean­ing of Art­icle 934 para­graph 2 CC shall also be deemed to be a private sale in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 130 of this Act.

¹ The debt­or and cred­it­or may con­test the third party’s claim at the debt en­force­ment of­fice if the claim relates to

1.

a mov­able item in the ex­clus­ive cus­tody of the debt­or;

2.

a claim or oth­er right, provided that the debt­or’s en­ti­tle­ment is more likely than that of the third party;

3.

im­mov­able prop­erty, un­less the claim is evid­enced by the land re­gister.

² The debt en­force­ment of­fice shall set them a dead­line of ten days to do so.

³ On the de­mand of the debt­or or the cred­it­or, the third party shall be re­ques­ted to sub­mit his evid­ence to the debt en­force­ment of­fice for in­spec­tion with­in the time lim­it for con­test­ing the claim. Art­icle 73 para­graph 2 ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

⁴ If the third party's claim is not con­tested, it shall be deemed to have been re­cog­nised in the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings in ques­tion.

⁵ If the claim is con­tested, the debt en­force­ment of­fice shall set the third party a time lim­it of 20 days with­in which it may bring an ac­tion against the dis­put­ing party to es­tab­lish its claim. If he does not file an ac­tion, the claim shall not be con­sidered in the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings in ques­tion.

¹ The cred­it­or and debt­or may bring an ac­tion against the third party to have his claim de­clared un­foun­ded if the claim relates to

1.

a mov­able item in the cus­tody or joint cus­tody of the third party;

2.

a claim or oth­er right, provided that the third party’s en­ti­tle­ment is more likely than that of the debt­or;

3

im­mov­able prop­erty, provided the claim is re­cor­ded in the land re­gister.

² The debt en­force­ment of­fice shall set them a dead­line of 20 days to do so.

³ If no ac­tion is filed, the claim shall be deemed to have been re­cog­nised in the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings in ques­tion.

⁴ On the de­mand of the cred­it­or or the debt­or, the third party shall be re­ques­ted to sub­mit his evid­ence to the debt en­force­ment of­fice for in­spec­tion with­in the time lim­it for bring­ing an ac­tion. Art­icle 73 para­graph 2 ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

¹ The fol­low­ing must be filed in the court at the place of debt en­force­ment:

1.

ac­tions un­der Art­icle 107 para­graph 5;

2.

ac­tions un­der Art­icle 108 para­graph 1 if the de­fend­ant is dom­i­ciled abroad.

² If the ac­tion un­der Art­icle 108 para­graph 1 is brought against a de­fend­ant dom­i­ciled in Switzer­land, it must be filed in the court of the de­fend­ant's dom­i­cile.

³ If the claim relates to im­mov­able prop­erty, the ac­tion must in every case be filed in the court of the place where the prop­erty or its most valu­able part is loc­ated.

⁴ The court shall no­ti­fy the debt en­force­ment of­fice of the re­ceipt and con­clu­sion of the ac­tion. …²³³

⁵ Un­til the ac­tion has been con­cluded, the debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings in re­spect of the dis­puted items shall be sus­pen­ded and the time lim­its for re­quests for real­isa­tion (Art. 116) shall be sus­pen­ded.

¹ Cred­it­ors who sub­mit a re­quest for con­tinu­ation with­in 30 days of the ex­e­cu­tion of dis­traint shall par­ti­cip­ate in the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings. The dis­traint pro­ceed­ings shall be ex­ten­ded in each case to the ex­tent ne­ces­sary to cov­er all the claims of the cred­it­or group.

² Cred­it­ors who only sub­mit the re­quest for con­tinu­ation after the 30-day peri­od has ex­pired shall in the same way form ad­di­tion­al groups with sep­ar­ate dis­traint pro­ceed­ings.

³ As­sets that have already been dis­trained may be dis­trained again, but only to the ex­tent that their pro­ceeds are not to be paid to the cred­it­ors for whom the pre­vi­ous dis­traint pro­ceed­ings were car­ried out.

¹ The fol­low­ing per­sons may par­ti­cip­ate in the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings with­in 40 days of their ex­e­cu­tion without bring­ing debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings be­fore­hand:

1.²³⁶

the debt­or’s spouse or re­gistered part­ner;

2.²³⁷

the debt­or’s chil­dren for claims arising from the par­ent­al re­la­tion­ship and adult per­sons for claims arising from an ad­vance care dir­ect­ive (Arts 360–369 CC²³⁸);

3.²³⁹

the debt­or’s adult chil­dren and grand­chil­dren for claims arising from Art­icles 334 and 334^bis CC;

4.

the debt­or’s be­ne­fi­ciary un­der a life­time main­ten­ance agree­ment for his claim for com­pens­a­tion un­der Art­icle 529 CO²⁴⁰.

