Did a rental agency ask you for an ‘Attestation de Poursuite’? This article provides you with 7 tips regarding this document – how to obtain it, how it looks like, and how to increase your chances towards the régies. It should help you having a more solid case for obtaining a rental in Switzerland.
1) Avoid these Legal Proceedings (‘Poursuites’ in French) as much as possible
– Agencies are telling it to us, anyone can go through a tough patch which makes the payment of bills more tricky – being fired, a divorce, etc. For obtaining a rental, it is therefore not the end of the world to have had some proceedings. Yet, if you are in competition with 20 other candidates for a 1 bedroom (3 pièces), it will be a significant disadvantage. Better to avoid them and pay your bills on time.
– Paying your bills is not always enough. In Switzerland, any individual or company can indeed assign these ‘poursuites’ to someone – no proof is necessary at that stage! If you are not familiar with the Swiss system for these ‘poursuites’, you may like this article on profile of candidate on immodating, you are asked on your honour whether you had any such proceedings in the last 2 years, but attaching the original remains absolutely mandatory later on.
– In practice, agencies will make a copy of your document and in most cases will return it to you for the rest of your search for a rental.
Please see below an example of a scanned document. For security reasons it was modified – will you find the 7 errors? 🙂
GE VD VS NE JU FR
Exemple d’Attestation de Non Poursuite sur le 
Website Attestation de Poursuite Genève Attestation de Poursuite Vaud Attestation de Poursuite Valais Attestation de Poursuite Neuchâtel Attestation de Poursuite Jura Attestation de Poursuite Fribourg Means mentionned to obtain it Office, Mail, Online, Post office Office Office, Mail Office Office Office, Mail, Online
Hi Jim,
I am a relocation agent and my clients (from UK) got a house in Geneva Canton. They haven’t moved yet to Switzerland and the owners of the property require the equivalent of “Attestation de non poursuites” from the UK.
Do you know if such a documents can be procured in the UK and what would be the equivalent ?
Thanks in advance.
Thank you for your help! I think I will need to work it out for myself, in order to obtain ‘Attestation de résidence’.
Hi,
I currently live in the Saint Genis (France) and planning to move to Geneva. Is it possible to get the ‘attestation de Non Poursuite’ ? Which paper should I present instead?
Thanks
Hi Matias,
THanks for your note.
It’s a good question. To my knowledge it’s not possible to get an Attestation de Non Poursuites if you don’t reside in Geneva, BUT why not call the Office des Poursuites & ask? Maybe it will just show up blank – if you are not resident which is what you actually want (and is better than not showing anything).
Kind regards.
Jim Hershkowitz
Hi there,
I was wondering what document you need when moving from the UK to Geneva? Do you still need an attestation?
Thank you!!
Hi Isabella, a very large question you ask. There hasn’t been a true Brexit yet so as part of the EU, you have free access to Switzerland. To obtain a flat to rent is another story through and I recommend our other article here https://www.immodating.ch/fr/blog/dossier-de-location-suisse/ . Hope it helps and good luck! Kind regards. Jim Hershkowitz (for Immodating LTD)