Federal Act
on the Acquisition of Immovable Property
in Switzerland by Foreign Non-Residents
(ANRA)

¹ The can­ton­al au­thor­ity with right of ap­peal or, if this au­thor­ity does not act, the Fed­er­al Of­fice of Justice, shall take leg­al ac­tion against the parties:⁴⁸

a.

to re­store the ori­gin­al po­s­i­tion where a prop­erty has been ac­quired through a trans­ac­tion that is null and void due to lack of au­thor­isa­tion;

b.

to dis­solve the leg­al en­tity with for­feit­ure of its as­sets to the state au­thor­ity where the case falls un­der Art­icle 57 para­graph 3 of the Swiss Civil Code⁴⁹.

² If res­tor­a­tion of the ori­gin­al po­s­i­tion proves im­possible or in­ap­pro­pri­ate, the court shall or­der a pub­lic auc­tion un­der the reg­u­la­tions on the com­puls­ory sale of im­mov­able prop­erty. The ac­quirer may only claim the over­all cost of pur­chas­ing the im­mov­able prop­erty; any sur­plus falls to the can­ton.

³ An ac­tion to re­store the ori­gin­al po­s­i­tion is not re­quired if the parties have already done so or a third party has ac­quired the im­mov­able prop­erty in good faith.

⁴ Both ac­tions must be brought:

a.

with­in one year of a leg­ally en­force­able de­cision that renders the trans­ac­tion null and void;

b.

and with­in ten years of the ac­quis­i­tion; the lim­it­a­tion peri­od is sus­pen­ded dur­ing ad­min­is­trat­ive pro­ceed­ings;

c.

at the latest un­til the right to bring crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings be­comes time barred if this dead­line is later.

⁵ The pro­tec­tion of rights in rem ac­quired in good faith and the right to dam­ages is gov­erned by Art­icle 975 para­graph 2 of the Swiss Civil Code.