Liability & Insurance

As the subtenant, you are responsible towards your landlord for the apartment and furnishing. For this reason, it is important that you arrange a personal liability insurance which covers the liability for possible damages done to the rental property in Switzerland. In the Western part of Switzerland there are regulations saying that all tenants need to arrange a private liability insurance.

A personal liability insurance is low cost coverage for damages caused by those accidents which so easily happen in everyday life. The insurance only costs approx. CHF 100.- per year (for a family approx. CHF 150.-) and can be arranged with any swiss insurance company.

Examples of such accidents are as follows:

• Whilst visiting a friend, that bottle of wine that you brought as a thank you gift, falls out of your bag before you can give it to them, breaking, and spilling wine straight all over the expensive Persian carpet, staining it badly.
• In the car-park of a shopping center, you accidently bump into a parked car with your shopping trolley and make a dent in the door.
• Your train is late and to be on time for the meeting at 8 o'clock you have to run – accidently knocking over a child who falls and looses a tooth.
• You jump from the swimming-pool diving board and inadvertently land on somebody, who was already in the water, hurting him.
• You are playing golf, hit the ball hard – the golf ball flies high and far...and then hits one of the players in front of you.