She has the right to total silence after 10 pm until 6 am. Respect that as it is the law: it isn't good enough to be a bit quieter, you have to be quiet!

Work out where she sleeps and avoid talking in that part of the flat.

Get everything ready before 10 pm so you don't have to scrape a chair, open a stiff cupboard etc. Realise that some voices travel through walls and floors, so lay a thick carpet on the chat room floor.

If after this you get one more complaint, then prepare to move, and when you have found somewhere to live, have wild parties...

Ok now you are pushing!

She is living and breathing for God's sake! I wouldn't go that far nor would accept to live like that in an appartment that I pay.

Just be careful with loud conversations and music, and avoid to build stuff and do noise. To move a chair or open a cupboard is a part of the living, you are not trowing them around the room, are you? If she can hear that and complain... You are in a very bad noise isolated building...

Complaining about a cupboard in the kitchen would be a bit much, I agree but an 11pm conversation going on in the kitchen is a different story.

Most places I've lived have some type of tile flooring, whether ceramic or linoleum, in the kitchen. Such material is hardly conducive to absorbing sound so I don't think it is unreasonable to ask for folks to not have conversations there IF the voices carry.

Meanwhile, a thing to help (some) would be to make sure you have some of those floor mats along the base of the cupboards and in front of the sink. It will help with how the kitchen noises carry while at the same time making the cleaning up a tad easier anyhow.



Logan, it does certainly take some getting used to to live someplace where people are expected to be tolerant of one another in their desire for quiet rather than expecting them to be tolerant of noise. Here, their right to peace is valued higher than "our" right to do whatever, whenever and wherever.

If you have guests that late, particularly if it is on a weeknight, the best thing to do would be to make sure that you have your cozy chats in cozy places (places with upholstered furniture and possibly carpeting or at least a few "throw rugs") as the noise will carry a lot less in such areas.

As "urban" as some of the cities look, I think the general mind set regarding courtesy towards others tends to be more similar to what you'd expect in a small town / out in the country rather than what you'd expect in a large city elsewhere.


Finally, about the bit I bolded.
Hopefully you're exaggerating but if you're not, stop it. Being overly quiet like that will only heighten how noisy it is other times and if she can't handle the noise of footsteps going past her door, she needs to get over it, quick like.

Of course, if you tend to walk "heavy" on your heels, you may want to be more aware as no one likes the "herd of rhino" sound of overly "heavy" footsteps on the stairs. My worst two neighbors ever regarding this were a mother and daughter pair, both the size of twigs but each also walking like they had feet encased in clay.

Definitely got off to a bad start with hammering furniture at 10.10pm. Who does that? i wouldnt have been impressed with you two either mate.

I think since then, she has been trying to find little bits and pieces to pick on. 1am chats in the kitchen is fine as long as you keep it down. Too many times we dont realise that our voices at normal volume carry into the silence of the night much more effectively than it would in the day.

right now, I say leave it and be extra careful in the next couple of weeks just till she calms down. You are the best judge of whether the noise you've made is unreasonable. Dont be taken hostage in your own home. You are well within your rights to still move around your house, watch telly after 10pm - just at a much much lower volume that you usually would before 10pm.

Yet everybody seems to deem a jackhammer starting outside our window at 7:30 every morning perfectly ok. Not a lot of fun when I work until late and therefore wouldn't mind sleeping a bit longer in the morning. Not everyone works 8-4. Boo! I can't wait until they've finished this work - I'm going insane!

I feel your pain - we had (still have?) roadworks outside our place after 2 years hell. Official and legal start time is 7am but that doesn't stop them offloading super-clunky equipment out of metal containers and keeping up a shouty running commentary at 6.45 when they arrive for work.

The barstewards!

At the risk of sounding Swiss, its legal to do so after 7am. The general population functions from 7am to 10pm. Our neighbours ordered some furniture once to be delivered and the Pfister bloke accidentally rang MY BELL at 7am. MY BELL.

Soooo, hospital workers caring for people through the night, night duty fire brigade or shift workers in a powerstation don't fit your criteria of a "normal" job?

Frau Sandgrounder, that's probably a returning member/troll or someone trying to sell something. Ignore.

