One in 28 cleaning companies went bankrupt in 2025: twice the average rate

The federal law against abusive bankruptcies has applied since 1 January 2025. Its main change: a firm in the commercial register that owes taxes or social security contributions is no longer subject to seizure but to bankruptcy proceedings (Art. 43 of the Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act). Since then, AHV compensation offices and tax authorities can push a firm that does not pay into bankruptcy.

For cleaning companies, this coincides with a jump. From 2022 to 2024, between 47 and 55 went bankrupt each year; in 2025 it was 81. Over the same ten months (1 January to 28 October) the number almost doubled, from 37 to 71, while it rose by 28% for all firms. In 2026 bankruptcies of all firms keep rising (9,760 by the end of October), while those of cleaning companies have eased slightly (63).

A plausible explanation that the data alone cannot prove: in a sector where nearly all revenue is wages, AHV contributions are the largest debt to the state. Where they went unpaid, the new rule leads to bankruptcy sooner.

Of 85,221 AG and GmbH companies newly registered from 2019 to 2021, 421 had cleaning in their name. By the end of October 2026, 75 of these 421 cleaning companies (17.8%) had a bankruptcy case, against 9.6% of all new firms. Deleted or bankrupt: 23.0% against 16.3%.

This is a lower bound: bankruptcies before December 2021 are no longer available in the SOGC, and a firm that changed its name before going bankrupt is not counted.

Of the 235 bankruptcies of cleaning companies from 2022 to 2025, 181 (77.0%) were closed for lack of assets: the estate did not even cover the cost of the proceedings. That is barely more than for all firms (75.0%). In these cases creditors almost always get nothing.

For employees this means: unpaid wages are covered by the unemployment insurance as insolvency compensation, but only for the last four months before the bankruptcy and up to the maximum insured salary (Art. 51 to 52 of the Unemployment Insurance Act). Their AHV contribution years are usually not lost: if it is proven that the employer deducted contributions from the wage, the wage is entered in the individual account even if the employer never paid the contributions to the compensation office (Art. 138 AHV Ordinance). Payslips prove the deduction; without proof there is no entry. The loss then falls on the AHV; the compensation office can hold board members and managers personally liable (Art. 52 AHV Act). No public statistic shows how much the compensation offices and the unemployment insurance lose in the cleaning sector.

A household that hires a cleaning company is not the employer and is not liable for its social contributions. If the firm goes bankrupt, the household at worst loses services it paid in advance; the cleaner loses her wage. Before signing, it is worth checking the commercial register (zefix.ch): how old is the firm, has it recently changed its name, seat or management? Bankruptcy notices are public in the SOGC (shab.ch).

The alternative is to employ the cleaner yourself. The household is then the employer, registers her with the AHV and sees on every payslip that the contributions are paid. What both routes cost and who the employer is in each case is shown in the comparison of hiring models.