Step 2 · The weeks after
Inheriting a property in Switzerland usually means inheriting the largest item in the estate, and the one that does the most damage between brothers and sisters. Almost always for the same reason: the division gets discussed before anyone knows what the place is worth.
Updated on August 12th, 20269 minute read
Practical information
This is not tax advice. Property and inheritance taxes are set by the cantons and sometimes by the municipalities, and they change. For a decision that commits you, have the figures confirmed by a notary or by your cantonal tax administration.
As long as no figure is on the table, every heir argues from their own. The one who wants to keep the house sees CHF 700,000; the one who wants to sell sees a million. The conversation then goes round in circles for months. A written valuation moves the disagreement onto ground everyone can check.
Which value, though? The same property has three of them, and they can differ by a factor of two.
The tax value
The market value
The actual sale price
The most common mistake
Taking the tax value from the last tax return as the basis for the division. In several cantons it is worth a fraction of the market value. The heir who buys the house on that basis gets a bargain at the expense of their brothers and sisters. The dispute usually surfaces years later.
One legal point is worth having in hand: for the division, land and buildings are charged to the heirs at their market value on the day of the division (Article 617 of the Swiss Civil Code). The date of death does not come into it. If the procedure runs three years in a rising market, that is anything but neutral, and it is sometimes reason enough to have the valuation redone.
Four routes, from the fastest to the most solid. Each has its use.
Online valuation
Real estate agency
Independent valuation
Court-ordered valuation
The rule that heads off most family conflicts: agree on the method before you know the figure. Two valuations from different sources, with the average as the basis for discussion, cost little and settle the vast majority of cases. Going looking for a third one after seeing the first two is where the deadlock starts.
Describe the property in a few lines (municipality, type of property, where the estate currently stands) and we pass your request on to a valuation professional, who gets back to you. No obligation.
Some requests are forwarded to Funere's commercial partners. We may be remunerated when an order goes ahead, which never changes the price you pay. Always compare several offers before committing.
An agency valuation is free because it is aimed at the sale mandate: if the heirs disagree, pay for an independent valuation instead.
The choice is rarely made on figures alone. But each route carries a cost that families underestimate.
Keep
Rent out
Sell
Two remarks from the field. Renting out looks like the ideal compromise, and it is often the solution that blows up latest. A community of heirs (Erbengemeinschaft / hoirie) is a company with no articles of association, between people who never chose to go into business together. Every decision needs everyone's agreement, from replacing a boiler to picking the tenant. Keeping the house out of attachment is legitimate, on condition that you work out what it costs each month before committing.
The difficulty is arithmetic before it is emotional. Until the property is sold, the estate does not hold enough cash to give everyone their share. Someone has to pay the others, and that payment is the buy-out — the soulte you will see on a notary's statement in a French-speaking canton.
| Item | CHF |
|---|---|
| Estimated market value | 900,000 |
| Mortgage taken over (It stays attached to the property) | − 300,000 |
| Net value to divide | 600,000 |
| Each child's share (Three equal shares) | 200,000 |
| What the eldest owes the other two | 400,000 |
| What the bank has to approve (Mortgage taken over plus financing for the buy-out) | up to 700,000 |
The heir who keeps the house is financing something very close to a purchase, with the same requirements on equity and affordability. Talk to the bank before you tell the family you are keeping it. Pension savings can sometimes be released when the property becomes your main residence, though the pension fund and the bank check that case by case. And if the financing does not hold, you want to know in week two, not in month fourteen.
Legally, a community of heirs runs on unanimity: no decision, including letting the property, can be taken against a single heir's objection. In exchange, any heir may ask for the division at any time. Where agreement proves impossible, the court decides and can order the property sold, if need be at auction between the heirs. Financially that is the worst of the outcomes. It is also why an independent valuation paid for three ways costs a tiny fraction of a court procedure.
The point that changes everything if you sell
If the community of heirs sells the property to an outside buyer, the community bears the property gains tax, calculated from the deceased's acquisition. If the property is allocated to one heir as part of the division, taxation is in principle deferred and the latent tax charge follows the property. The rules vary from one canton to the next. Have both scenarios costed before you choose.
No law requires you to sell, to rent out or to decide within any given deadline. What costs money is the absence of a decision. The charges keep running in the meantime.
In joint ownership. Charges and insurance carry on running.
Sell nothing and clear nothing while it runs, if the financial position is uncertain.
Required for anything at the land register or the bank (Erbbescheinigung / certificat d'héritier).
The right moment for the first written valuation, once tempers have settled.
The usual span when the heirs agree. Far longer when they do not.
One genuine urgency: keep the building insurance in force and the heating on low in winter. Water damage in an empty, uninsured house turns an inheritance into a debt.
Knowing what the property is worth is the first step in any division. A written valuation puts a figure on the table that everyone can check.
Legal framework: Swiss Civil Code, Articles 602 and following for the community of heirs and the division of the estate, and Article 617 for the value at which land and buildings are charged to the heirs. Property gains tax and inheritance tax are governed by cantonal law and practice differs from one canton to the next. The amounts given are orders of magnitude collected in French-speaking Switzerland; valuation fees and cantonal charges vary widely across the country.