Oh, I know it's the "legal" time, but it's very early! I mean, even if people are awake at that time, it's a bit of a cruel time to make such a bloody racket. I am seriously suffering from a lack of sleep. Plus my downstairs neighbours often clunk around in the middle of the night, and my next door neighbours start (loudly) getting ready at 5:30. ARG.

If you want to get on with your neighbours then please observe the law.

Low noise after 8 pm means you can watch TV and move about normally. Hammering is definitely not allowed after 8 pm!

After 10 pm it should be totally quiet. Your neighbours should not be able to hear you talking, your TV, nor hear you walking about in high heels. If you want to watch an action film (when there will be bombs falling and screaming) then you need to buy headphones. That is the law!

In some older flats the WC was flushed with mains pressure water from a vertical pipe and an operating handle/lever. These made a lot of noise and started the rumour about not flushing after 10 pm. With a normal WC tank you are allowed to flush.

After 7 am Monday to Saturday anything goes. In some Gemeinde / Communes, you are also not allowed to be very noisy between 1 and 2:30 pm but this is unusual. Sunday is of course a quiet day with the exception of church, city, Swiss Army, and emergency services' bells and horns. Cow and goat bells are also excluded.

Our standard apartment contract mentions only that "no excessive noise" be made after hours. It goes on to list a few "examples" but nowhere mentions that it is a law.
It probably blurs into public order offences if people over-do it but I think the police would rather not be called out and have to go through the pain of the paperwork because someone is banging a cupboard door at 10.10pm.

Same for us - "excessive noise" really is so vague though!!! My heart skips a beat whenever I get a letter from our letting agency thinking its a complaint letter about my dog / music. So far its been nothing but admin matters or good news about rent reduction. Sweeeeet.

It is very quiet in our building, me loving recent construction and well made isolation!

But I do hear our downstairs neighbours little parties they tend to do once or twice a month with very loud british friends (not known from this forum and if so..... Dude! Shut up!). One guy seems not able to lower his volume to standard one...

It can go quite late at night. But I am not complaining. I do have my little revenge when my toddler runs to us in the morning for a cuddling wake up moment.... She is 14 kilos but run like an elephant.

Karma is a bitch and me too!

It is certainly in the local anti noise laws. The problem is that it is difficult to prove you are noisy, so often the neighbours will gang up and keep diaries of when you are noisy. Unknown to you this is presented to the landlord/ owner. After a verbal and a written warning from the owner/landlord, you will be out on the street.

The OP has 2 bad marks against him, he is living with a German man, and he is also a foreigner. The lady below must realy hate him, and so he will have to be extremely careful with his sound levels.

.

Sorry, but total silence is not correct. You are still allowed to do "normal" stuff in your apartment including taking a shower, flushing the loo, cooking etc. The TV is supposed to be at "room loudness" and you are required to act in a considerate way.

Cheers,
Nick

Wrong, wrong and wrong again. normal stuff at room loudness is from 8pm to 10 pm, then it should be silent until 7 am.

I really don't care, I have told you, so now pay the fine or get thrown out.

In our place it would be difficult, if not impossible to enforce silence on the residents after 10pm if you have trams, buses and traffic still thundering past until 12.30 in the morning. Are you sure your fellow residents aren't pulling your leg on the silence-law thing? I'd hate to think of you sitting there trying to breathe quietly after 10pm with all your neighbours rushing about making noisy cups of tea and chatting away with each other.

I've been here over 10 years and not once been urged to be "silent" after 10pm. Quiet, yes but silent? Come on!

Sorry...what fine? And what did you already tell me? I'm confused! Do you live in my apartment building?

Anyhow, here is an article from the Mieterverband about showering after 10pm:
http://www.mieterverband.ch/fragen/f...?id=375&shbe=1

I spent a lot of time researching all this on the Mieterverband and beobachter.ch when we had problems with a downstairs neighbour - who incidentally insists on using her own washing machine after 10pm.

Cheers,
Nick

	Quote:	Ittigen
	Wrong, wrong and wrong again. normal stuff at room loudness is from 8pm to 10 pm, then it should be silent until 7 am. I really don't care, I have told you, so now pay the fine or get thrown out.

Useful website - it's answered a few additional questions for me, too!