A Geneva landlord more than quadrupled the rent on a 173 m² flat. He was missing a cantonal permit, and half a room to escape rent control.
By the Envergure editorial team
Redoing a kitchen and two bathrooms, then passing the bill to the tenant, sounds routine. In Geneva it has just cost one landlord 193,609 francs in repayments and a 32,000 franc fine, because he skipped the cantonal permit.
CANTON OF GENEVAThe flat measures 173 m². After work carried out in 2017 on the kitchen and the bathrooms, its annual rent went from 16,872 to 69,600 francs, or from 1,406 to 5,800 francs a month. The landlord had never applied for the prior permit required by the Geneva law on the demolition, conversion and renovation of housing, known as the LDTR (Le Temps, 20 minutes).
That permit is not one more piece of paperwork, it is what makes the increase enforceable. Without it the new rent rests on nothing, and the tenants can claim the difference back for the whole period they overpaid.
The landlord did have an escape route in mind. Geneva law exempts so-called luxury housing from rent control, and the bar sits at seven full rooms. His flat counted 6.5.
The missing half room comes down to a 6 m² bedroom. In Geneva a room only counts as a full room from 9 m² upward, and below that it counts as a half. The bedroom was three square metres short, and those three square metres decided the fate of 193,609 francs (Juriup’s analysis of the ruling).
Only if the work was lawfully authorised. In ruling 1C_85/2026 of 8 June 2026, the Federal Supreme Court confirmed that a renovation carried out without the required permit justifies no increase at all, whatever category the property falls into (Juriup).
One point deserves care here, because it is often read too broadly. The duty to obtain a permit before starting work comes from Geneva cantonal law, the LDTR, and not from a uniform rule of federal civil law that would apply in all twenty-six cantons. What the Federal Supreme Court settled is the principle that the permit governs the increase, and that principle sets a precedent for this kind of dispute. A rent increase after renovation is therefore decided at the cantonal permit desk first, well before it reaches a tenancy court.
For a landlord the practical test is short. Ask whether your canton makes the planned work subject to a permit, keep the answer in writing, and only then work out what the new rent can be.
FEDERALSince 1 October 2025, the official form that notifies the initial rent to a new tenant has to say more. This amendment to the ordinance on residential leases, the OBLF, adopted in March 2025, adds the reference interest rate and the Swiss consumer price index figures that applied to the previous rent (Federal Housing Office).
The tenant now sees the values the previous occupant was paying on, which is the basis any challenge is calculated from. If you have re-let a flat since autumn 2025, check that the form you used is the version currently in force.
A second federal file is open on the return a landlord may lawfully earn. On 25 February 2026 the Federal Council launched a consultation, closed on 5 June, on an ordinance change that would clarify how that return is calculated, following motion 22.4448 Engler.
CANTON OF VAUDOn 19 June 2026 the Federal Council approved general binding force for the Vaud framework lease agreement, the Règles et usages locatifs vaudois, in force since 1 July 2026. It now applies to every tenancy in the canton (Federal Housing Office).
What makes it unusual is that it contains provisions departing from mandatory rules of the Swiss Code of Obligations, on security deposits, subletting and early termination. The two federal decrees that give it binding force run until 30 June 2032.
Before you sign, terminate or turn down a sublet in Vaud, read those three points again. What used to be settled by the Code of Obligations alone is no longer necessarily settled in Lausanne or Nyon.
IN BRIEFThe Federal Council put a draft revision of the Lex Koller out for consultation from 15 April to 15 July 2026. Buyers from outside the EU and EFTA would need a permit to acquire housing, and would have to sell their main residence within two years if they moved away from Switzerland (RTS, Federal Council statement).
The draft also cuts cantonal quotas for holiday homes and makes their resale between foreign buyers subject to a permit. Foreign persons would further be barred from acquiring units in listed property companies, property funds and property SICAVs. An exemption granted in 2005 would disappear. The package follows the decisions taken in January 2025 alongside the UDC initiative “Pas de Suisse à 10 millions !”, with entry into force targeted for 2027.
On 13 April 2026 (4A_81/2026) the Federal Supreme Court refused legal aid to a tenant who had stayed on without any legal title since her lease ended on 31 July 2023, on the ground that her appeal plainly had no prospect of success. She pays 800 francs in court costs and 1,000 francs in party costs for delaying and abusive conduct.
On 17 March 2026 (4D_30/2026) it confirmed that a lease terminated on 25 April 2022 for non-payment, under article 257d of the Code of Obligations, did not concern a family home, which rules out the stronger protections attached to that status. A legal question already decided on the merits cannot be reopened at the enforcement stage.