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This article deals with the seller's guarantee for a property in Switzerland, i.e. the owner of the property for sale. The seller's warranty is not to be confused with the construction warranty of a general contractor.
The legal basis
The seller's warranty for a property is regulated in the Swiss Code of Obligations, articles 192 to 210.
The purpose of the guarantee
The seller is obliged to guarantee a promised quality or a material or legal defect that deprives the item of its value or its intended use or reduces them to a significant extent, even if he was unaware of the defect.
Warranty in the sale
According to art. 219 of the Swiss Code of Obligations, a warranty claim for defects in a building is subject to a limitation period of five years from the transfer of ownership. The limitation period begins to run on the date of taking possession, but at the latest at the time of entry in the land register ledger.
The conditions
The following conditions must be met:the existence of a defect at the time of transfer, the defect was ignored and not accepted by the buyer.
Removal of the guarantee
The seller's guarantee can be excluded, which is the case of a property that is not new. The will to exclude the guarantee must be based on an actual will and not on a style clause. According to art. 199, any clause which removes or restricts the guarantee is void if the seller has fraudulently concealed from the buyer the defects of the thing. For these defects, the guarantee is 10 years and art. 28 concerning fraud of the other is possibly applicable, i.e. the buyer is not obliged.
Guarantee for new buildings
If you buy a building as of plan, you sign a mixed contract, i.e. you buy the land and you sign a general contract for the construction. The warranty claim is time-barred after five years if the defects of the thing incorporated into a building in accordance with the use for which it is normally intended are the cause of the defects of the work. The warranty period for companies, architects and engineers begins to run from the time of acceptance of the work (Art. 371 para. 2 CO). Contractor contracts almost always use the SIA 118 standard instead of the articles of the Code of Obligations. According to this standard, the client has a period of two years from acceptance of the work for defects that appear during this period and five years for hidden defects.
© Written by Esther Lauber, Real Estate Trustee with Advanced Federal Diploma of Professional Education and Training, real estate agent, property broker in Carouge Geneva, translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)