Article 264 explained in plain English

Sooner or later, a tenant leaving Geneva early is told to look up Article 264. It is short, it is not hard to read, and almost everything that goes wrong in an early departure goes wrong inside one of its three conditions. Here it is in full, then one clause at a time.

What the article actually says

Where the tenant or lessee returns the object without observing the notice period or the deadline for termination, he is released from his obligations towards the landlord or lessor only if he proposes a new tenant or lessee who is acceptable to the landlord or lessor, solvent and willing to take on the lease or rental agreement under the same terms and conditions.

Art. 264 para. 1, Swiss Code of Obligations, official English translation

The provision is headed "early return of the object", it applies across Switzerland, and the text above is the federal English translation on Fedlex. One caution about that translation: the Code of Obligations is enacted in German, French and Italian; the English version is published for information. Where the English says a successor "acceptable to the landlord", the French and German texts describe a successor the landlord cannot reasonably be expected to refuse. The second formulation is the one that carries the tenant's protection, and it is the one Geneva practice works from.

The situation the article covers

Article 264 applies when you hand the flat back without observing the notice period or the term. That is a narrow trigger, worth checking before you build a plan on it. If the notice period in your contract already produces a date you can accept, this article has nothing to do with your departure: you give notice in the ordinary way and pay to the term. Our guide to notice periods shows how that date is worked out. Article 264 is for the case where the ordinary date is too far away.

The three conditions, one by one

Solvent

The article says solvent and defines nothing further. No ratio, no threshold, no list of papers. What fills that gap is professional usage, and in Geneva that usage is stable: agencies generally look for a regular and documented income, for rent and running costs at around a third of gross monthly income, and for an applicant not being pursued for uncontested debts, which an extract from the debt enforcement register evidences. Hold on to the distinction: solvency is the legal condition, the ratio is how the profession measures it. The documents behind it are set out inwhat goes in a tenant application file.

Willing to take on the lease under the same terms and conditions

The successor steps into your contract as it stands: the same rent, the same duration, the same clauses, the same running costs. This is not a fresh negotiation, and that cuts both ways: the landlord cannot use your departure to reprice the flat, and you cannot offer a candidate who would only take it on different terms. Willingness also has to be demonstrable, which is why a written commitment from the candidate is worth more than an enthusiastic viewing.

Acceptable to the landlord, or rather, not reasonably refusable

This is the condition most often misunderstood, because "acceptable to the landlord" sounds like a free choice and it is not one. In Geneva the grounds recognised as reasonable are narrow and concrete: over-occupation of the premises, or the carrying on of an activity that would disturb the peace of the neighbourhood or the standing of the building. A refusal must be reasoned, and it must be reasoned without delay. A landlord who simply prefers somebody else, or who would rather have the flat back empty, is not exercising a ground of refusal.

If you present nobody

The second paragraph of the article is blunt about it: the tenant must continue paying the rent until the lease ends or may be terminated under the contract or by law. Handing back the keys does not end anything on its own.

The third paragraph adds a counterweight that is rarely mentioned and worth knowing. Against the rent owed, the landlord must allow account to be taken of any expenses saved, and of any earnings obtained, or intentionally not obtained, from putting the property to some other use. A flat that is relet does not generate rent twice.

If the landlord refuses a candidate who meets the conditions

Then the outgoing tenant is released all the same. That is the whole architecture of the provision: the obligation on you is to present a successor who satisfies the three conditions, not to obtain a signature. Once a conforming candidate has been properly presented and refused without a valid ground, the refusal is the landlord's decision and the consequence is the landlord's too.

This is why the file matters more than the enthusiasm of the candidate. A complete application either produces an acceptance or produces a refusal that cannot stand. An incomplete one produces neither, and the process restarts with a further month of notice, which is a month of rent you keep paying.

What the article does not say

Three silences are worth naming, because they get filled with invented rules. The article sets no number of candidates. It sets no income ratio. And it sets no deadline by which a successor has to be found, so nobody can promise you one on the strength of the law. What it does give you is a clear standard to be measured against, and, when your file meets it, a release. The practical route to that release is set out inleaving your lease early in Geneva, and the alternatives to it inthree ways out of your lease. If you would rather hand the work to a team that does it every week, start onour lease takeover page.

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