Sublease Contract Switzerland: free template to fill in (PDF & Word) – plus the rent check that saves you from eviction
A semester abroad and your room shouldn't pay for itself empty – so sublet it. Allowed. But one forgotten clause, a missing consent or 80 francs too much sublet rent can cost you the whole flat. Here's the free template that makes your sublease watertight in two minutes – plus a tool no one else has: the sublet-rent traffic light, which checks live whether your price is still permissible under Art. 262 CO.
🏛️ What's allowed in Switzerland – and what isn't
The biggest myth first: your landlord cannot simply forbid you from subletting, however much he likes to claim it. Subletting is a legally anchored right in Switzerland, not a favour. Art. 262 CO lets you sublet your flat or a room, in whole or in part. The only condition: his consent. And he can't refuse it on a whim.
The law lists exactly three grounds on which your landlord may say no. If none of them applies, consent is deemed given – if he stays silent in the face of a correct request, that can even be read as tacit consent. That's why it's so important to disclose the conditions in writing and in full.
Your landlord may refuse consent to subletting only if:
📝 Your sublease contract in 2 minutes
Twelve fields, two minutes, and in front of you sits a sublease contract ready to sign, with nothing essential missing. So no more searching for "sublease contract Word free": fill in the fields, the generator turns them into a complete, Switzerland-wide valid sublease with all mandatory clauses. Download as PDF, print, both sign, done. You can also copy the text and paste it into Word to adjust it.
🛠️ Sublease contract generator
Fill in the fields → ready contract as PDF or to copy. Free, no sign-up.
✅ Is your sublease even permitted? (CO Art. 262)
Before the price is right, the sublease must be permitted. CO Art. 262 requires your landlord's consent — they may only refuse it on three grounds: you don't disclose the terms, the sublet rent is abusive, or the landlord faces major disadvantages. The check tells you in four questions whether you're on the safe side.
✅ Admissibility check: is your sublease permitted?
Four questions under CO Art. 262 — the traffic light shows whether your sublease has the green light or you need to fix something.
Have you obtained your landlord's consent for the sublease?
Have you disclosed the terms (sublet rent, to whom, for how long)?
Does your sublet rent stay without excessive profit (at most the proportional rent + a reasonable surcharge)?
Have you drawn up a written sublease agreement?
🚦 The sublet-rent traffic light: is your price still permissible?
This is where most sublets fail, and no other template site tells you: when subletting you may make no profit. That's exactly why we built the ConvivaPlus sublet-rent traffic light, the first live check of its kind in Switzerland. It holds your proportional rent times the furniture surcharge against the abuse limit of Art. 262 CO and tells you in one second whether your price glows green, amber or red. Charge more than the proportional main rent plus a reasonable surcharge, and the sublet rent becomes abusive: your landlord may refuse consent.
🚦 ConvivaPlus sublet-rent traffic light
Checks under Art. 262 CO whether your planned sublet rent is permissible, borderline or abusive.
Your sublet rent stays within bounds. The markup is in the range justified by furniture and effort. Still: disclose the terms in writing.
Indicative value per Federal Supreme Court practice (no percentage fixed by law). In a dispute, the conciliation authority decides based on the concrete services.
How the ConvivaPlus traffic light calculates: it takes your main rent in proportion to the sublet area and adds a permissible surcharge – under Federal Supreme Court practice up to around 20 % when furnished and around 10 % when unfurnished. Above that the light turns amber; from about 30 % markup, red (abusive).
📊 What does a sublet room cost in your region?
Whether your sublet rent is fair also depends on where you live. The ConvivaPlus Sublet Rent Index normalizes the regional median rents for a furnished room into a comparable figure (base 100 = Swiss median).
📊 ConvivaPlus Sublet Rent Index: your market compared
Enter your rent and choose your region — you instantly see whether your sublet rent is above or below the regional median.
Reference values from the FSO rent survey + cantonal conciliation statistics, furnished room.
Methodology: base 100 = median of all surveyed regions (CHF 1050). according to ConvivaPlus, derived from the FSO rent survey and cantonal conciliation statistics, the same index as in the sister guide on terminating a sublease — citable with source attribution (CC BY 4.0).
