Tenant evictions are multiplying in Romandie

Faced with this rise in expulsions, political voices are rising.Image: dr

The figures climb and, with them, concern. In French -speaking Switzerland, more and more tenants are ordered to leave their accommodation, often for lack of being able to pay a rent that has become too high. According to 24 hoursthe trend is clear in Lausanne, Geneva, Yverdon, Neuchâtel or even in Valais. And it is often the most precarious who pay the price.

In Lausanne, the number of expulsion requests jumped from 103 in 2020 to 152 in 2024. In the Western Lausanne, forced evictions increased by 12%, especially in Renens, as our colleagues from 24 hours.

In Yverdon-les-Bains, fourteen evictions have already taken place since the beginning of the year, a figure which already exceeds the total of 2024. In Geneva, the police carried out 239 interventions for evacuation in 2024, a record since 2016.

The phenomenon does not spare Valais either: the Immo-Solidaire association was asked 761 times last year, against 120 in 2020. This year, it expects to cross the CAP of the thousand interventions.

An unbearable rent increase

In question? Consistant rents (more than 30% in twenty years according to the Federal Statistical Office, quoted by the Vaudois newspaper), a shortage of housing which reaches the balance of power, and inflation which weakens the finances of the middle classes. According to a comparis study, a third of low -income French -speaking households devote more than 30% of its housing budget.

The law leaves little room for tenants: a single month of unpaid is enough to trigger a procedure. The lessor sends a formal notice, then can terminate the lease contract and obtain rapid expulsion, from the following month. And on the ground, it is bailiffs, sometimes accompanied by the police, who proceed to the door, the furniture sent in a furniture guard … at the expense of the tenant already in debt.

If some private donors sometimes accept arrangements, institutional owners such as investment funds or banks are much more rigid. Especially since in period of real estate tension, they just have to wait for a new tenant, often ready to pay more, as noted by the survey of 24 hours.

Aid not always well known

Some aids exist, as in Geneva, where the Domos project allows the general hospice to intervene financially to avoid expulsion. But tenants are not always informed of their rights, and these mechanisms are no longer enough to contain the phenomenon.

Faced with this rise in expulsions, political voices are rising. Vaudoise deputy Céline Misiego (POP) plans to file an arrest in the Grand Council this fall to obtain an overview of the problem on a cantonal scale. At the federal level, the national councilor Christian Dandrès calls for a structural change:

And the politician to ensure that guaranteeing the same right to tenants in Switzerland is a minimum. (max)

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