Swiss Civil Code

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

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

^1terSub­ject to ex­cep­tions pre­scribed by law, the time lim­it for ad­verse pos­ses­sion in the case of ob­jects of cul­tur­al her­it­age with­in the mean­ing of Art. 2 para. 1 of the Cul­tur­al Prop­erty Trans­fer Act of 20 June 2003² is 30 years.³

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

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