Guide
Getting your rental deposit back
Losing the deposit is the fear most outgoing tenants arrive with. Here is where the money sits, who can unlock it, and what genuinely puts it at risk.
Where your deposit actually sits
Your landlord does not have your deposit. Where a tenant of residential premises provides security in cash or securities, the Code of Obligations requires the landlord to deposit it with a bank, in an account openedin the tenant's name. The account is yours and the sum is blocked rather than spent. For residential premises the Code of Obligations also caps the security at three months' rent.
The consequence is often missed: neither party can help themselves to the money. The landlord cannot draw on it on their own say-so, and you cannot instruct the bank to pay out because the flat looked fine.
Who is able to release it, and when
There are three routes out of that blocked account, and only three.
- Both parties agree. The ordinary case: the exit inventory goes well, nothing is owed, and landlord and tenant sign the release together.
- A decision says so. The bank also releases it on the basis of a final payment order or a final court decision. Tenancy disputes go first before a conciliation authority rather than straight to a courtroom.
- Time passes without a claim. Where the landlord has made no legal claim within one year of the end of the lease, the tenant may require the bank to return the security.
Even so, release is rarely instant. Running costs are settled once a year against actual consumption, so a landlord may keep part of the deposit blocked until the annual statement covering your final months is issued. That is a delay rather than a deduction; ask at the walk-through when the statement is expected.
Your deposit is not an advance on your rent
Every outgoing tenant is tempted by the same shortcut: the landlord is holding several months of rent, so why pay the last one? Because the two are not the same money. The deposit secures the landlord against claims arising from the tenancy; it does not discharge the rent. Skip the last month and you have created, at exactly the wrong moment, an unpaid rent claim that can properly be deducted from the deposit. Pay to the end of the lease, then treat the deposit as a separate matter.
What may be deducted, and what may not
The dividing line comes from the tenant's obligation on return: the property is handed back in the condition resulting from its use in accordance with the contract.
Normally chargeable
- Unpaid rent, and any balance of running costs once the annual statement is issued.
- Damage beyond ordinary use: a cracked worktop, a burn in the parquet, a broken window pane, a forced door.
- Items belonging to the flat that are missing, from a fridge shelf to a set of keys.
- Cleaning, where the flat is handed over in a state the managing agent must put right.
Not chargeable
- Wear from living in the flat as the contract allows: faded paint, a parquet dulled where people walk, small marks behind furniture.
- The simple ageing of installations. Agencies generally work from depreciation tables giving each fitting an expected life, so an item at the end of that life is charged, if at all, only in proportion to what remained.
- Defects that already existed when you arrived, which the entry report is there to prove.
The exit inventory is what protects the money
Almost every deposit that is lost is lost at the walk-through. The law puts the moment of truth there: when the property is returned, the landlord inspects its condition and must notify the tenant immediately of any defects for which the tenant is liable. Where that is not done, the tenant is released, apart from defects a normal inspection could not have revealed.
Two things follow. Whatever is not raised on the day generally cannot be raised comfortably a month later, which protects you. And whatever is written down that day is hard to argue away, so never sign a report you have not read.
A clean exit inventory is the best investment you can make in your deposit. How the appointment runs and how to prepare is set out inthe final walk-through. If you are handing the lease to a successor, the same appointment usually releases your lease, as described inleaving your lease early in Geneva.
What we do, and what we do not do
What we do. We attend inventories of fixtures, at the start and at the end of a tenancy, often enough to know what a Geneva managing agent looks at and in what order, and to tell you beforehand what is likely to be raised in your flat while there is still time to deal with it. On a lease takeover we run the procedure through to the inventory and the release of your lease, as described on ourlease takeover page. No fee for the outgoing tenant when we find the successor, in exchange for two weeks of exclusivity.
What we do not do. We are not the bank and cannot release your deposit. We do not decide what is normal wear and what is damage, and cannot bind the landlord to our view of it. We do not act as your lawyer or represent you before the conciliation authority. What we can do is make a dispute unlikely, which is more useful than promising to win one. To talk it through, contact us.
This page explains the rules as commonly applied in Geneva. It is general information and does not replace legal advice on your case.
Frequently asked questions
Who actually holds my deposit?
A bank does. Where a tenant of residential premises provides security in cash or securities, the Code of Obligations requires the landlord to deposit it in an account opened in the tenant's name. It is your money, blocked rather than spent.
Can I skip the last month of rent since the landlord holds a deposit?
No. The deposit is a security, not an advance payment of rent. Withholding the last month puts you in arrears, which is one of the few things that can legitimately be deducted from the deposit afterwards.
What if the landlord will not agree to release the account?
The bank releases the security with the agreement of both parties, or on the basis of a final payment order or court decision. Where the landlord has made no legal claim within one year of the end of the lease, the tenant may ask the bank to return it.
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