What belongs in a Swiss rental application dossier?

The documents every signer includes

A dossier is read per signing person: a couple cannot share one debt-register extract. For each person signing the lease, include:

• Identity: your residence permit — it counts as an identity document in Switzerland. Swiss citizens include an ID card or passport.
• Proof of income: the last three payslips. If you started your job recently, include the payslips that exist so far plus your employment contract — or a one-page employer confirmation stating workload, start date and salary; self-employed applicants any one of three: their last definitive final tax bill, the annual accounts for their last closed business year, or the commercial register extract.
• A current debt-register extract (Betreibungsauszug) — usually no older than two to three months; some agencies explicitly say two.

What strengthens the dossier

• Your employment contract — shows workload and the nature of the position.
• Self-employed applicants: the commercial register extract (Handelsregisterauszug) — large agencies ask for it by name, and it is free at zefix.ch.
• A reference from your current or previous landlord.
• Proof of personal liability insurance (Privathaftpflicht).
• If the agency uses its own application form: fill it in and attach it.

Applying as a household

Married couples always apply as two: both spouses go on the lease, and both attach the full set of documents — even when only one has an income. Three agencies around Zurich, asked independently in 2025, gave the same answer.

Landlords count the household: the incomes of everyone signing are added together and measured against the one-third rule — rent should not exceed roughly a third of the combined gross income. A dossier that states both incomes cleanly, with the arithmetic already done, answers the agency's first question before it is asked.

The most common gaps

• An expired debt extract — many agencies treat extracts older than three months as stale, some already at two.
• Missing payslips because the job is new — the employment contract fills that gap, if it is attached.
• Loose e-mail attachments instead of one document: ten separate photos read differently from an ordered PDF with a table of contents.

Wohnera's dossier builder walks through exactly this list, adapts it to your situation — for instance when a job started only recently — and merges everything into one PDF at the end. Free, and your documents stay on your device.