² The per­sons men­tioned in para­graph 1 num­bers 1 and 2 may only claim their rights if the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings are car­ried out dur­ing or with­in one year of the end of the mar­riage, the re­gistered part­ner­ship, the par­ent­al re­la­tion­ship or the peri­od in which the ad­vance care dir­ect­ives is in ef­fect; the dur­a­tion of lit­ig­a­tion or debt en­force­ment pro­ceed­ings is not in­cluded in the cal­cu­la­tion. The child and adult pro­tec­tion au­thor­ity may also file a de­clar­a­tion of in­ten­tion to par­ti­cip­ate on be­half of the chil­dren or of a per­son sub­ject to an adult pro­tec­tion meas­ure.²⁴¹

³ Where the debt en­force­ment of­fice is aware of per­sons en­titled to par­ti­cip­ate, it shall no­ti­fy these per­sons of the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings by stand­ard post.

⁴ The debt en­force­ment of­fice shall no­ti­fy the debt­or and the cred­it­ors of any such claim that is made and al­low them ten days with­in which to dis­pute the claim.

⁵ If the claim is con­tested, the claimant may only par­ti­cip­ate with the rights un­der pro­vi­sion­al dis­traint pro­ceed­ings, and the claimant must bring an ac­tion with­in 20 days in the court at the place of debt en­force­ment; if he fails to meet this dead­line, his right to par­ti­cip­ate be­comes in­val­id. …²⁴²

¹ In any dis­traint pro­ceed­ings, a doc­u­ment (the deed of dis­traint) signed by the of­ficer or em­ploy­ee car­ry­ing out the pro­ceed­ings must be re­cor­ded. The doc­u­ment shall list the cred­it­or and the debt­or, the amount of the claim, the date and time of dis­traint, the dis­trained as­sets and their es­tim­ated value and, if ap­plic­able, the claims of third parties.

² If goods are dis­trained that are already sub­ject to an at­tach­ment, the par­ti­cip­a­tion of the at­tach­ment cred­it­or in the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings (Art. 281) shall be noted.

³ If no dis­train­able as­sets are avail­able or the as­sets are in­suf­fi­cient, this fact shall be noted in the deed of dis­traint.

If new cred­it­ors take part in dis­traint pro­ceed­ings or if the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings are ex­pan­ded, this shall be ad­ded sub­sequently to the deed of dis­traint.

The debt en­force­ment of­fice shall serve the cred­it­ors and the debt­or with a copy of the deed of dis­traint im­me­di­ately on ex­piry of the 30-day dead­line for par­ti­cip­a­tion.

¹ If no dis­train­able as­sets were avail­able, the deed of dis­traint serves as the un­paid debt cer­ti­fic­ate in terms of Art­icle 149.

² If in­suf­fi­cient as­sets were avail­able in the es­tim­a­tion of the of­ficer, the deed of dis­traint shall serve the cred­it­or as a pro­vi­sion­al un­paid debt cer­ti­fic­ate and as such has the leg­al ef­fects men­tioned in Art­icles 271 num­ber 5 and 285.

³ The pro­vi­sion­al un­paid debt cer­ti­fic­ate also con­fers on the cred­it­or the right to re­quest the dis­traint of as­sets newly dis­covered with­in the one-year dead­line un­der Art­icle 88 para­graph 2. The pro­vi­sions on par­ti­cip­a­tion in dis­traint pro­ceed­ings (Arts 110 and 111) ap­ply.²⁴⁵

¹ The cred­it­ors may re­quest the real­isa­tion of dis­trained mov­able as­sets, claims and oth­er rights no earli­er than one month and at the latest one year after dis­traint, and the real­isa­tion of dis­trained im­mov­able prop­erty no earli­er than six months and at the latest two years after dis­traint.

² Where a fu­ture salary has been dis­trained, and if the em­ploy­er has not paid over the dis­trained amounts by the date on which they were due for pay­ment, the real­isa­tion of the claim to these amounts may be re­ques­ted with­in 15 months after dis­traint.

³ Where the dis­traint pro­ceed­ings have been ex­ten­ded be­cause of the par­ti­cip­a­tion of sev­er­al cred­it­ors, these dead­lines shall run from the last suc­cess­ful ad­di­tion­al dis­traint pro­ced­ure.

¹ Each in­di­vidu­al par­ti­cipant in a group of cred­it­ors has the right to re­quest real­isa­tion.

² Cred­it­ors who have dis­trained as­sets in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 110 para­graph 3 only for the ad­di­tion­al pro­ceeds may also re­quest their real­isa­tion.

Cred­it­ors whose dis­traint pro­ceed­ings are merely pro­vi­sion­al may not re­quest real­isa­tion. Dur­ing the pro­vi­sion­al peri­od, he dead­lines in Art­icle 116 do not ap­ply to such cred­it­ors.

¹ The dis­trained as­sets shall be real­ised in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 122–143a.

² Real­isa­tion is sus­pen­ded as soon as the pro­ceeds reach the total amount of the claims for which dis­traint is pro­vi­sion­al or defin­it­ive. Art­icle 144 para­graph 5 is re­served.