I can't comment on it being specifically one year, or more, or less; but it's not uncommon practice for owners to drag their feet to refund the deposit.

They hope you will forget, and most often you will, especially if a year and a half later you still haven't gotten the deposit back.


Persistence is key.


ps: this hasn't happened to me and it wasn't in Switzerland, but I have heard of some renters(real eastate management companies are king at this scam) fighting for two years when the issue wasn't even that there was a problem with the place but only the money not being refunded