Hello everyone

So I notified the management company of our building that we are moving out of our apartment in 4 months. In the parking space that we had we installed a charger for an electrical car. One of the other tenants has offered to take in addition to his parking space our parking space because he needs the charger. However the representative of the renting company says that they don't want to give the parking to this other person because he already has two other parking spaces. We know though that there are other tenants that have 3 parking spaces also and we know that not all of the parking spaces are occupied. The renting company also asked us to remove the charger when we leave...
My question is a)is it reasonable to decline to give the parking space to an existing tenant given that there are anyway quite some parking spaces that are free? b) is it worth to ask my legal insurance to talk to them?

Thanks!

What?

Legally, why would you be able to do anything? It’s not your parking space & you are purely being asked to return it how you found it!

I assume your issue is that you don’t want to have to remove the charger? Why not ask if this other tenant can “swap” his space with yours? Or he could take the charger over to one of his current parking spaces at his expense?

Legally, most likely, they have the right to demand that I remove the charger. I'm only puzzled because I found a willing tenant that wants to take it over as is and because the renting company did not really justify their decision not to accept that (not that they have to..)

Yes, they have the right to require of you to return their property to them in good order, and at least in the state in which you received it. In the case of your parking space, that is "without a charger". That's that.

The rest of it is, strictly legally speaking, nothing to do with you.

It is completely within the rights of the renting company (who either is the owner or has a mandate to represent the owner in matters of rental) to rent out the parking space (and the apartment, too) to whomsoever they please, or to put a container on it and convert it to storage space for the gardener's equipment, or spend six months renovating it, or whatever, and even not to rent it out at all, but just to leave it standing empty.

As you rightly say, they owe you no justification for their decision. As it is, they have been nice enough to explain to you that they won't allocate another parking space to the tenant who wants yours, as he already has "enough" or "too many" (by their standards) so you do, in fact, have their explanation. Therefore, there is no further point in your neighbour's asking for your space in addition to yours, as they've already said a clear "no".

Having said that, I think that Island Monkey's idea is very good, that the other tenant might give up one of his parking-spaces (one which does not have a charger) so that he could, instead, take over your parking-space (which has the charger he wants and which will get you nicely out of having to make the effort/costs of removing it).

It might be worth your while for you and your neighbour to write such a letter, asking for that solution, together. However, this only has any chance of succeeding if the other tenant can manage to fully ditch the idea of an additional space, and understands that it will be a swap only.

I suspect you have 2 separate contracts & providing you have not given notice, you can offer someone to take over your lease on the parking spot, you have fulfilled your duty. Speak to the meatverband for a legal opinion.

lucky you! Our landlord hasn't even agreed to the charger installation, thus we went for a petrol car instead.
But we are being environment-friendly here as not even AC is allowed in new buildings. Welcome to Switzerland.

Apartment + 3 parking spaces rent, that's a significant amount of money/risk.

You don't know your neighbor's income or rent history but the building manager surely does. If the neighbor is assessed as risky due to not enough income or late rent payments, why risk even more?

Also, parking spots are rented for a year, what if an apartment stays empty because the new tenant requires 3 parking spaces? Losing the rent of a parking spot is nothing compared to losing the rent of an apartment.

Never assume they're not reasonable (idiots) because they're "losing money".

Welcome to most of Europe :-)

Would the guy wanting to rent your space with the charger be prepared to give up one of his spaces which doesn't have one?