Succession and lease
Succession and lease
Under article 560 of the Swiss Civil Code, as soon as an estate is opened, the heirs acquire all the rights and obligations of the deceased. In this context, the heir not only takes possession of the deceased's property, but also becomes the holder of contracts to which he was a party and which did not automatically end with his death. This is the case with a lease, which automatically passes to the heir. The heir will then take the place of the deceased in the contractual relationship with the lessor. If there is more than one heir, they will all become joint holders of the lease, although the heirs must of course accept the succession, as Swiss law allows the heirs to repudiate it, i.e. refuse to accept it. Repudiation is justified when it turns out that the deceased was heavily in debt and the heirs do not wish to become so in turn by accepting his estate. In such a case, the heirs will not inherit any of the deceased's property, rights or obligations, provided that they notify the authorities, in principle within 3 months of each of them becoming aware of the death. That said, the heirs are not obliged to keep a lease that they do not wish, and the law gives them the option of terminating it prematurely, if the contract has been concluded for a long period, subject to 3 months' notice for the end of a lease term. On the other hand, the lessor may not be interested in continuing the lease relationship with the heirs and may terminate it at the end of the contractual term. In this respect, as you may know, articles 269 et seq. of the Code of Obligations provide for various mechanisms to protect tenants against dismissal. However, it should be emphasised that, according to case law, only heirs who were living in the flat or house covered by the lease with the deceased prior to his death can avail themselves of this protection.You could therefore inherit your mother's flat, but you would only be able to keep it beyond the end of the current lease with the tacit consent of the landlord.
