What you may ask, and when
| Stage | From whom | What |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Application form | All applicants | Occupation and employer of the people who will sign. Yearly income in ranges, with a top range that should not lie above CHF 150,000 except for very high rents. Pending debt enforcements and loss certificates of the last five years. A copy of the debt enforcement extract (Betreibungsauszug) |
| 2. Before the lease | The chosen applicant | Proof of income, such as a salary certificate or single payslips. The original extract, if needed |
| Not admissible | Anyone | Leasing, instalment and small credit contracts, wage garnishments. Financial data of people who will not sign |
Source: FDPIC (EDÖB) leaflet on application forms for rental flats, updated 15 July 2025. It calls it disproportionate to demand all supporting documents from every applicant.
What an extract shows
- The debt enforcement proceedings opened against the person in the past 5 years (ch.ch).
- Third parties can see an entry until five years after the proceedings ended (Art. 8a Abs. 4 SchKG).
- Some enforcements are not disclosed to third parties, for example those the creditor withdrew (Art. 8a Abs. 3 SchKG).
- It lists proceedings, not income. For income you have the form and, for the chosen applicant, the proof.
It usually costs CHF 17 plus postage (ch.ch).
A written rule for the income
Set your ratio before the listing goes online. Example: if your rule is that the rent may be at most one third of gross income and the rent is CHF 2,100 a month, the household needs CHF 6,300 a month, or CHF 75,600 a year.
What aptari does, and what it does not
- Renters build their dossier once on aptari, and each document is read once at upload. Per applicant you see what is there and what is missing, without opening each file.
- The sorted shortlist rates every applicant by the same rules, income against the rent among them, with the facts shown.
- It is a document check. aptari is no authority, does not confirm that a document is genuine, and runs no credit agency check.
- A person at your agency decides. aptari never decides and never declines automatically.
Example: if 50 applicants each hand in three documents and opening and reading one takes 2 minutes, that is 300 minutes, or 5 hours. If you read the list of what is there and what is missing at 30 seconds per applicant, that is 25 minutes. An example, not a promise.
This is general information, not legal advice.