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Floor Area Information in a Pre-Contractual Sales Prospectus as Warranted Characteristics

21 septembre 2026

Floor Area Information in a Pre-Contractual Sales Prospectus as Warranted Characteristics

- 𝘚𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘓𝘢𝘸 𝘜𝘱𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘦 -

In January 2015, two buyers signed a reservation agreement with an LLC (prospective seller) for a 3.5-room apartment. That same day, a sister company of the prospective seller published a sales prospectus. The first four pages provided a general description of the building and included the note "non-binding document" at the bottom. This note did not appear on the subsequent pages of the sales prospectus.

At the end of 2017, the buyers signed a general contractor agreement with another sister company of the prospective seller (general contractor) for the apartment. The agreement included a general construction specification and the architect's plans. While the floor plans matched those in the sales prospectus, they did not specify dimensions or area. That same day, the buyers also entered into a notarized purchase agreement for the apartment with another sister company of the prospective seller (seller), which excluded the seller's liability for defects.

After inspecting the apartment, the buyers notified the seller and general contractor that 14 m² of space was missing compared to the documents and promised features. They sued the seller and its affiliates, seeking CHF 100,000 in compensation.

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court (case number 4A_590/2024) ruled in favor of the buyers. The Court determined that floor area information in a pre-contractual sales prospectus must be considered when interpreting the purchase agreement and may constitute warranted characteristics. This applies even if the purchase agreement omits property size details and states that sales descriptions are not part of the agreement.

Ramona Hutter, Markus Vischer and Dario Galli have analyzed this decision in the online law journal "Digitaler Rechtsprechungs-Kommentar", published by Weblaw.

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