Closing a company / Question 6
A company that owes you is closing. How do you claim?
Through its call to creditors, published in the SHAB. In a bankruptcy, the bankruptcy office calls on creditors to file their claims, with evidence, within one month of the notice. In a liquidation, the liquidators call on creditors to register their claims, and as a rule the assets may not be shared out until a year after that call. Known creditors are also notified directly; the others learn of it from the SHAB.
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01 / In a bankruptcy
One month, to the bankruptcy office.
The bankruptcy office publishes the opening of bankruptcy and calls on creditors to file their claims with the office within one month of the notice, with their evidence, such as acknowledgements of debt or extracts from the books. (SchKG Art. 232(2) no. 2) It also sends a copy of the notice by ordinary letter to every creditor it knows of. (SchKG Art. 233) On shab.ch these notices sit in rubric KK, Bankruptcies.
A late claim can still be filed until the bankruptcy is closed, but the creditor bears the costs of the delay and has no right to provisional distributions made before the claim was filed. (SchKG Art. 251(1)–(3))
Find a company, free02 / Suspended
Twenty days to keep it going.
If the estate is unlikely to cover even the costs of summary proceedings, the court suspends the bankruptcy. The office publishes the suspension and writes to the known creditors: the proceedings are closed unless, within twenty days, a creditor asks for them to go ahead and provides the security set for the costs the estate does not cover. (SchKG Art. 230(1) and (2))
The twenty-day period has applied since 1 January 2025. For two years after a suspension, the debtor can also be pursued by way of seizure. (SchKG Art. 230(3))
Find a company, free03 / In a liquidation
Register before the assets are shared.
In a liquidation, the liquidators inform creditors of the dissolution and call on them to register their claims: known creditors by special notice, unknown ones and those whose address is unknown by notice in the SHAB and in the form the articles of association provide. (OR Art. 742(2)) On shab.ch these calls sit in rubric LS. The assets may be shared out among the shareholders one year after the call at the earliest, or after three months if a licensed audit expert confirms that the debts are paid and no third party’s interests are at risk. (OR Art. 745(2) and (3))
If a known creditor does not register, the amount of its claim is deposited with the court. (OR Art. 744(1)) Once the company is deleted, anyone who shows a legitimate interest can ask the court to enter it again, for example where assets were not realised or distributed. (OR Art. 935) The same rules apply to a GmbH. (OR Art. 826(2))
Find a company, free04 / In Antevo
See the notice without searching for it.
Antevo Companies checks a watched company every day against the commercial register, the SHAB and the sanctions lists, and sends an alert only when something changed, each change with its source, a liquidation or a bankruptcy among them. Finding a company by name or UID is free.
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Where this comes from.
The counts behind the figures, the Federal Statistical Office’s bankruptcy figures and the primary sources for every legal point. Intelligence, not advice: nothing here is legal or tax advice, and your lawyer, notary or fiduciary confirms what a closure requires.