Swiss Civil Code

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

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

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

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

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

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