Construction workers' lien (Bauhandwerkerpfandrecht)

What we are examining

Swiss tradespeople regularly lose claims because the four-month deadline for registering the construction workers’ lien is missed. The deadline trigger is not trivial — it attaches to the completion of the works, not to invoicing. In practice the deadline falls exactly when the tradesperson is still waiting for final payment and does not want to be occupied with a lien registration.

We are examining whether a tool can automate deadline monitoring and prepare the registration as a structured workflow.

Hypothesis

Three assumptions we are testing in the coming weeks:

— Construction firms want a simple deadline dashboard that the sites feed into and that escalates on its own — Law firms are partners, not competitors, because they only take over the substantive procedural part — A subscription model per construction site is viable

What we do not yet know

— Whether existing Swiss providers (especially fiduciary-adjacent tools) already hold the field — How deep the integration with existing site software must reach (Bauadministration.ch, abacus, etc.) — Which cantonal land registry interfaces are actually open

Status

Validation under way. Before the spec phase, the patent landscape will be checked again. Go/no-go decision in Q2 2026.