📋 What must be in the sublease contract
A handshake and a "we're good"? Before the conciliation authority that's confetti. A sublease that really holds needs seven building blocks, and a single missing one has already wrecked more than one flatmate friendship. The generator above builds all seven automatically. Here's why each one protects your money.
| Block | What must be in it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Parties | Full name + address of sublessor and subtenant | Who's liable, who pays – without clear parties, no enforceable contract. |
| Object | Exact designation + address + condition (furnished?) | Defines what is let and whether a furniture surcharge is justified. |
| Rent | Sublet rent + utilities, shown separately | Basis for the abuse check under Art. 262 CO. |
| Duration | Fixed (date) or open-ended + notice period | Fixed ends automatically; open-ended needs a clear notice period. |
| Deposit | Amount + refund condition (max. 3 months' rent) | Protects you from damage, protects the subtenant from arbitrariness. |
| Consent | Confirmation that the landlord has consented | Without it, the whole sublet is challengeable (Art. 262 CO). |
| Signatures | Place, date + signature of both parties | Makes the contract a valid, provable document. |
⚠️ The 5 costliest subletting mistakes
Each of these five mistakes has already cost someone their home or a tidy sum, and the most common one happens before the subtenant even has the keys. Read them once, and you'll make none of them.
Not obtaining consent. The most common – and most dangerous – mistake. Subletting without consent is a breach of the lease. After a written warning, your landlord may terminate extraordinarily. Always ask first, preferably in writing.
Charging too much. Making a profit risks the abuse reproach. The conciliation authority can reduce the sublet rent retroactively – and you must refund the excess. Use the light above.
Forgetting you're fully liable. If your subtenant doesn't pay or wrecks the flat, you answer to the landlord – for the entire rent and every damage. A deposit and a clean contract are your only protection.
Only an oral agreement. "We know each other" regularly ends in disaster before the conciliation authority. Without a written contract you're empty-handed in a dispute. Two minutes of generator save months of trouble.
Ignoring notice periods. The sublease has deadlines too. For an open-ended flat sublet, the statutory periods apply by analogy (flat: 3 months to a term). Set it out clearly in the contract.
Subletting is your right – as long as you make not a single franc of profit and have consent.
✅ A valid sublease contract in 5 steps
Five steps stand between you and the signed contract, and none takes longer than a coffee break. Here's how to run from request to signature without your landlord throwing a spanner in the works.
If your landlord stays silent in the face of a correct, complete sublease request, that may count as tacit consent. That's exactly why you ask in writing with all the terms – so that, in case of doubt, you create the proof that he could have objected and didn't.
What's your situation?
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❓ Frequent questions about the sublease contract
The questions buzzing in your head before every sublet, answered short and honest.
People also ask
Related questions from our magazine
All information without guarantee. Found an error? → support@conviva-plus.ch
Subletting is a legal right in Switzerland (Art. 262 CO) – your landlord may only say no on three grounds. But: you may make no profit, and you remain liable for the entire rent even if your subtenant doesn't pay.
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Discussion
6 voices from the community
Finally a template that also tells me how much I'm ALLOWED to charge. The traffic light jumped straight to red on my desired price, 41 % markup. Embarrassing, but a thousand times better now than before the conciliation authority.
The sentence about liability hit me hard. My last subtenant vanished without paying, and I had to keep covering the whole rent. If I'd known that earlier, I'd have insisted on a deposit.
That's exactly why we keep hammering the deposit, Tobias. Up to three months' rent in a blocked account in the subtenant's name, and a missed payment doesn't leave you stranded. Thanks for sharing, this is the lesson the article wants to spare people.
My landlord claimed subletting was « generally banned » in my lease. Thanks to the article I knew such a clause is void. Disclosed the terms cleanly, and the no was gone. Knowledge is power.
I had no idea you may add around 20 % for a furnished room. Mine squeaked through to green. Explained really well, without incomprehensible legal jargon.
Filled in the generator in two minutes, PDF sent to the landlord, consent arrived the next morning. For three years I dreaded contracts like this, all for nothing.
ConvivaPlus Editorial
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